THE GRINCH - Hoyt AX2 Bowbuild. Box to Bustin Nocks in No Time!

Christmas came early. Soon as this bow came out of the box, the Grinch. It just is written all over it. This combination is so freaking awesome. This is an AX2. I'm really pumped to get this model. And honestly, this wasn't a model I wanted first because I really wanted this model to take to the tax. I shot the Alpha X 33 last year when I got my very first Hoyt bows. And I love the Alpha X 33. Love that bow. But then once I got the prototype RX9 Ultra, that one went into hibernation. And I was like, I've got to get back to the Alpha series because it's so stable. It's got a little bit more weight, but man, was it freaking accurate. And there's some awesome upgrades to the Alpha X2s. Has a new cam system. If you're looking at the new Hoyts, has the newer cam system. So the module is going to give me a little bit more adjustment and it's also going to give me more refined speed in my drawing setting. And if you're shorter than my drawing, your speed gains are going to also be noticeable. So just to give you a quick look at this guy, I'm not going to do a classic bow build where we go through every single detail, but I did want to give you a few few things or a few little things that are little standouts and little noticeable things for me when I went and set up my Hoyts for the first time. And little details that I really like. So I thought prior to the build, I wanted to just show you a few little early setup things that I pay attention to that I really like when it comes to the Hoyt engineers. These guys are target archers first, some of them, and hunters second. And then there's another whole batch of them where they're hunters first and target archers second. And the combination of that, just the details, the difference is always in the details. So I've mounted a rest here. This is actually a rest that we're going to be bringing to the market real soon here with a project I did with QAD and developing a slightly different cut launcher modified. But what I love about this rest, if you ever mount one of the QADs on there is, and especially any of the direct mount systems. So this is mounted directly to the back, not to the side. The side mount ones are still really nice, but also they're in a different pricing category and don't have the micro adjustment. So when I first mounted this, what's really cool about Hoyt is they'll just give you a small little line right here to where when you first mount it up and you do your internal mount up block, you've got a little hash right there. So you can align QADs line with that hash. And I think if you've ever watched any of my builds in the past, you kind of have heard me talk about my orientation of my rest pre-build, pre-setup. Because I like to have adjustment in my rest up and down, for sure, for micro tuning. But you also, you're shooting for a 90 degree arrow position so you can start that 90 degree anywhere up or down in relation to the burger button hole. And that affects how close or how far away your arrow shaft is to the riser shelf. But it also, if that arrow's at 90 degrees, it's relative to your pulling position. So the lower down that begins, the lower down your pulling position is. So what I found as a target archer, your pulling position has a tremendous effect on the natural aim of that bow. And for some bows, they like a pulling position closer to a grip position. Some bows like a pulling position a little bit further away from your grip position because this is essentially the pivot point of the bow when it's at full draw. And so this little hash mark is pre-setting that rest position where I like my arrow shaft to be sitting at that 90 degrees when the bow's at rest. And all the way back to some of my very first Hoyt builds, and I'm sure you've watched, you'll notice that where I talk about that position being, that little hash mark gets you there without having to think about all that. So that is a detail. I love it. And honestly, once you tighten that down, then you'll just put on this outer piece. That's like a double locking system, that's the wrong size, that'll fully secure that thing down on the riser. So I really, really like that. Now, the next thing that I'm gonna talk about is you've got the Picatinny rail right here in the front for mounting your sight. This is awesome. So this year new, the Knock-On Boonie, Spot Hog's Boonie sight is awesome. If you were a Fast Eddie fan, which I'm still a Fast Eddie fan for anything that's mounting directly on the side, I really liked our NE version because it was a little bit more compact. I actually like my sight a little bit closer to the riser, but this is a super awesome system that is so dang repeatable. And I'm just gonna show you, for me, there are three options here. So you can put it high, medium, or low. And if you're in the field and you have a sight where you don't have the ability to make those adjustments, then I guess put it wherever it suits you. However, on a Spot Hog, we can move this to multiple hole locations on the front. You can move your whole front cartridge system here up or down on the rail. So what I would recommend is just putting that thing right in the middle position, just like