Centaur Carbon Elite review

Having heard and read some really good testimonials regarding Centaur bows, I looked into trying to order one.  I was a bit dismayed to find the waiting list for a custom longbow to be over a year.  Fortunately, I noticed the Centaur website had listed stock bows for sale.  I immediately contacted Jim Neaves, owner of Centaur Archery, and was placed on a short list for the next one being made.

A month later, I had a Carbon Elite in my hands.  When the bow was near completion, Jim called me up and asked me for some hand measurements so he could add custom finger grooves for a more comfortable grip.  I really did not expect that in a stock bow and it goes to show what kind of attention to detail Jim has for his customers and his devotion to crafting some of the finest bows available.  My Carbon Elite is 58" overall and is marked 47# @ 28".


- Riser -

According to the Centaur website, the stock Carbon Elite features a desert camo Dymondwood riser.  The riser overall is fairly small, measuring 16" from fade to fade and about 2-1/4" at the widest point back to belly and 1-1/4" wide side to side.  The Dymondwood forms a very attractive pattern of brown, black, and tan colors where the wood has been carved away for the throat, finger grooves, and sight window.  The grip portion of the riser appears to be built up out of multiple layers of Dymondwood oriented perpendicular to the lams in the riser itself.  Closer inspection reveals the grip section is bonded to the belly carbon fiber lam and then feathered out towards the fades.

Generous radius of the shelf and the lip that serves to keep my hand away from flying fletching

The other side of the riser

The shelf is cut to center and has a well-sculpted radius to minimize arrow contact.  It is sloped slightly towards the window to create a bias to keep the arrow on the shelf.  The grip laminations form the belly part of the shelf and sight window and gradually fade out at the top and bottom.  The sight window is approximately 2-3/4" tall from shelf to where the window goes back to the full width of the riser.  I do like the lip on the belly side above the grip.  It helps keep the web of my hand from riding up too close to the shelf and getting nicked by the fletching quills - not unlike that of a beavertail on a 1911 pistol preventing slide bite.  My Carbon Elite came with velcro pads already pre-applied and ready to shoot.

You can see how the lip keeps my hand webbing out of harm's way

One thing I must rave about is the grip.  As I had stated earlier, Jim had contacted me about hand measurements for tweaking the grip to my liking and putting in finger grooves.  I asked Jim for a medium-low wrist and to keep the grooves on the shallow side as I had never shot a bow with finger grooves before and was not sure how I would like them.  All fears were cast aside when I opened the box and picked up the bow for the first time.  The grip fit my hand like no other and the grooves lined up perfectly with my fingers.  I now see how finger grooves can help one get a solid, repeatable grip on a bow.  As I pick up the bow, I can feel the finger grooves guide my hand into place.  While drawing and holding at anchor, my fingers fall into the grooves with a relaxed grip and the palm swell evenly distributes the draw weight.  In other words, you know when your hand is in the proper place.  A big thank you to Jim for doing this unexpected extra for me at no additional charge.  In my mind, this puts the "stock" bow into the "custom" category since it is no longer "off-the-shelf".  How's that for customer service?

Note the slight slope of the shelf towards the riser to help keep arrows from falling off

The fingers grooves feel great and are aesthetically pleasing

- Limbs -

The Carbon Elite is Centaur's flagship model and differs from the Glass and Chimera by the back and belly laminations which are both carbon fiber in the Elite, back-only carbon in the Chimera, and glass-only in the Glass model.  A special XTL option is available, which stands for "eXtreme Torsional Lamination" according to the website.  This special lam is supposed to improve accuracy, strengthen the bow, and improve torsional stability.  The stock Carbon Elite lacks the XTL, but I doubt I would miss it being an archer of possibly above-average skill level.  However, being the gear nerd that I am, I would have liked having that lam in my bow just for the sake of having every possible performance enhancement.  Would it be worth waiting over a year?  Probably not.  I had enough issues waiting the 10 weeks for my Border Covert hunter.

