Mathews ARC 34

The ARC 30 headlines Mathews' 2026 lineup alongside the ARC 34, and it is the fastest short hunting bow Mathews has built: 348 fps IBO from a 30-inch, sub-four-pound aluminum chassis. The SWX-2 cam adds Perimeter Weight Technology to keep felt recoil down once accessories go on, and Field & Stream chronographed 328 fps with a 350-grain arrow at 30 inches and 70 pounds — real speed, independently verified. Optional Z mods trade speed for a noticeably softer cycle. Community reception is more divided than a typical Mathews launch; an ArcheryTalk thread literally titled "Is the ARC really that bad??" captures the mood. Fans call it the most pleasant-drawing Switchweight Mathews yet, while detractors find the back wall aggressive and report shakier pin float than on a Hoyt AX-3, and $1,459 continues Mathews' steady price creep. Owner head-to-heads against the AX-3 29 usually give Mathews the draw feel and Hoyt the hold, quietness, and tuning system. Dealer-only distribution means no online discounts, but Switchweight mods (55–80 lb) and a 25–30.5-inch draw range make it easy to configure. For whitetail rigs where compactness and speed rule, it remains the benchmark.

Mathews' 2025 flagship is still on dealer racks, and now that the ARC series has replaced it, closeout pricing makes it the sleeper buy of this list — Scheels has it at $1,099, down from $1,299. On paper it's the athlete of the group: 3.99 lb bare, 348 fps IBO (the fastest-rated Mathews here), and a compact 29.5" ATA that's a treestand and blind favorite. Field & Stream measured it among the quietest bows they've tested at 67.5 dB and found it the most accurate bow in their test from 20–40 yards, and owners echo the dead-in-the-hand shot. The honest caveat is the draw: the SWX cam holds near max weight late in the cycle before dropping into a short valley, and ArcheryTalk draw-force-curve threads confirm it's more aggressive than the marketing suggests — the ARC exists partly to fix that. Limb Shift Technology handles cam-lean tuning with a wrench, no press, and the BOND grip is swappable if the stock feel isn't yours. If the price-per-performance math matters more than having the newest cam, this is the value play.

The Alliance is Bowtech's 2026 flagship and it won Best New Bow at the ATA Show — then Outdoor Life's test team scored it at the bottom of their seven-bow field (13.8 points), which tells you how split opinion is. The core idea is still Bowtech's best trick: DeadLock cams slide on the axle for press-free left/right tuning, now with bigger screws, finer clicks, and laser-etched reference marks that finally take the guesswork out, plus FlipDisc mods that flip between Comfort and Performance draw cycles. Fans (Archery Business, Born Hunting) call the Comfort setting silky smooth and say it's far more dead in the hand than the outgoing Proven; OL's testers hit it for a soft, spongy back wall and a thin, deep grip nobody liked — and at 280.5 fps it was the slowest bow they chrono'd. The truth is FlipDisc splits the personality: Comfort mode is soft everywhere, Performance mode firms the wall with the classic Bowtech dump. The adjustable GripLock angle helps some hands, and 4.09 lb is respectably light. A 33" Alliance 33 exists for stability-first shooters at the same $1,499.