GRAY ARCHERY AIX 2017

 

 

The GRAY AIX 2017 is the new riser from Gray Archery.  While not the most recognisable of names in the high-performance recurve market, I’m sure that this riser is here to change that.  This riser is a top end item, made to be the equal of any other handle that occupies the same space.  To do this the riser has been designed with some interesting features that are not availiable on its competitors.

 

As you pick up the riser, the first thing that you will notice is the asymmetric design of the bow.  This not only adds a very distinctive look to the riser, but also improves the static balance, something which is usually offset with the use of weight on the short rods. Gray Archery also claim that this helps to reduce net displacement of the nocking point by up to six times when compared to conventional risers. This is also the perfect time to mention that the riser  comes with various mounting points along its side for weights to fully customise the balance of this bow.

 

The next thing to take note of is the limb bolts.  Rather than having adjustable dowels or some movable blocks at the tips of the riser, the alignment system is based on a dowel located on the bolt itself. While nothing special on its own, what this allows for is the bolts to pivot. This means that it is possible to always have a perfect connection to the base of the limb, resulting in less stress on the limbs and better vibration transmitting qualities, no matter how wound out or wound in that the limbs are.

 

This has brought me perfectly to shot feeling.  When I shot this riser, I was using a set of fully wound out Long 40lb W&W INNO Ex-Primes with 51lb on the fingers (a common issue for long draw length archers), and a full set of HMC 22 stabilisers.  However as mentioned above despite having the limb bolts as far out as possible there was full connection with the limb thanks to the pivoting system and a floating limb bolt. What this meant was despite using a shorter bow than I would normally use and despite the high poundage and without a full tuning set up I expected the shock to be unbelievable, and it was, but not how I thought.  While the bow was aggressive in the after shot, the vibration feedback that I got was almost non-existent. This was one of the smoothest bows that I had ever shot. The real treat however was yet to come, in the form of the riser’s pivotal feature.

 

This feature is what Gray Archery calls the Dampbridge. This is a carbon fibre segment that is filled with vibration absorbent elastomer that can be bolted onto the back of the riser and adds a distinctive look, similar to that of other bridged risers. The change that this makes to the riser is dramatic. When I shot the bow with this simple addition, the feeling of the bow changed completely, which I’m sure is the intended idea.  When moving to full draw the riser was solid with no feeling of flex. After the shot the riser was much less aggressive in its’ want to jump out of the hand. Overall it was like shooting a completely different bow.

 

In terms of colours that are availiable the main riser body only comes, perhaps appropriately, in grey, but this is with good reason. Gray Archery say that this grey hard coat anodizing is abrasion resistant, corrosion resistant and has an increased surface hardness that will provide a long-lasting finish on the riser to keep it looking great well into the future. If you do want to customise the look of your riser though, the riser accessories come in six different colours, which are black, blue, red, silver, orange and purple.

 

In conclusion this riser is the equal of any other manufacturer.  For archers who are willing to have a try of the AIX, they will feel the quality and the craftmanship that has gone into this product. When purchasing the GRAY AIX you are essentially purchasing more than one handle. The adjustability of the design and the customisable nature means that you can set the bow up to feel exactly as you want it to.  If you are looking for a top end riser and are undecided about what to go with, then have a shoot of one of these and let that decision be made for you.