Attractive matte epoxy finish over the woven carbon fiber backing

The core component of the limbs is action bamboo with Centaur's proprietary carbon fiber back and belly laminations specifically designed for tension and compression, respectively.  Aside from being engineered for specific jobs, the laminations look great with a nice woven carbon fiber finish on the back and a black finish on the belly.  The entire bow is covered in a matte epoxy that gives it a non-glare and weather resistant finish.  The limbs of the Carbon Elite are slim and the limb tips have a nice thick reinforcement that, according to Centaur, are specially engineered for light weight and high strength for modern high-performance strings.

Reinforced limb tips look plenty strong

Unbraced, the limbs have a recurved profile like many other modern reflex/deflex longbows.  When braced, the limbs are brought back to the familiar D-shape with a hint of reflex near the tips.  I surmise this bow would not be legal in classes where a "continuous-D" is required to qualify a bow as a "longbow", but since I don't compete in that class, I don't care!

A shot of the bow in its unbraced state.  Notice the recurved limbs

All together, the entire bow with string weighs in at a scant 1.1lbs.  That is absolutely feather weight!  I thought my scale was messing with me so I had to weigh it two more times to confirm it - 1.1lbs each time.  I sure would not mind hiking through the woods for an extended period with this bow.  Would be nice if my Ruger scout rifle was this light.  On second thought, maybe not.  I bet the recoil of a 1.1lb rifle chambered in .308 Win would be rather punishing to shoot....

Braced profile.  Pretty much a D shape with slight reflex near the tips

- Tuning -

The Carbon Elite comes with a Rhino string made by Rick Barbee and is outfitted with Navajo wool silencers and a brass nock locator pre-installed.  I ordered a spare string without the Navajo silencers so I could compare them with my usual Dyneema puffs.  I found the nock locator to be pretty close to my ideal, but resulted in a nock-high bareshaft test.  A quick adjustment with the nock pliers and a second locater under the nock left me with bareshafts flying like darts and grouping nicely with the fletched shafts.  The center serving was a little on the fatter side for my nocks, so I reserved with a thinner material and swapped out the crimp-on locators with tied-on variants to minimize string mass weight and eliminate any sharp areas that could cut my shooting glove.

In the end, I had the bow shooting Easton XX75 GameGetter 500s as well as I could get in my 10 yard in-home range.  The arrows are outfitted with a 125gr. point in the standard aluminum insert and have a 2-fletch right-helical orientation using 5" shield cut RW Gateway feathers.  The nock end is outfitted with the aluminum nock bushing instead of the crappy plastic ones the GameGetters usually come with.  Total arrow weight is 495gr. giving me 11 grains per pound, which is well above the listed minimum of 8GPP.  I have been using 2-fletch arrows since the beginning of 2014 and I really like them.  I use fewer feathers, take less time to fletch, arrows stack very nicely in a quiver, and are nock orientation agnostic.  I no longer buy two different colors of feathers and don't even care where the cock feather is.  Grab it, nock it, shoot it!

A couple of the arrows I shot with the Carbon Elite: GameGetter 500s

Bracing up the bow with the included string put me right at 6-3/4" brace height, which is the recommended minimum for a 58" bow.  I knew the string would likely stretch a little as it settled so I added 8 twists to start things off at just over 7".  During the tuning shots I did to set the nock point and to get a feel for the bow, the brace had settled down to 6-15/16" and settled further down to 6-3/4" after hanging on my bow rack overnight.  I worked up and down the brace range of 1" from 6-3/4" to 7-3/4" and found no significant difference in sound, so I left my final brace at 6-7/8" and called it good.  A quick check of tiller at the riser fades revealed a 1/8" positive tiller.  I usually set my ILF bows for even tiller due to my 3-under draw, but I've never had issues with bows set to positive tiller.

Shooting through the chronograph, I was averaging 178.1 FPS over a series of 5 shots.  For a longbow shooting 11GPP with a 27" draw, that is pretty impressive.  I was forced to shoot indoors at my in-home range since it has been rainy the past few days and I could not get outside.  I do my best with a number of bright lamps in the room to give the chronograph enough light, but sometimes it gets screwy from the compact fluorescent bulbs I use throughout the house.  I'll have to remember to take the chronograph with me when I go out for a range test.


