Mathews ARC 34 — First Impressions From a Rocky Start
- Justin Campbell
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
By Justin “MrJayCam” Campbell | Equalized Outdoors
November brings excitement for a multitude of reasons, especially if you’re a bowhunter. There’s the pre-rut, then the rut — that magical time in the whitetail woods, in most of the country anyway, where anything is possible. Giant bucks can be had, and encounters begin to peak. The playing field is as level as it will ever be between the novice and the experienced hunter. Thanksgiving occurs, and that usually means time well spent with family and friends that we love.
However, that’s not all November has to offer. November also brings the bulk of the next season’s bow releases. Even if you’re not in the market currently, it’s fun to chat with your buddies about them, cruise the various forums, and consume content from your favorite Archery channels on YouTube. Brand loyalists will proclaim their chosen manufacturer is the best, and Archery’s version of the barbershop will reach an absolute fever pitch.
Self-tuning has been the recent trend — or so it seems to this author at least — and as someone without a bow press, I’ll admit attention was certainly paid. Darton’s release caught my eye early, as did the latest offering from Prime. Not to mention the blistering speeds that we saw from PSE. Even still, there’s one name that commands attention from both the fanatics and the haters alike, and that’s Mathews.
I’ve shot a V3X 33 since its release, but every year I make my way to the bow shop just to see if there’s anything that could make it worth the leap. If I’m honest, though, after reading the announcement and seeing the changes, my first impression was: did they do enough? I even wondered to myself — and to others in conversations — if Mathews was becoming the new Apple, where each year’s new bow would be the iPhone.
Still, the curiosity was there, so I made my way to what I would call my local Virginia bow shop (since I was there hunting at the time), and after a couple of days, I was finally able to shoot the new Mathews ARC 34.
Even at the time of writing this, I can’t make sense of what happened next.
When I shot the bow, I felt something in my bow hand that was unfamiliar to me — a vibration of sorts that didn’t feel comfortable. I took a few more shots to confirm, and the “feedback” was present each time.
At that point, I felt several different ways, confused being the main one of them. That’s just not something I had ever experienced with any other Mathews I had shot before. Then the manager of the Archery department asked me for my thoughts. I repeated what I felt, and a look of relief came over him as he said, “I thought I was just getting old. I’m glad it’s not just me.” A second tech said the same thing, as did two others who had recently shot that same bow. Keep in mind, I hadn’t talked to any of them, so my thoughts were purely my own. So, when I left that shop, I was all but certain that the V3X had earned another year of shelf life.
Initially, I repeatedly replayed the situation in my head, trying to make sense of it. My sore left wrist erased any lingering doubt about what I had in fact felt. Still, though, it’s the same wrist that was injured to the point of wearing a cast a few years ago, so I considered that it could’ve been the culprit as well. However, I had to be honest with myself, and when I shoot my V3X — which is often — I’ve never experienced this same discomfort. That’s through weekends of 3D and filming content, etc. Imagine that feeling when you hit your funny bone, now inside your wrist instead of your elbow.
A day or so after that, I began discussing this with my network, and none of them who had shot the ARC reported anything remotely close to what I experienced. In fact, it was what you would expect from a Mathews bow. Quiet and dead in hand, but with a smoother draw. I’d also heard that it held exceptionally well. The person I consider my outdoor mentor was part of the group, and he essentially told me that he thought I was crazy when I mentioned the vibration and feedback. Everyone else had given the bow rave reviews, yet honest ones. Vexed, I decided to shoot it again once I arrived back in Texas.
Which is exactly what I did.
I walked into Legacy Archery DFW and had an ARC 34 set up at 70 pounds with my 31.5” draw length. These are the same specs that I shot in Virginia as well, the only difference being that I shot my own Day Six Gear arrow.
I’d be lying if I said I remembered what the first shot felt like because I had the memories of Virginia on my mind and was expecting a similar result. Except this time, the difference was night and day.
On both occasions, the first thing I noticed was that the ARC was faster. I’m aware that the eye test is far from a reliable measurement, but it truly did stand out. Noise was still at Mathews’ expected level, so I wasn’t surprised that the ARC is damn quiet. Especially shooting my heavy arrow setup. As for the draw, it immediately felt smoother to me than my V3X and was on par with the Lift X, possibly even better. Even with the 85% let-off mods, the back wall held and felt good. I’d considered swapping the V3X to 80% to see if it would help in that regard, but I never got around to it, and it doesn’t seem necessary with ARC.
Several arrows into this iteration, I noticed that I was smiling. Why? The vibration and feedback I had felt in Virginia were completely gone. The ARC was easy to aim and held like a dream even without stabilizers. This was the Mathews that I’m familiar with but dare I say better once again. Mathews should be commended because they were able to make the bow faster, noticeably lighter, remain quiet, and improve the draw. And that’s without the easy mods. All of my testing was done with the standard version not the new Z model that was introduced.
My perceived notion that the ARC was indeed a faster bow was confirmed when the staff offered to weigh my arrow and shoot it through the chronograph. My arrow, which weighs north of 550 grains, checked in at 270 fps with a Whisker Biscuit. Those with lighter setups should be happy with the real-world speed of the ARC 34, should they choose to buy one. After that, the writing was basically on the wall. I thanked the shop owner and the technicians for their time and walked out the door with my mind made up.
In closing, did the ARC 34 make enough of an impression on me?The answer was a resounding yes — so much so that I never made it out of the parking lot of the archery shop. Partly because a big event was coming up the next day at the shop, partly because the lead time for a Bottomland ARC 34 would be several months, and mostly because the shop had earned my business, I took home the ARC 34 in Kodiak Brown. If you’re in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and you’ve been looking for a bow shop, give the folks at Legacy Archery DFW a try. Interested parties can read more about my experience with Legacy Archery here.
Now it’s time to finish my build and give the ARC 34 a proper review.
