Considerable Hand Shock, Very Noisy, Production bow with lack of attention to detail and believe it or not I have had some describe their poor experiences with BW's customer service.
It surprises me that anyone would say a BW had considerable hand shock. The PSAX you're considering is a r/d recurve that is heavier than most comparable recurves. You wouldn't expect hand shock to be an issue with a bow with that design, and in fact, no BW recurve that I have ever shot has had any noticeable hand shock.
The BW bows that I have owned have been noisier than I would like. You can quiet them down by shooting a heavier arrow than I like to shoot, but given the same arrow weight, they tend to be noisier than my other bows.
BW is more of a production bow than other custom bows, in that BW uses computerized equipment to cut out risers, etc. It has not been my experience that this results in any lack of attention to detail, and I consider my BW's to be finished as well as my bows from the other well regarded bowyers I mentioned in my first post. In fact, I think you get the best of both worlds here, in that the components are made with a higher degree of precision than other bows, but the finish is equal to other bows.
I have dealt with BW for more than 20 years, and have never been disappointed with customer service. I have visited the factory and met the people who work there, and they probably recognize my name when I call, so maybe I'm biased. But they've always made me feel like dealing with whatever I called about is the most important thing they have to do at the time I call, and they've always gotten it done.
BW bows tend to be priced on the high side compared with other similar bows. There are a few bowyers whose bows are considerably more expensive than BW's, however, with much longer wait times. I've shot some of these extremely high-priced bows, and wonder how they can keep doing it. I mean, if BW bows are 10-20% over the price of a comparable bow, some of these bows are as much as double the price of a comparable bow. I think BW has earned its premium through a long record of dependability and resale value.
I realize your main question is whether BW has declined recently as opposed to what they may have been in the past. I ordered a set of limbs from them for my PMA about a year ago, and several small orders within the past year, and haven't noticed anything different in quality or service from the past.
Topic: You Thoughts on Black Widow (Read 1833 times)
