This is my long-term review of the MyBo Revolution, which I have shot for a couple of seasons.
TLDR;
The MyBo Revolution 37 is a well-engineered target bow that will not let you down on the shooting line, either in terms of performance or looks. It is beautifully finished and very adjustable, and is built to last. It is relatively easy to tune, and is both forgiving and accurate where it counts.
Read on for a more detailed review:
Technical Specification
Brace height: 7”
Axle to Axle: 37”
Cam Style: Yolked Cable Binary
Draw Length Adjustment:
27.25” to 31.25” (R cam)
25.75” to 28.5” (M Cam)
23.75” to 26.75 (S Cam)
ATA Speed: 320 – 325 fps
Mass Weight: 4.8 lb quoted
Let Off: 55% – 80% fully adjustable
Draw Weight: 40#, 50#, 60# – custom weights available in 5# increments
Introduction
MyBo is the brand name for Merlin Archery, and although they have been building bows since the 1970s, they have yet to find mass market acceptance. This is partly due to the influence of American Bow Manufacturers who, in a much bigger market, can afford to pay top archers to be seen with their equipment and branding through sponsorship.
I will confess I have a soft-spot for Merlin, mainly because my first compound bow was a Merlin Max 2000, an excellent bow for its time with which I achieved some really good scores.
The MyBo Revolution series is the third compound bow to be produced under the MyBo brand and is the flagship model. The other compound bows are the MyBo Origin, which I also owned at one point, and the MyBo Edge. The MyBo Revolution is also available in 40” and 34” versions, which are not reviewed here.
The Revolution 37 is a pure target bow and fits nicely into that niche. The 37” axle-to-axle is short enough to be reasonably quick while long enough to be stable. There are a lot of target bows in the 37” – 38” range that are very successful, and the Revolution 37 has to perform well in order to be successful against such broad competition.
Build
The first impression on handling the bow is of solidity. The bow riser is smooth and well-finished and comes in a variety of target colours (Titanium, Desert Sand, Graphite Black, Stormtrooper White, Charcoal Green, Ruby Red, Periwinkle, Lemon Zest, Glow Orange, and Sangria. There are also custom colours available for those seeking individuality. The finish is best described as matt anodised, though to me it has a satin texture. It is tough and the colours are vibrant. This is a bow that will be noticed.
The limbs are black and appear to have the logo and name printed on them, which should wear well. The Revolution name is also inscribed below the hand-grip. The bow is fitted with aluminium and stainless steel fittings, adding to the impression of an engineered product. The limb pockets are metal, rather than plastic, and the limbs are guided through a secondary slotted support – more on that later. There is a black cable guard rod with a slider which doesn’t flex.
The hand-grip is machined into the metal riser and is angled at about 15 degrees. The grip is quite narrow and smooth, and even though I have large hands it fits me well. Where the shelf meets the handle, there is a separate shelf which can be exchanged for a blanking plate if you don’t want the shelf to extend outwards. Mine has the extending shelf fitted.
The cams are equally solid and well-built. There has been a steady trend over the last few years of manufacturers using cut-outs to reduce the cam weight to a skeleton which has resulted in cams becoming more fragile. The Revolution cams have cut-outs but still look like you could jump up and down on the cams without damaging them. Everything on the bow is well fitted and looks like it ought to be there. It has clean lines and gives the overall impression of being a carefully engineered product that will last.
There was no manual with the bow, but a download of a PDF manual is available from the MyBo website which gives instructions on care and maintenance as well as adjustment and tuning. The manual is detailed and well-explained and specific to the bow, which is a refreshing change from manuals which claim to cover a range of products not very effectively. It contains the usual caveats and warnings, but also useful advice.
Design
The Revolution does not look like a radical bow. The riser is pleasantly curved deflex shape and the limbs curve out in a graceful arch without the pre-stressed limbs that you see in many modern target bows. It doesn’t have the bridged design of the earlier Merlin Excalibur and XS bows, opting for a simpler solid riser with caged cut-outs in a straightforward but elegant profile. All in all, it looks relatively conventional. The narrowest point of the handle lines up almost exactly with the furthest points of the limb pockets giving the bow and inherent resistance to hand-torque. The riser is just over 28” long overall.The Revolution has a number of innovations which make it an interesting bow to own and to shoot. Not least of these is the ability to change the modules without the use of a bow press. The modules (which are included with the bow) facilitate changes to draw length and overlap in sizes so that you do not end up at the bottom of one range and the top of another. I found I was topping out the module I had fitted, so I swapped to the next module up to give me some wiggle room. This was easily done with some Torx wrenches and a little patience.
Once the draw length is set you can set the let-off, which adjusts in 5% increments using a sliding system. This has allowed me to play with the let-off, gradually decreasing it until I had reached 65% and a nice stable shot. I’d tried 65% before on a Mathews bow but found it was all or nothing. The Revolution allowed me to sidle up to using more tension in the shot in a way that felt comfortable and normal.
As with all binary cam systems, once the timing is set you shouldn’t have to change it. I can confirm that after months of shooting the timing is consistent. There has been no excessive wear on any part of the string or cables and no sign of chaffing or friction in the system. The oversized axle-bearings operate smoothly and consistently.
And there are little touches that I really appreciate, such as small pads on the end of the limbs which reinforce the limb but also provide a convenient and safe point to fit into a bow-press, making the bow easy to work on. The fact that the bolts on the modules are accessible when the bow is pressed and not masked by the limbs, and are made of stainless steel so they won’t rust and look unsightly the first time the bow gets wet – it all speaks of forethought and consideration.
