Sanlida Eagle X9

Sanlida Eagle X9

I picked up this new Eagle X9 from Sanlida, started shooting it for a bit, about 2 weeks, and then bam, I threw out a disc in my back. I highly recommend never throwing your back out, it is not a fun experience. I was down for about 3 weeks and finally able to come back to this bow and figure out if I like this one or not, first impression, wow is it a nice piece of art. When I opened it up I said out loud "oooh, would ya look at that!" The wood grain is beautiful on this one. I was a little concerned my eyes might become distracted by the grain pattern (like they do when I'm holding the Southwest Tiger bow). Fortunately the patter swirls enough my eyes are not drawn to it while I'm aiming.

According to Sanlida, this is a hunting bow. It comes in a kit with six 500 spine arrows fletched with turkey feather vanes, a full arm guard, stringer, and a 3 finger glove. I like the glove so that is going to be my backup glove when my current one dies. The graphics on the limbs are black, something I criticized Sanlida over is their need to color up the limbs, well, with this bow the writing is black, on black limbs. Looks nice, I like it a lot. The riser measures 17 inches and it feels like a nice solid riser, it has a rather full fitting handle, small hands will have a little trouble holding on to this one comfortably, but I could be wrong.

The bow has a draw strength of 40 lbs at 28 inches. At my draw, it pulls 55 lbs. This bow is loud out of the box, I added fur to the string and felt to the limbs and it was nearly quiet. I shot this bow for a half hour before realizing I had yet to listen to the bow itself. Before silencing, it was very noticeable and not what I expected out of a hunting bow.

After shooting this for 2 weeks, then having a 3 week break due to my back, I went back to this bow to shoot more and decide if I like it or not. The bow shoot straight, but there is something lacking in this bow that I just couldn’t quite figure out. That was until I shot through the chronograph, it seemed like this bow really underperformed, I don't know, maybe I was expecting better results. But be as it may, here is the fastest shots I got with different spine arrows.

300 spine - 175 fps
400 spine - 186 fps
500 spine - 156 fps
600 spine - 196 fps

I was a bit surprised the 400 and the 600 spine arrows shot as slow as they did. Usually they are flying, but with this bow, not so much. I'm torn with this bow, it is big and hefty but not what I was expecting. It's beautiful, shoots straight, but doesn't have the umph I want. It will go on my wall and it’s one I won’t mind sharing and letting others use. It also seems that the less I like a bow, the shorter my reviews are. There is nothing much about this bow that gets me excited, after shooting it, I was disappointed. My shots were consistent and I hit my intended shots many times. it just wasn’t as fun as I was hoping it would be.

I guess one of the questions I should ask myself is “Would I take this bow hunting?” Probably not. If I had to pick among the bows I have reviewed so far, the Tatar horse bow is in the lead for the bow I'd use to hunt with. Surprised? But Mike, you have a nice compound bow. Well, it’s not a surprise to me, it is smaller, lighter, and packs a punch. Also, I shoot recurve bows most of the time, I am not that good with the compound and it is not the bow I reach for when I want to go out and loose a few arrows.

Lucky for me, this isn't the only advertised hunting bow I will be shooting and there is another I'm really looking forward to pulling out of the case and nocking a few arrows.