Tango1
Lil-Rokslider
I received my new Hoyt Satori today. Been intrigued by the Satori for a long time, but hesitant after less than impressive experiences with older Gamemasters. I was unable to shoot a Satori prior to ordering and never really found a 100% information source on them, but I ordered a 17” riser with short 40lb limbs and the Hoyt 2 piece 4 arrow quiver. To say that I’m impressed so far is an understatement. It’s a fairly complex trad bow compared to the Bears I’ve been shooting. The amount of adjustment is incredible and somewhat intimidating at first. I thought I’d just play with it a little after work and then dig in this weekend for the full tune, but the quality and ease of adjustment made it very easy to get the bow bare shaft tuned and shooting beautifully in about 2 hours. Super impressive. A few thoughts:
- I have a 26.5” draw length. The Hoyt draw weights are rated based on the 19” riser. I gained 4 lbs with the 17” riser but lost 4 with the short draw length. The bow is right at 40lbs with my draw length when put on a scale.
- I shoot 3 fingers under and Hoyt advised I go to even tiller adjustment top-bottom. Took me a few minutes to figure that adjustment out, but it’s simple. Don’t be afraid to do some experimenting with tiller.
- My bow was very nock point sensitive and ended up liking a 3/4” high nock point. Arrow flight was all over at first and kicking around in ways I’d never seen before, but moving the nock high brought everything into sync with the bare shaft.
- The striker plate and shelf pad are probably the most finicky part of the set-up. As others have noted, the mustache shaped furry rug Hoyt includes for the shelf just plain sucks. I tried it because I‘m a factory direction follower, but it was horrible. Throw it away. I used some old thin felt on the shelf and it was perfect. I also started with all 3 spacers under the strike plate but found that 1 was perfect for the 28.5” 500 spine GT Trad arrows (180gr up front with 3, 5” feathers) I’m using. Bare shaft hits to 15 yards with straight, true arrow flight aren‘t a problem at all.
- There seems to be some confusion about which quivers will fit the 17” riser. No idea about after-market quivers, but the Hoyt factory 2 piece 4 arrow version fits beautifully. It’s solid, has tons of vertical adjustment and serves to dampen vibration. The riser mount bolts want to come loose after about 20 shots but a small blob of string wax on the threads cured that.
- The bow seems heavy at first compared to my old favorite Bear Kodiak Magnum and Grizzly, however that weight makes the Satori very stable and dead calm in the hand. The accuracy is simply amazing to me. My standard targets are red Solo cups pinned to a Block target with a golf tee. I want to hit the open top of the cup out to 20 yards and the cup profile at 25 yards. I can do it with the Bears about 80% of the time, but it takes real concentration and focus. The Satori in comparison settles down so quickly after hitting my anchor point that it almost feels as though you’re snap shooting.....it all happens smooth and fast with ease. The bow simply dumped arrow after arrow into the Solo cup.
- The bow handles field points and broadheads identically, at least my Magnus 2 blade Stingers shoot to the same POI as my field points. Totally interchangeable.
- Didn’t have time to mess with string silencers, but the bow seemed to have a quiet sweet spot at 8 1/8” brace height.
- Of course, I’ve only been shooting it for a day, but the Satori tuned so easily and is so accurate that I felt an immediate sense of confidence in it after my approx 75 arrows tonight. There’s some work to get all the adjustments right and this does take some patience, but the end result seems to be an incredibly accurate and easy to shoot bow. Can’t wait to hunt with it this Fall!
- I have a 26.5” draw length. The Hoyt draw weights are rated based on the 19” riser. I gained 4 lbs with the 17” riser but lost 4 with the short draw length. The bow is right at 40lbs with my draw length when put on a scale.
- I shoot 3 fingers under and Hoyt advised I go to even tiller adjustment top-bottom. Took me a few minutes to figure that adjustment out, but it’s simple. Don’t be afraid to do some experimenting with tiller.
- My bow was very nock point sensitive and ended up liking a 3/4” high nock point. Arrow flight was all over at first and kicking around in ways I’d never seen before, but moving the nock high brought everything into sync with the bare shaft.
- The striker plate and shelf pad are probably the most finicky part of the set-up. As others have noted, the mustache shaped furry rug Hoyt includes for the shelf just plain sucks. I tried it because I‘m a factory direction follower, but it was horrible. Throw it away. I used some old thin felt on the shelf and it was perfect. I also started with all 3 spacers under the strike plate but found that 1 was perfect for the 28.5” 500 spine GT Trad arrows (180gr up front with 3, 5” feathers) I’m using. Bare shaft hits to 15 yards with straight, true arrow flight aren‘t a problem at all.
- There seems to be some confusion about which quivers will fit the 17” riser. No idea about after-market quivers, but the Hoyt factory 2 piece 4 arrow version fits beautifully. It’s solid, has tons of vertical adjustment and serves to dampen vibration. The riser mount bolts want to come loose after about 20 shots but a small blob of string wax on the threads cured that.
- The bow seems heavy at first compared to my old favorite Bear Kodiak Magnum and Grizzly, however that weight makes the Satori very stable and dead calm in the hand. The accuracy is simply amazing to me. My standard targets are red Solo cups pinned to a Block target with a golf tee. I want to hit the open top of the cup out to 20 yards and the cup profile at 25 yards. I can do it with the Bears about 80% of the time, but it takes real concentration and focus. The Satori in comparison settles down so quickly after hitting my anchor point that it almost feels as though you’re snap shooting.....it all happens smooth and fast with ease. The bow simply dumped arrow after arrow into the Solo cup.
- The bow handles field points and broadheads identically, at least my Magnus 2 blade Stingers shoot to the same POI as my field points. Totally interchangeable.
- Didn’t have time to mess with string silencers, but the bow seemed to have a quiet sweet spot at 8 1/8” brace height.
- Of course, I’ve only been shooting it for a day, but the Satori tuned so easily and is so accurate that I felt an immediate sense of confidence in it after my approx 75 arrows tonight. There’s some work to get all the adjustments right and this does take some patience, but the end result seems to be an incredibly accurate and easy to shoot bow. Can’t wait to hunt with it this Fall!
Yeah I use to turn up my nose at metal risers because of all the bad reasons already stated. My first recurve as a Grizzly...quickly found out that 1-piece bows suck to travel with in any capacity. Then I went to a 3-piece takedown wood bow and loved it. I thought I was done...but as I got more experienced I could not deny the benefits of an ilf system for adjustability and fine tuning. As I said earlier I resisted for a long time but after taking the leap I’ve realized what I’ve missed out on all these years. Will it make you a better shooter? I don’t think so, but I do think that any bow that shoots more consistently will give the shooter more consistent results as well as tighter groups on a regular basis, no matter how “non-trad” or “soul-less” the bow is. There’s a reason you don’t see any wood risers at the olympics.