Shooting
There has been a trend in recent years to heavier and heavier bows which are then loaded out with more and more stabiliser weights, inspired to some extent by top archers such as Mike Schloesser, who works out in the gym to hold his rig.I’m over 60 and I don’t work out every day, so I have to accept that this option isn’t really suitable for me. And it’s not just about weight, but about balance. I have a 30” carbon stabiliser on the front and a short back bar – both with minimal weight and set perpendicular to the string. The entire rig weighs just over 7 lbs which is comfortable for me in the hand. The bow tips slightly forward on release and that’s how I like it.
This is not a dead-in-the-hand bow. I have shot Bowtech and Mathews bows which resonate much less in the hand and liked that feel. There is more vibration than either of those in the Revolution 37. What I have found, though, is that the bow talks to you. When it is not set up right it will fizz and buzz at you, until you go looking for the cause. Get it set up right and it twangs pleasantly in your hand, giving you active feedback on each shot. I’m not entirely sold on this, but I am getting used to it.
There are limb dampers that sit between the limbs and reduce the amount of vibration felt in the bow, and there is a string stop which MyBo recommend you set back from the string to allow the arrow to leave cleanly before the stop is reached. Some people may wish to remove this but I haven’t found it affects accuracy to a noticeable degree, and this also reduces vibration. Overall the bow has no more vibration than a PSE or Hoyt, and is well within acceptable limits.
In terms of sight marks, it holds up well, and being a target bow, speed is not the main objective. Accuracy is. The Revolution 37 is stable and reasonably forgiving platform. A bad shot is a bad shot, and there’s not much a bow can do to fix that, but I’ve got away with some things that other bows would not tolerate. That’s partly due to the shape, I think, which tends to resist torque to some extent.
I have found that I need to wrap the grip. I shoot outside most of the year and the metal handle is too cold for me to sustain winter shooting for any length of time. I used some cohesive bandage and that’s done the trick. It also cushions the handle to some extent. I may look at a custom grip if such a thing is available.
Tuning
Bow weight is adjustable via limb bolts – loosen two screws and wind the limb bolts in or out. Weight adjustment is limited to 15% of the maximum weight, so on my bow this is about 8lbs, which is plenty for me. Incidentally, I forgot to tighten my limb bolt set screws and one fell out somewhere in the grass on the shooting range. I contacted Merlin Archery and they sent me a new set of screws without charge within a few days, and I was able to get back to shooting by the next session.
My bow is rated as 60# on the limbs but on my digital scale it maxes out at 58.7lbs. This may be because my scale is wrong – I haven’t been able to calibrate it, so it may be off, but the difference doesn’t bother me as I shoot the bow at about 53# anyway, as shooting a 60# bow all day at my age is a recipe for ibuprofen. You may want to check the weight, though, if you decide to buy one.
Most of the adjustment screws on the Revolution are Torx screws, which having rounded out a hex bolt or two in my time is a great relief, as Torx are much more user-friendly. The draw length can be adjusted by loosening one screw and taking out another, and then sliding the module forward or back depending on the desired result. Note that adjusting the draw length may also require adjustment of the let-off, which is also done very simply with one screw and referenced to a table in the manual. Swapping modules is just as easy and does not require bow-press. The only thing you might need a bow press for is changing strings.
One small gripe – there are three Torx screws on the cam, but one of them holds the string post for the cable and loosening that will end in disaster. It would be nice if this were a different colour just to make it obvious that you leave that one alone. I have applied a black sharpie to mine to make it obvious.
The draw length can be changed in 1/4” increments which makes tuning draw length a breeze. I have had bows where the simplest thing to do was to lengthen or shorten the D-loop, which is a faff and difficult to get consistent. This system makes experimenting with slightly longer and shorter draw lengths a breeze, and the same is true of let-off, which change sin 5% increments, though as with many bows, increasing the let-off with lengthen the draw, and reducing the let-off will shorten the draw. I think the difference is about 1/8” per setting.
Cam Lean is controlled through a cable that is yolked from both sides of the cam, balancing pressure across the axle. There is a limb positioning system which allows you to angle the limbs slightly from left to right to compensate for cam-lean but I got the best tune from setting the limbs as close to the centre position as I could and then moving the arrow rest in very slightly. Using these settings I was able to shoot consistent bullet holes, and track the arrow out on the range to 50m in a smooth arc, demonstrating good arrow flight.
On the range I was able to shoot groups with a slight windage adjustment between distances. I could probably tune the windage adjustment out, but it might be at the cost of grouping and I prefer tighter groups to fewer sight tweaks. Sight marks are slightly below my other bows, both of which are shorter than the Revolution 37, but well within the range of my Shibuya CPX sight. There is only one position for sight mounting, but where there are two on my other bow, I have only ever used the lower one, so this is not an issue for me.
Most bows in this price bracket will shoot perfectly well when your form is good and you execute a good shot, and the Revolution 37 is no exception. However, when I am not shooting well, due to lack of practice, or poor fitness (I have back problems caused my an non archery-related injury) I have an impression that the Revolution 37 is more forgiving than my other bows, and therefore I choose to shoot with it. Maybe that means I get more practice with it, and am therefore more comfortable – it’s hard to say whether that’s an objective assessment. I do enjoy shooting it, though, and after all that is the objective.
Conclusion
The MyBo Revolution 37 is pitched as a flagship target bow and stands up well against comparative products from the well-known American bow manufacturers. It’s priced competitively against those products and is every bit as good, and in some ways better. It won’t suit everyone, but then no product does.
For those looking for a well-engineered competitive target bow that is reliable, consistent and accurate, the MyBo Revolution 37 should be on your short-list.
Category: Archery