PSE Mach 34, Should have got this one first....

[StringStalker0075]

Probably my favorite bow of 2023. I’ve tuned and shot pretty much all the top brands. Some have been a headache, some were a breeze. But this one, it feels like a complete package. Performance properly meshed with forgiveness.
For all the hate the S2 cam received, I honestly have to scratch my head. At 85%letoff, there is a little break into the valley, but it’s minimal. I can draw the bow slow and smooth and not even notice it. The backwall is nice, no real anything to mention other than I don’t feel any creep on pull through.
At 72lbs a measured 29” draw it is getting 285 fps with a 488gr arrow consistently.
Tuning with the EZ220 in my opinion having not used it prior, is better than any other brands system. You do need a press, PSE says anyway, and I did use mine to swap shims. Fast and easy. No complaints. Like this bow so well I may sell my Omnia which is a stone cold shooter.
Purchased the shim kit and tool, tuning finished with the .140/.080 shims, moving the cam right. Perfect bullet holes, no cables in sight picture, no cam/cable rub. Rest at 13/16 for center shot.

 

[houghtonic]

Probably my favorite bow of 2023. I’ve tuned and shot pretty much all the top brands. Some have been a headache, some were a breeze. But this one, it feels like a complete package. Performance properly meshed with forgiveness.
For all the hate the S2 cam received, I honestly have to scratch my head. At 85%letoff, there is a little break into the valley, but it’s minimal. I can draw the bow slow and smooth and not even notice it. The backwall is nice, no real anything to mention other than I don’t feel any creep on pull through.
At 72lbs a measured 29” draw it is getting 285 fps with a 488gr arrow consistently.
Tuning with the EZ220 in my opinion having not used it prior, is better than any other brands system. You do need a press, PSE says anyway, and I did use mine to swap shims. Fast and easy. No complaints. Like this bow so well I may sell my Omnia which is a stone cold shooter.
Purchased the shim kit and tool, tuning finished with the .140/.080 shims, moving the cam right. Perfect bullet holes, no cables in sight picture, no cam/cable rub. Rest at 13/16 for center shot.View attachment 583751View attachment 583752View attachment 583753

Can you explain why you swapped limbs? I bought a m34 and it still wants to paper tear left / bareshaft right of field points despite my best efforts. Even after shimming all the way to the left with the .160/.060 shims. I had it doing good after several (6to 8) twists of the left side of the pbts, but once that settled in over the last couple days, bareshafts hit a few inches right again.

My other bows tune much more moderately to get great bareshaft flight, so it is not my grip or form.


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[Duh]

Damn it I wanted to shoot that bow before I got the VTM 34. My shop didn’t have it at the time. There’s always next year.

 

[StringStalker0075]

Can you explain why you swapped limbs? I bought a m34 and it still wants to paper tear left / bareshaft right of field points despite my best efforts. Even after shimming all the way to the left with the .160/.060 shims. I had it doing good after several (6to 8) twists of the left side of the pbts, but once that settled in over the last couple days, bareshafts hit a few inches right again.

My other bows tune much more moderately to get great bareshaft flight, so it is not my grip or form.


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I did not have to swap limbs on this one. I started by swapping the factory shims (.100/.120) to move the cam right. Still had a really small right rip and changed out the shims to the .140/.080 and it was money.
I have had a lot of bows that would shoot bare shafts with field tips at 40 yards, and some that despite my best efforts, I couldn't get to shoot bareshafts past 20. Chalked it up to me and something in my grip that I didn't want to take the time to deep dive into and change. All these bows would shoot bullet holes with bare shafts through paper at 15' as well.
John Dudley just did a complete video on limb swaps for the PSE bows on his NockOn channel on Youtube. If you think you need to swap them, I highly recommend watching it. Most of the time, bareshaft tuning reveals issues with me and my form more than the bow.
Have you put a broadhead on an arrow and shot it with a field point yet?
Do you have the stock cable rod guide or the TAP adjustable cable rod?
Have you contacted PSE and verified your limb deflection numbers are correctly oriented?
Have you let someone else shoot the bow and see if they get the same results?

 

[houghtonic]

I did not have to swap limbs on this one. I started by swapping the factory shims (.100/.120) to move the cam right. Still had a really small right rip and changed out the shims to the .140/.080 and it was money.
I have had a lot of bows that would shoot bare shafts with field tips at 40 yards, and some that despite my best efforts, I couldn't get to shoot bareshafts past 20. Chalked it up to me and something in my grip that I didn't want to take the time to deep dive into and change. All these bows would shoot bullet holes with bare shafts through paper at 15' as well.
John Dudley just did a complete video on limb swaps for the PSE bows on his NockOn channel on Youtube. If you think you need to swap them, I highly recommend watching it. Most of the time, bareshaft tuning reveals issues with me and my form more than the bow.
Have you put a broadhead on an arrow and shot it with a field point yet?
Do you have the stock cable rod guide or the TAP adjustable cable rod?
Have you contacted PSE and verified your limb deflection numbers are correctly oriented?
Have you let someone else shoot the bow and see if they get the same results?

Pulled the limbs. They are at factory recommended limb deflections. I have the factory cable rod. They are 80 lb limbs and I have them backed down 2.5 turns to be at 73 lbs. I’m of the thought the stiff limbs maybe aren’t stiff enough despite what the deflection numbers say. I’ve had several bows the last few years and every one of them wanted to throw right tears as they arrived from factory. That list includes ventum 33, revolt x, v3 31, ss34, v3x33. Those bows required just a tweak moving cams to the right a little to clean it up and then micro tuning the rest to get bareshafts touching field tips at 30 and in the group at 40 yards. Depending on the fidelity of the shimming system, that meant arrow pointing straight parallel to the riser or just a touch left.

