Mathews ARC 34 | The Final Setup Phase

Dive into the final setup changes of my Mathews ARC 34 for the upcoming hunting season

By: Justin Campbell | Equalized Outdoors

Authors Current Setup

After what seems like one of the longest Julys in recent memory, August is finally here. The NFL preseason begins in August, and for us as hunters, many of us are in our own versions of outdoor training camps, if you will.   That also means one final thing.  Testing time is almost over.  It’s almost time to see if our work is going to pay off in the field.

For me, that means my Mathews ARC 34 setup is now in its final form.   Those stock strings that I was having so much trouble with?   A thing of the past.  In their place is a set of VEC99 strings from Catfish Customs in high-viz yellow and high-viz green.  As expected, the strings settled in almost immediately.  There was zero peep twist, and they just look amazing.  They pop really well with the Kodiak brown on my ARC. 

What about those 604-grain arrows, you say?  Also, a thing of the past.   My arrow setup has lost weight to the tune of 91 grains, which gained me 21 fps despite going to a stiffer spine. 

Day Six Gear is still my arrow company of choice, but this fall I’ll be heading into the woods with their new XR series arrow.  A lighter-grain-per-inch (GPI) arrow with a 4mm shaft.  It’s essentially the HD’s new body after a steady diet of GLP-1, aka Ozempic. 

While I still own and love several of my Evo X broadheads this season, I’m also jumping onto the mechanical train. Because no surprise to some of you, Day Six also released their first mechanical broadhead called the Verse, that just pairs better which my lighter arrow setup. Even though they are optimized for elk hunting, I have no doubt that the Verse will perform just fine on whitetail and axis deer as well.  I’m running the 125-grain version for my setup.

Currently they are still out of stock, but Bryan from Day Six has given me a restock date.  Let’s just say that if you wanted to get your hands on them, you won’t have to wait much longer. 

One thing that has remained constant since I added it to the bow is my HHA Nytrx XV3, 3-pin vertical sight.  The scope housing is large, the pins are bright, and the second- and third-pin yardage is customizable.  Having three vertical pins is my favorite solution by far.  It leaves you with a nice, clean sight picture that makes it easy to focus on executing your shot.

My final numbers are arrows that are cut to 30.5”, which weigh 513 grains, that move at 291 fps with 75lb mods on my ARC 34.   I’m not doing any western hunting this fall, which also factored into my decision to optimize for whitetail hunting. 

Bow season is just around the corner, and I will have one more report on the bow once I’ve taken an animal with it in the field.