that, and securing it down. So super easy, and it just streamlines this whole thing. And honestly, when you have a quality sight and a riser that has that high of quality connection points like this, it is just so repeatable if you ever did have to take that off and put it back down. But just to give you a rough look right here, this is just rest and sight mounted up, but super easy. And now we're gonna go ahead and kind of get this thing going for knocking points and D loops. What I will say is this year, I've probably done maybe a dozen bows now, just trying through the line and working on friends, new Hoyts and stuff like that. And I personally have six of those bows that I've shot, the new factory strings and cables. And they have been awesome. I wanna use on the Grinch setup, I'm actually gonna start out with one of our Sonic KEs. I just love the diversity of this shaft, if I'm honest with you, because this shaft is a very light shaft, but it's also a six millimeter. I'm gonna use this bow mainly for my target archery stuff. So I'm not gonna be shooting a lighted knock. The H size on the six millimeter is a very, very awesome factory knock from Easton. And I've tried so many dang knocks, but I just like, I'm gonna use this bow indoors to begin with, then it's gonna be moving outdoors. So six millimeters is gonna give me a little bit bigger shaft diameter for some of my indoor rounds. And this is still really easy to pull. So, and you've got the option of 50 or 75 grains in the front of this thing. And then depending on what type of point you wanna put in the front of it, you've got so many options. And the other thing I really like about a Sonic choice, for most people, these are a little bit more budget friendly as an arrow, people that go and shoot the tacks know that you're gonna go through some arrows, that's just part of the game. And then this is gonna be a bow that I spend probably half my year with. So I know I'm gonna go through some arrows as well. I really like the hex. This year at knock on, we're gonna be introducing a couple of different new arrows to the line, but we're gonna be introducing those in bear shafts because I think I've done such an awesome job teaching you about how to fletch your own arrows that now you can start playing with these different fletching diameter or fletching lengths, fletching cuts. This is probably one of my all time most historic used target vein and I'll use it as this for, but this is a little PM 2.0 shield cut size. I took my knock on wraps and cut them down on the little hash that actually is marked on all your knock on wraps. If you ever buy the wraps, you'll see the little ticks. If you slice through those with a razor blade, it'll cut that excess vinyl off. And now you're left with this length, which is really, really good for this particular length arrow. Now, this is where I'm gonna start. I may end up changing over to an indoor large diameter carbon arrow, or I may end up changing over to more of like a 3D, traditional 3D type arrow as well. But one of the things, and I haven't even checked this, but one of the things that I can tell you about the Hoyt factory strings and cables is my, here she is right here, this whole beast. This thing is just riding dirty right here. It's actually got an arrow in the quiver from a buck I killed last night that I haven't even told any of you about. So that set of strings and cables are factory, but more importantly, the serving has never been changed. It is the factory serving. For me to go through a whole season like that, that is a very huge testament for me to make that statement. So let me see how this fit is. I haven't even tested it. Touch loose, if I'm fair. If I was in a hunting situation, I would probably re-serve that, if I'm honest. But in a target situation, I think it's pretty good. And this is an old arrow, so I'm not sure. But I'm gonna set this up with the factory center serving and I'm gonna give it a full run and see what happens. So we're gonna go through this build. You can watch me step-by-step in fast motion or whatever we're gonna do, but I'm gonna go ahead and rig this thing up and we'll give it a run through paper to grinch. I am excited about this build. Just to give you a quick look here, I used a brass knock and I'm just having this under the arrow just as a easy reference point. And I'll show you here in a minute once I put it in the press. So all I'm doing first is I'm holding my bow out and I'm gonna adjust this to where that arrow is right at 90 degrees, which to me looks like about right there. I could be wrong, but it's just my eye. See, and then I bang it. So now I've already moved it. That looks good. All right, so I put that little knock there as kind of a, just a little holding point. So now I can slide the arrow knock against there and now I can go ahead and tie my knocking points, which will be good. I'll tie the top one, remove that brass knock, set it to the side and make sure that my bow's at 90 degrees and, or the arrow's at 90 degrees to the bow. And then I'll go ahead and do the bottom one and finish off my D loop. For my target bows, I do use a slightly smaller peep. And I guess a couple of quick little tips. I tie my knocking points, check