How I chose my latest compound bow. Man Kung Mirage Compound Bow

 

Man Kung Mirage Compound Bow

Maybe I was being too cryptic in that text in a recent You Tube post. 

What I was trying to say, was really based upon general conversations (texts) in archery forums regarding bows manufactured in China or Taiwan as being absolute crap.

Recently, I read a lot of these, and without exception everyone who was slagging them, had either never heard of the brand that was in the topic /thread and or never shot one or even held one in their hands. 

I have to say that this is a common behaviour observed for ALL forums, the high frequency of people NOT reading the topic/thread properly and then proceeding to give their (unasked for, opinions based not upon personal experiences but rather total conjecture). 

They further went on to write them (Man Kung) off simply because they were MIC and therefore must be garbage. Actually they are manufactured in Taiwan and in my experience the Taiwanese definitely associate with being Taiwanese and NOT Chinese). And these forum warriors simply said that only USA made bows could be any good, so don't waste your time.

 There is no doubt about it, USA made bows are great. When I see made in the USA, I pretty much know I can depend upon it, at least that is my personal experience.

 

So what about bows made in China** and Taiwan**???

Maybe back in the early eighties bows made in China or Taiwan were crap for sure but I think stuff has changed a lot. (Historically speaking the Chinese were shooting bows while we were all running around naked LOL-

But seriously, I started off with Bear bows (like as in Fred bear LOL) so, you will know exactly how long ago that was when you could still buy a bow branded Fred Bear LOL!

 

Recently, within the last couple of years I thought I’d get something new and visited my local bow shop (he stocks all the major USA brands) and he also had some brands I was completely unfamiliar with.

Those brands were Sanlida, (a Chinese bow manufacturer) and EK (supposedly European but made in Taiwan. 

I asked him about Man Kung because I knew they had been around making bows since the mid eighties. He doesn’t sell Man Kung bows (made in Taiwan) stuff (not because he thought they were crap but because he thought they were too heavy although he did admit in recent years they are much better and went on to say that he doesn’t import them because it’s possible to buy them online cheaper from an OS distributor and it’s not worth it for him (ok a profit thing).

 

At the time I bought a Sanlida because it was similar specs to the equivalent Bear he had but a third of the price! And also the Sanlida had bearings in the cam axles whereas the Bear only used bushes. (the warranty was less for the Sanlida-more on this later). I should say the Bear featured a much better string and cable system (as in just thicker)-so maybe these would take a little more abuse whilst out hunting. (don't forget warranties generally never cover strings and cables). I weighed up this price difference with the need to purchase a lot of carbon arrows, hunting heads, bow quiver, and a new release (it came with a sight and stabilizer and bow sling).

 (I removed the sight because I prefer to shoot instinctively).

Anyway, now to the recent present, I looked at a fully CNC machine EK but it came completely bare bones, ie riser, limbs, string and cable and that was it. No D loop, no stabilizer, no arrow rest, no sights etc and by the time one would custom fit all of these things, I’d be able to buy a non-CNC riser (a cast one) from Bear as a package with everything ready to shoot. Plus, it was a 3 part CNC riser (bolted together) which I was not keen on and to make up my mind, it was uncomfortable to hold (way way off balance without the stabilizer- which surprised me) and had many proprietary damping systems within the riser, things which would be difficult to replace, should they be lost or damaged. I think many USA made bows also do this too*

 

So, I kept looking around and was in a local gun shop and saw they had these Man Kung Bows, I remembered the name from my early days of archery and asked if I could check some of them out. The prices were comparable to Bear bows (but without any thing except the bare bow!).

 

When I got home I searched the internet and found a place selling these Man Kung bows, did a lot more research (independent You Tubers , some in Europe and New Zealand  but mostly Russia-couldn’t find any in Oz because we are a bit Bear, PSE and Hoyt centric here LOL!)

 

Anyway, the long short of it was that the specs of this (Man Kung Mirage 70lb compound) looked good on all fronts and it does appear they have lifted their game with making quality bows (at least the one I bought). I think at the end of the day, the key thing to a good bow are the limbs. Because these are the things which need to undergo multiple elastic deformations without some sort of failure and in this case the weakest link to any bow are the cables and string and the limbs. Cables and string can be destroyed in a blink of any eye with careless handling, risers are more than strong enough to sustain the huge forces generated when a bow is drawn however, it is the limbs which must be able to undergo multiple flexures at all draw weights without failure. So, if bow manufacturers quote a certain warranty, then it probably, unless specifically stated, refers to how often (all things being equal) the bow can be drawn (based upon some sort of average shooting frequency) before some sort of plastic (or worse) deformation occurs at the limbs.

 

In this case with this Man Kung Bow the warranty period is 2 years. Bear warranty their limbs for 5 years, 100% replacement (one does pay for this as warranties are never for free-I worked for a large USA company and they drilled that into our heads LOL). Bear also warranty their risers and cams for the lifetime of the bow (original owner only of course).

 

 

Risers (for compounds) are all made the same way, either cast or CNC-ed, and basically made by machines so they can be churned out identical to one another and all should be more than strong enough.

BCT

* it is foolish to decrease the mass (of the riser) to a point where vibration has to be dealt with by all sorts of funky dampening systems, that are passed off with slick marketing talk and advertising.

** I'm referring only to well established bow manufacturers , not some no name companies.