I will say the Mesa is a great bow at any level rather it is for a beginner archer or someone that has been shooting for years. The price is affordable and a nicely made bow as well.
Older post - yes, but with that said, I just picked up an OM Mesa and here's my review from 3 of us shooting and testing it:
Old Mountain Mesa R/D Longbow ReviewWe had a VERY interesting night last evening at our indoor archery range where my new 64" Old Mountain Mesa ($280) reflex/deflex longbow from 3Rivers tested extremely favorable whilst compared to a custom longbow, that being a 66" Toelke Whip ($925) reflex/deflex longbow.
We had setup a chronograph. My arrows were both 28" long and also had white rings of White-Out correction fluid painted on the tip end at 1” increments to ensure we weighed and drew the shafts to the same point for the bow weight and the speed tests – to strive for consistency. All tests were repeated numerous times and averaged, and then even compared between the three of us left-handed shooters present, as my bows are LH bows.
BOW WEIGHTS – PULL
Both bows were pulling 43#s at my draw length @ 27”.
BOW PHYSICAL WEIGHT
OM Mesa - 1-pound, 6-ounces
Toelke Whip -1-pound, 9-ounces
ARROW SPECS
Big Jim 'Dark Timber' carbon, spine 700, total weight 321-grains, 7.5 GPP
Gold Tip 'Traditional' carbon, spine 600, total weight 374-grains, 8.7 GPP
Both shafts configured with 100-grain Saunders Combo-Points field tips and three 4-1/2" shield-cut feathers, where all nocks were sanded to fit the strings, so they did not clamp onto the strings with excessive grip.
APPEARANCE/HANDLING
The Toelke Whip is absurdly striking in looks,
truly custom in all regards (even to choices of woods, colors and handle style), and everyone who picked it up was immediately impressed by the workmanship, design, fit and finish. They even further remarked on how thin (width and thickness) the limb tips are, especially the small point of the upper nock end. If all fairness, for a mass produced ‘factory’ bow, the OM Mesa itself is a good looking bow with light colored limbs as contrasted by the speckled, almost pileated riser section, with overlays on both sides. All archers felt that the contrast of the light-colored limbs and dark riser section gave it a unique and pleasing appearance.
Handling of course, is very subjective and varies from person to person, but all of the LH’d archers with me (two others) all felt both bows handled really well. The Mesa grip is also well proportioned and draws the bow hand right into a consistent and comfortable position.
DRAW/SHOOTING
Neither longbow was felt to stack during the draw either, although admittedly there wasn’t a lefty archer standing over 6’ tall in the group.
NOISE
Probably a ‘draw’ here, no pun intended, as both bows were quiet and for full disclosure they were setup with the heterodyning method of string silencing, with the top silencer placed a quarter of the distance down the bow string from the top limb and a third of the distance up from the bottom limb tip. This process cancels out both the even and odd harmonics generated from the bow string.
SPEED
OM Mesa - GTs 175 FPS, DTs 185 FPS
Toelke Whip - GTs 170 FPS, DTs 180 FPS
SUMMARY – A BEST BUY?Now not that I'm possessed by speed per se, but the others in attendance were thinking that the shorter-limbed Mesa bow, which definitely has more reflex/deflex to it (when strung), was perhaps more efficient for me with my shorter draw. This may be why the Mesa clocked a little faster for me in this testing. I do think though, that I will go up in my point weight and use 600 spine shafts, so that I’m not too light on the grains per pound (GPP).
Our conclusion is that if one were either a beginner to longbows or had a limited budget, the OM Mesa certainly appears to be a viable ‘Best Buy’ candidate based upon the performance, overall value and price.