them, they're at 90 degrees. Went ahead and measured, get my peep. I'm six inches for the most part. For my peep height, depending on the actual length of the bow might be slightly different. For example, like on this Concept X right here, my peep is lower than what it would be on the hunting models because this is a longer axle to axle bow. So the string angle isn't as sharp at rest. So what I personally do is I actually put my peep in after I've done the knocking points. And the reason I do that is because I wanna be able to tie my D loop on once this peep has been positioned. So like right now you can see when I let this tension off the peep and it's probably gonna settle a little bit just because I haven't used this bow yet, but this thing's pointing the wrong direction. Sometimes it might be over here and you may have to put a turn in the string and when you do that, it's better to go ahead and put the twist in your string to get the peep pointing backwards, straight back. Get that done first and then that way, once you tie your D loop in there, if you would then have to put in twist to get your peep in the right position, then all that work you've put into making your D loop very snug and secure as you're tying it, then you're gonna have to start rolling it around the string and that loosens it. Honestly, it ends up, it's never as tight once you start doing that. So I really focus on this, like you can see right here, I did flip my peep around, but the peep is pointing the correct direction right now and I've got the pressure off of that. So now I can do my D loop or if you wanna, just to take precaution, depending on how you tie your peep, some people tie peeps differently than me and it can cause slight rotation in that string. I would do that first before your D loop, just bottom line, make sure your peep is in the right position, coming straight back, make sure it's in the correct orientation to your eye, then do your D loop. So we're almost there and I guess just quickly, I shoot a slightly smaller peep site for my target rigs because I'm not worried about being in a tree stand at low light, I'm not worried about being in a blind. Usually indoor target arenas are gonna be pretty well lit, unless you're in Europe and there's some real dodgy ones, but overall you should have good lighting and then outdoors, obviously you have very good lighting. So having the slightly smaller peep means you're minimizing what you're looking at so that when you have your front pin through a smaller hole, it forces you to get the pin or the housing, depending on how you shoot, it forces you to put that housing more in the dead center. So the smaller the circle, the more you kind of hone down your left and right, up and down orientation of the peep. So that's in a great little position right there. I'm gonna go ahead and tie it in, I'm gonna use black because I'm gonna just have a little bit of Grinch whiskers in the middle and the rest is gonna be black. I like it, I like it. Oh my gosh, come on out of there, sweet baby Ray. My little doinky D right there. Right now I'm gonna go with this, I may go to a long rod later. Still in debate on whether or not I need my go sticks in the range, but it's possible. But for right now, how's that thing look? Not up and down if you like it better. Oh yeah, just gotta move my sight over a little bit. I'm gonna check my center shot, give her a round through paper and if all's good, we are in the early stages of getting this AX2 in the range. Start right there, I think, that's pretty, see what that does. Nice thing about micro adjustment. People say, is it worth the money? For that 20 seconds you just watched, it's worth the money. Once you're in the right spot and you tighten that wrench down, game over, it doesn't matter anymore. You won't ever need it again, if all goes well. All right. By the way, add straps. Bought this at a TAC event, it's been pretty sweet. First arrow for you to see what. So here's my tune, I guess I should give you a quick look. So I did add one brass knock to the bottom, FYI. I've been having to do that personally at the 31 inch setting. So here's my spot and right there is my center shot for everybody. Is that a good angle? Can you see it? All right. Let's see how the Grinstold X is. Let's see what we got. Slightly low, slightly low. All right, that's a pretty easy one. It's actually not real bad. I'm gonna give her another one. The reason I say that is because one thing you gotta be careful of, friends, I'm just gonna do this the easy way. Put on this stabilizer with full weight on the back. I'm not a huge, big weight on the back kind of guy. So I'm gonna lighten up that back rod anyway. But let's just see once I go down to a little bit less weight on the back, what we got. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. All right, so there you go. Little cause and effect lesson too. But I'm not a big rear weight person. I kind of put that stock on, but I could feel that rear weight. I can feel it turning a little bit more. Again, for me, this is a hybrid bow. This is gonna be part target. Honestly, if it wasn't this color, I'd hunt with it. I'll probably still hunt with it anyway in the winter. But this is gonna be so fun.