This m34 had severe left tear at factory settings. It was several inches from point blank. I moved cams all the way left and still bad tear. I did move my rest to the right as far as I could but the qad can’t go too far right or it will hit the curve of the shelf. Right now the arrow is straight parallel to the riser. Looking down from the cams it is straight down the stabilizer. After giving several twists to the left side of the pbts, I was able to get the lean away from the riser minimized enough to get close, but not enough to be as well tuned as my other bows. Idk maybe I just raise the rest and my d loop to allow me to move the rest a little further right. I’ve never had a bow tune that way. It’s why I asked about your statement of swapping limbs but I guess I misread that part. As far as others shooting the bow, no. Don’t have others that can pull 70+ at 31” draw length. Like I said, I’ve got it close but it is just that last little bit that is frustrating.

At what level is your arrow in relation to the rest mounting hole or the decal on the riser? Thanks for the reply.


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[StringStalker0075]

Pulled the limbs. They are at factory recommended limb deflections. I have the factory cable rod. They are 80 lb limbs and I have them backed down 2.5 turns to be at 73 lbs. I’m of the thought the stiff limbs maybe aren’t stiff enough despite what the deflection numbers say. I’ve had several bows the last few years and every one of them wanted to throw right tears as they arrived from factory. That list includes ventum 33, revolt x, v3 31, ss34, v3x33. Those bows required just a tweak moving cams to the right a little to clean it up and then micro tuning the rest to get bareshafts touching field tips at 30 and in the group at 40 yards. Depending on the fidelity of the shimming system, that meant arrow pointing straight parallel to the riser or just a touch left.

This m34 had severe left tear at factory settings. It was several inches from point blank. I moved cams all the way left and still bad tear. I did move my rest to the right as far as I could but the qad can’t go too far right or it will hit the curve of the shelf. Right now the arrow is straight parallel to the riser. Looking down from the cams it is straight down the stabilizer. After giving several twists to the left side of the pbts, I was able to get the lean away from the riser minimized enough to get close, but not enough to be as well tuned as my other bows. Idk maybe I just raise the rest and my d loop to allow me to move the rest a little further right. I’ve never had a bow tune that way. It’s why I asked about your statement of swapping limbs but I guess I misread that part. As far as others shooting the bow, no. Don’t have others that can pull 70+ at 31” draw length. Like I said, I’ve got it close but it is just that last little bit that is frustrating.

At what level is your arrow in relation to the rest mounting hole or the decal on the riser? Thanks for the reply.


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I can see your frustration. I agree, over the years, I've only had one bow that comes to mind that had a really bad left tear, was a '93/94 model Jennings Uniforce XLR. Could not get that tear out of it.
Arrow is slightly knock high, bottom of the arrow through the center of about where the berger hole would be.
Have you put the bow in a draw board and looked at cam lean at full draw?

 

[houghtonic]

I can see your frustration. I agree, over the years, I've only had one bow that comes to mind that had a really bad left tear, was a '93/94 model Jennings Uniforce XLR. Could not get that tear out of it.
Arrow is slightly knock high, bottom of the arrow through the center of about where the berger hole would be.
Have you put the bow in a draw board and looked at cam lean at full draw?

Yep. Put a laser on it and everything. Leans away from riser at brace. I’d have to look again at full draw. IIRC, it’s almost perfectly straight at full draw. But thing is I need it to lean more toward the riser to push the tear to the right. Only way to do that would be increasing riser side limb stiffness since I’m already maxed out to the left with shims and I’ve put more twists than I care to in the pbts. I’m in my garage right now raising the rest and my nocking point to give me a little more room to push the rest to the right.


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[houghtonic]

Congratulations on the nice bow. I was frustrated because I had battled the left tears, got it shooting perfect, then as the cables stretched it was back to left tears again. Your post inspired me to take a harder look at moving the rest to the right. I said it was close to being good, but I didn’t know how close. Turns out it was just 5 clicks of the qad to the right which doesn’t get me close to hitting the curve in the shelf. It’s spitting bareshaft very close to bullets at 8 yards again. That should get me back to grouping with field points at 40. Thanks for the response and sharing how much you like the bow.


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[NVbowhunter05]

Absolutely love mine. Coming from a carbon stealth that had absolutely 0 forgiveness this thing is night and day. 17 more days until it draws its first blood

 

[StringStalker0075]

Absolutely love mine. Coming from a carbon stealth that had absolutely 0 forgiveness this thing is night and day. 17 more days until it draws its first blood

The more I shoot and tinker with this one, the more I like it!

 

[Arrow4Christ]

I’m on my second Mach 34 (a custom order with SE2 cams), and it’s easily my favorite bow ever. Even as light as it is, it holds as well as the target bows I’ve shot. I really like starting with the light bow and then adding stabilizer weights where I want them to get my preferred balance.

 

[StringStalker0075]

I’m on my second Mach 34 (a custom order with SE2 cams), and it’s easily my favorite bow ever. Even as light as it is, it holds as well as the target bows I’ve shot. I really like starting with the light bow and then adding stabilizer weights where I want them to get my preferred balance.

I agree! Broadhead tuned this bow, with just a little tweak of the rest. At 43 yards it was touching broadheads and field tips together. You can look down the bow, and the arrow runs centered down the bow, like it should. Very happy with this setup. It's the first bow I have felt content with in a long time.

 

[NYyotekiller]

Love that color combination that you chose on your bow.

I’ve been thinking of picking up one of these but with the EC cam.

 

[StringStalker0075]

Love that color combination that you chose on your bow.

I’ve been thinking of picking up one of these but with the EC cam.

Would be a good platform!