- Shooting -

Herein lies the most fun part of the bow reviews.  I headed off to the local archery range with a quiver full of my GameGetter arrows and the Carbon Elite.  I started my session with a few ends at 10 yards to establish my sight picture and confirm my nocking point.  Afterwards, I shifted to the 20 yard bale and was able to keep the majority of my shots in the 4 ring of a NFAA 40cm target that was left there by the previous archer.  Not bad for a guy with above-average (hopefully) skill shooting a new bow.  Stepping back to 30 yards made my groups open up a bit.  I shot at a spot on a blank bale, but was certainly putting arrows into the 2 and 1 rings of a 40cm face.  Next up, I shot at 40 yards to establish my point-on distance, which usually is around 40 yards give or take with my other bows shooting lighter arrows.  As the bales got further and further and my target got smaller, I noticed I was getting more and more twitchy with holding my aim.  The scant weight of the bow certainly did not help with fighting muscle tremors, but then again, this is not meant to be a target bow.  There was little to no wind that day, but I am certain even a gentle cross breeze would have made it more challenging to stay on target with such a light bow.

There was a compound archer who soon left after I finished my 30 yard shooting.  I was having such a good time I figured, "Why not?" and stepped back to 100 yards where I would normally shoot my Olympic recurve for the 90m distance.  My point-on distance for this bow and arrow configuration was just a tad short of 35 yards with a 3-under anchor.  On my other bows, I know a split-finger anchor would give a point-on of 60 yards, and 2-over would get me out to 80 yards.  However, that is shooting a ILF recurve with carbon arrows nearly 100gr. lighter.  Thinking the heavier arrows and slower speed would require a high aim, I lined the bow's shelf up with the top edge of the bale and anchored with split-finger.  I watched as my arrow made its way down range and thought to myself, "That's not a bad trajectory.  At that rate it should hit the ba-".  Smack.  I heard the unmistakable sound of an arrow piercing a bag target and was utterly amazed I managed to hit the bale at all having never shot with this bow past 40 yards and just taken ownership of it in the past 24 hours.  Four more arrows in the end and the rest failed to find their mark on the bale, 3 having stopped short in the grass just in front and one off to the left which would have been a hit had I gotten the windage right.  Yup, the first was definitely a lucky shot.  I shot 4 more ends at 100 yards and only managed to get about half of the arrows to hit the bale.  I did flatten one field point by hitting the steel bracket supporting the bale.  No matter, I probably have another dozen or two extras somewhere in my archery tackle.

Since I had the range to myself, I thought I'd go for broke and backed myself way out as far as I dared go - 170 yards as determined by my laser rangefinder.  The bales all had a nice tall dirt berm behind them so I figured I'd likely not lose any arrows in this attempt.  Since I was using the shelf as my sight at 100 yards, I figured I'd just aim for the treetops and see what happened.  I chose a point on the tree behind the bale as my aiming point and set the tip of my arrow on it with a 3-under anchor.  First arrow was a total miss falling about 30 yards short and to the left.  Second arrow also hit the dirt, but slightly closer and the rest didn't fare much better.  I pulled the 4th arrow off to the right when I twitched at the loose and the 5th ended up behind the target when I overcompensated my aim.  I was determined to at least hit the bale once before packing it up and going home and it took me 4 more ends before I landed a solid hit on the bale.  At this point, I was practically raining down arrows like what you see in the movies.  I felt like I was aiming with a 40 degree upward incline and letting the arrows fall down onto the targets.  I could have almost nocked and shot a second arrow before the first one hit the ground!  Still, it was fun to try long range shooting and I was impressed at how far the aluminum arrow had penetrated into the target after traveling as far as it did.

The bow felt great to shoot despite the feathery 1.1lbs total mass weight.  No doubt the customized grip helped with that, allowing me to maintain a solid positive grasp even though it was fairly warm out under the afternoon sun and my bow hand was starting to sweat.  Shot reaction is quite "dead in hand" even with a relaxed grip.  The bow still does jump in your hand if you have a loose grip (what longbow doesn't?), but by no means does it feel harsh or shocky at all.  I think I loosed over 120 arrows that day at the range and I think I could have shot another hundred or two, but I would have gotten an earful from my wife if I had spent that much time playing.  Of course, I forgot to bring the chronograph when the weather was nice...

