Any experience with this bow. A friend of mine wants to get into archery and saw this bow in the local CraigsList ($450 as I recollect).
Peter.

i do not have experience with that particular bow, but i looked it up real quick and looks like it was produced 2002-2004. for a bow that old, that seems a bit high.

have your friend look at the forums of archerytalk.com
that is a great site, and they have a great classifieds section. lots of bows for sale every day, and he can find something that suits his needs. i just bought myself a backup/tournament bow on there, its an 09 bowtech captain, and i gave 300 bucks for it, in near perfect condition.

if he is just getting into archery, AT has lots of great informational articles to help get him started. but as for that bow, i would tell him to hold off.

if he can find a bow shop near his home, and go and tell them he's looking to get started, they can find his correct draw length, and let him shoot a few bows to see what he likes. if he has a few that he likes, he can either find them used on AT, or find similar bows a little older on AT for much cheaper. Archery, like anything else, can get expensive if you really get into it and get top of the line equipment.

i never thought i'd pick up a bow case with 1800 bucks worth of stuff in it when i started bowhunting 16 years ago, but its a passion, and we tend to spend money and time on our passions

The Mathews Icon was bilt as a smooth draw bow the idler wheel and the cam are the same size and the pivet point on the cam was dead center so when drawing it it feels 10-14lbs lighter than what it realy was It was a true EZ draw Smoother than the new EZ-7 But was not a super fast bow but still fast enought to take juast about anything you can think of ... their are some that say that was a bow mathews never should have stoped making ... I agree I had 3 of them and LOVED them

Might add that they were very dead in the hand and did not have to add a bunch of stuff on the string for silencing and such.. longest shot I have seen with my owne eyes was with a Icon 175 Yards on a 15' poler bear target at a fun shoot the guy hit the 10 ring wich was 18" around

Gentlemen, thanks very much for your replies. cooperjd your advice is exactly the same as mine and I will be taking him to my local club and pro shop later this week. He is about my size so if he measures up I would let him try my bow (Switchback)
500mag thanks for the personal feedback on the Icon. I too thought it was a bit pricey but had no idea what they cost originally.
Peter.

Peter,
I was just checking archerytalk.com, and a guy had a mathews icon for sale for 210. i have an outback that i will be selling after my best friend finally buys a bow and gives me my outback back, and from what i've seen a lot of those older mathews go for 250-350, depending on accessories.

Thansk cooperjd. he will have to discover hos draw length first but I will pass the info. on.
Peter.