Bear Truth

The Truth from Bear Archery is creating quite a stir in the industry, and could ultimately be the most noteworthy bow in this year's class. For starters, it's the first progeny of the new Bear Archery -- still affiliated with Escalade Sports but now a separate company that looks to be at the front of the pack for some time to come. It's also a hallmark of Bear's performance-to-value philosophy, where proprietary components and assembly processes allow them to produce a top-end, high-performance bow at an affordable price.

Furthermore, the Truth was designed through a collaborative effort. Will Primos provided not only his name and his trademark, but his ideas (as well as those of the other Primos team members) on what a hunting bow should be.

"The folks at Primos were really excited to be so involved in the process," said Bear product manager Scott Alread. "We aimed for several performance criteria: 300 feet per second, limbs beyond parallel at full draw and no shock or noise. This is what the market expects for this price point."

They next consulted with key people in their sales, product development and marketing departments, and then did a barnstorming tour of their dealers. "We wanted to get dialed in to what hunters wanted."

It seems they succeeded. The 33-inch axle-to-axle is right in the middle of the demand curve, making this a good allaround bow whether you're hunting Eastern whitetails from a tree stand or stalking elk out West. The Truth features a long riser, short limb design and reflex geometry that are so popular nowadays, and the comfortably forgiving seven-inch brace height.

Power Plant

The Truth represents the next step in Bear's recent progression. Following the success of last year's Code and Instinct, they wanted to move up a notch in price point and performance.

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An elliptical perimeter-weighted single cam design helps the Truth achieve its increased speed and efficiency. "It's the overall best performing and easiest tuning design," said Alread. It also provides a consistently smooth draw with a narrow valley and a very solid wall.

"It all goes back to the Bear philosophy," intoned Alread, "find one thing and be the best at it. We are a single cam company. We own the patent." Sealed stainless steel ball bearings in both the idler and cam also enhance performance and durability.

Beyond-parallel limbs are another key feature. First is the design. Most archers know that parallel limbs work opposite one another to cancel vibration. "By going beyond parallel at full draw," says Alread, "you can also pick up some speed," in this case a blistering IBO rating of 310 — 314 fps.

More importantly however, are the Compression Molded Quad Limbs themselves. "There's an important distinction between our limbs and those of other companies that some folks don't understand," says Alread. "We don't use split limbs. We build four individual limbs using a process that allows us to get strength and shape without any cutting." The result is continuous, uncut fibers that "pack" energy in the limb fibers during draw, and prevent excessive release of energy. The limbs are not only fast and strong, they'll last longer.

Those limbs are securely anchored in "zero tolerance," polyurethane pivoting limb pockets and machined aluminum limb cups that prevent movement and reduce vibration. Add the eight factory installed Sims dampeners — each optimally positioned per engineering tests — and the mass of the longer riser and you're left with minimal shock and noise.

Conclusion

At first glance, the price of this bow might cause some serious archery hunters to overlook the Truth. That would be a mistake. "As much as 30- to 40-percent of the price of someone else's bows may be for intellectual property (patents and ownership rights) and component manufacturing," said Alread. "We own the intellectual property and the manufacturing process."

In terms of performance and design, the Truth sits squarely among the upper echelon of bows. In terms of what you get for your buck however, it stands head and shoulders above the rest.