Hope you can see the digital display.  It reads 1.10 lbs

The draw of the bow is great - smooth with a predictable climb in draw weight.  My bow is marked 47# @ 28", which comes in to 44.8# at my 27" draw length.  That is one thing I really like about longbows over recurves is the steady, linear climb in weight over the entirety of the draw.  Recurves, particularly my Covert Hunter, have a stiff feel at the start of the draw where draw weight is greatest per inch, and then it smooths out significantly as one approaches anchor.  This is especially great for target shooters where they can predictably and reliably hit anchor each and every time and are not subject to awkward positions often encountered in the tree stand or ground blind.  Longbows are easier to hold at just about any point in the draw (at least in my opinion) because you can feel the steady rise in weight.  My purpose for the Centaur is both hunting and recreational shooting, which is what I do mostly.  I shoot for fun during the off-season as recreation and to keep up my skills for the hunt in the fall.

Quietness is always an important factor in a hunting bow.  As far as I am aware, nobody has ever complained of their bow being too quiet.  I am pleased to say the Carbon Elite is a quiet shooting bow.  Shooting 11GPP and sporting the spare string with the Dyneema puff silencers, the bow made a subdued thump on the shot.  No humming or buzzing - just a thump.  The thump seemed a bit higher pitched to my ears than many of the one-piece longbows I have shot over the years and a quick look at the bow would give away the reason: carbon.  Carbon has the ability to increase speed and stability in limbs, but it also has the tendency to impart a higher pitched, almost metallic sound to bows.  (I have confirmed this finding with bowyers on some archery forums)  Glass laminated bows tend to be lower pitched sounding, which to some ears, can seem quieter.  The one-piece bows I have owned and shot in the past have all been glass laminated without carbon, so it would seem fit to apply this theory to the Carbon Elite.  A compound archer shooting about 3 bales to my left confirmed the quietness of the bow when I asked while we were headed down range to retrieve arrows.  He remarked it seemed to his ears the arrows in flight sounded louder than the bow itself.  Good to know that about the Carbon Elite.  Now I need to go about quieting my arrows!


- Final Thoughts -

Being that archery is my main hobby, few things tickle me more than going out to the range with a shiny new toy and a quiver full of arrows.  In that same vein, few things disappoint me more than expecting a great range session and being met with a poorly performing bow, or one that does not live up to my expectations.  Fortunately, few bows have ever sent me home feeling disappointed and such bows are quickly and mercilessly sent to the used market for others with lesser expectations.  The Centaur Carbon Elite is definitely not such a bow and I left the range feeling quite pleased - especially having done as well as I did at 100 and 170 yards.

Jim offers bows ranging from 54" up to 62".  I chose a 58" bow specifically for its compactness for use in a ground blind or in thicker brush.  Despite the compact size, the draw was nice and smooth and the grip was just awesome.  In short, this bow is an absolute joy to shoot.  This bow is equally at home on the target range or in the tree stand.  While I haven't tried it in my ground blind, it is easily the shortest longbow I own and should fit inside without problems.

My make-shift bow stand: use two arrows and make a bow tripod

Being a stock bow, my Carbon Elite is fairly generic as far as what Jim has to offer.  His website lists a wide variety of woods and even a take-down option.  I would have liked a take-down model simply for the ability to break down the bow to half its length for transportation ease, but it does require tools and I would likely be just too lazy to do it.  That and it would have required the year long wait.  For a guy who is too lazy to even take down his ILF bows for transport to the range, a one-piece longbow is just fine for me.

If you have read this far, perhaps I may have whetted your appetite for one.  If so, why not pay a visit to Jim's website and see more about his offerings?  Or give the guy a call.  He is a friendly, down-to-Earth fellow who loves archery and really knows what he is talking about.

www.centaurarchery.com