Mathews Helium Bow Test...Lateral Nock Travel

[oldbuck]

1/19/2012
Bow Report …Lateral Nock Travel test

2012 Mathews Helium with “Flexing Roller Guard”

I first shared test reports of “lateral nock travel” in 2010, at that time most manufactures didn’t acknowledge the condition and some did even not know it existed.

The primary cause is cam tilt or lean and the result is that the bow torques in the archers hand as it is drawn.

This torque was always blamed on the archer; today we know that claim to be false. The bow torques/twists itself as a result of cam tilt.

The Tilt Tamer was introduced at the 2011 ATA show to remove cam tilt and bow torque.

I have listed some of the bow manufactures’ who have introduced active devices to mitigate cam tilt and therefore bow torque.

Bowtech, Martin, Strothers, Athens, Darton, G5 Prime…there may be more I am not aware of. A very comprehensive list of companies that now actively advertise solutions to this problem.

Now Mathews has joined the pack with their new Helium which has a “flexing roller guard”. It’s not touted as such but it follows the technology that Bowtech and G5 Prime use, namely a flexing cable guard.

I measured the actual lateral nock travel of a Helium and found it to be about 0.45” which is a huge improvement over the previous rigid Mathews roller guard. For example a Mathew’s DXT I tested produced about 0.90” of lateral nock travel which resulted in allot of torque. For comparison a G5 Prime I measured produced about 0.37” of lateral nock travel.

The Helium’s flexing roller guard bends about 0.50” from brace height to full draw, this produces less cam tilt and therefore less bow torque.

I expect to hear many reports about the forgiving nature of this bow.

I am glad to see that the undesirable bow issue of cam tilt and bow torque is now being acknowledged and addressed.

Thanks
Joe Marzullo

[1javelin]

Have you done any of this testing with Elite yet, mainly the Answer I'm concerned with?

1jav

[Sgt. Fury]

I am NOT a Mathews fan. I do not like the waffle looking riser or the short ATA of the Heli-m. That being said, I had two opportunities to shoot the Heli-m this week. On Wednesday, I spent 40 minutes shooting one and yesterday I was at Bearfoot Archery (Matt's place) shooting one.

Findings: without a doubt one of the smoothest drawing and quietest bows I've ever shot! It held on target well, which surprised me for such a short ATA bow. I also like the new limb stop. The back wall is firm (not as rock solid as Elite's) and quiet. Theoretically, in the field you could get nervous and draw a little too aggressively with an Elite and make a noise (although slight) when you hit the back wall. It is much more difficult to elicit a noise with the Heli-m. After the shot, the Heli-m was exceptionally quiet. I'd say is was slightly more quiet than my Hoyt Carbon Element RKT ---- which I absolutley hate admitting because I am a Hoyt fan.

With stock strings and Whisker Biscuit the Heli-m made the following speed:

- 28.5" draw length
- 59 lbs. draw weight
- 400 grain hunting arrow = Easton ACC Pro Hunter
- 270 fps

** Matt at Barefoot indicated that a whisker buskuit probably slows the arrow about 2 fps vs. a drop away. So..... 272 fps

I don't know what that calculates for IBO speed, but listening to my hunting arrows loudly "thwack" the target at 20 yards away..... it's enough for killing anything I would hunt.

I think this is very good considering it is a single cam bow. I shot the bow at 20 yard targets and the arrow held it's speed well to the target. The guy I was shooting next to stated that bow seemed very fast. When I told him this model is pulling 59 lbs. at 28.5" he couldn't believe it.

On Wednesday, I was shooting the Heli-m at 70 lbs. It was without a doubt the easiest 70 lbs. I've ever drawn back in my archery career..... and I've pulled back A LOT of bows!

Overall, I went into the whole experience JADED...... in the end, the bow won me over.

Probably my next bow.

Dale

[Carpshooter]

How about Hoyt ?