The “X” bows were introduced by PSE in 2006 with 9-inch split limbs, a new modular X cam, sorne innovative and perhaps complex adjustable features, plus new and strategically located dampening devices scattered about the bow. The first of the breed was called the “Mach X.” In 2007 the “X” une was expanded to three bows and the NRG-X cam was offered as an option. For 2008, if my count is correct, the herd has proliferated to 12 bows that use the X-Force technology and carry the or “X-Force” designation as part of their names.
The X-Force Dream Season, with its 7-inch brace height, is a hunter-friendly, forgiving bow conceived, designed, and manufactured to complement PSE’s association with the Drury brothers’ television program. It has a nominal 33-inch axle-to-axle length that 1 measured between 32 3/8” and 321/2  inches, depending on the set draw force. Probably the first thing that someone would notice about this X-Force bow is the unusual amount of preload that has been cranked into the limbs. Measured roughly,   it  is in the neighborhood of 5 inches.
The handie for the Dream Season is fully machined of 6061- T6 aluminum alloy. It has an overall length of 241/2  inches and a usable sight window length of 8 1/2 inches. The sight window is cut  9/16 inch past centerline and an additional offset at the arrow pass of 1/ 4 inch provides for 13/16 inch fletching clearance at that point. The shelf has a smoothly rounded cross-section with an integral upswept guard section at its extremity. Overail it has a very pleasing shape—almost appearing as though it were scooped out. There are machined grooves on the shelf and the side sur- face of the arrow pass to indicate the centerline of the bow and the ideal elevation of the arrow aboye the shelf. These indicators aid greatly as starting points in setting up the Dream Season the first time. One of the features that 1 particularly like is the multi-position sight mounting accommodation that PSE includes on the offside of the upper riser. There are five drilled and tapped (10-24 UNF) holes spaced so that they offer three positions in which to mount a sight or other accessory.
The grip section of the handle consists primarily of the base metal with narrow inserts of black elastic material bonded into sockets machined on both sides. These inserts add very little to the circumference so the neck of the grip is virtually solid metal without a covering. Frankly, I’m not fond of bare metal grips, but I did find this one quite comfortable and easily adaptable to my hand. There is a single hole (tapped  5/16-24 UNF) for cushion plunger or rest mounting located 9/16 inch aboye the shelf. PSE has also included provisions for mounting a bow quiver near the ends of the risers.
The cable guard isa short, dog-legged 3/8-inch-diameter rod located at the top of the arrow pass and mounted in a hole in the belly side of the riser at that point. It is secured by a socket-head bolt that is accessible from the sight window. The guard rod carnes a multi-fingered vibration damper forward of the Teflon slide, and it has one of the PSE mini-dampers threaded into the end.
The Hypersplit limb pockets that are used to mount the split limbs on the Dream Season are machined from aluminum alloy. They are pivoted at the very ends of the risers in lined semi-cylindnical grooves.
The unit has a separate pocket for each of the two elements that compose the limb set. A hard fiber overlay protects the limb halves from abrasion on the face side where they contact the limb pocket. These overlays are attacked by small socket-head bolts that engage the base slots and thread into the structure of the limb pocket. The bolts provide lateral and longitudinal fixity for the Iimb elements. Lateral positioning of the Iimb elements at the outer ends of the pocket slots is created by stiff elastomeric inserts on each side of the limb. These inserts hold the element firmly in place and insulate it from contact with the Iimb pocket. The split limb system for the Dream Season is composed of four identical  elements machined from Gordon Power-Tuff. Each 12-inch lement is 3/4-inch wide with parallel sides. The thickness tapers uniformly from the butt to a point about 2 inches inboard of the tip where it sweeps up to 9/16 inch to provide for the axle holes. At the extreme end of each Iimb element a socket-head bolt attaches one of PSE’s mini-vibration units that also aides to keep the tip from splitting at the axle holes. These anti-vibration units plus the essentially vertical and opposed action of the limbs are very effective in keeping vibration and shock to a minimum, While the amount of preload in the limbs may appear to be unusual to the experienced eye, Dave Kronengold, PSE’s chief engineer, assures me that they have gone welI beyond that amount in their development program.

The HF Hybrid Fast Cam was developed for the 2008 X-Bows. It uses the same modules as the NRO Hybrid Cam. The HF Hybrid features multipost string length settings that allow plus or minus 3/8-inch draw length adjustment. These posts are on the upper cam. Letoff adjustment is provided on the lower cam by positioning the draw stop in the appropriate location. Five sets of holes, each clearly marked for 65- or 70-percent letoff, permit the draw length to be set to match the draw length module selected. The HF Hybrid cam system employs a yoked buss cable to anchor on the upper Iimb tips. The control cam (upper) has two tracks, one for the shooting string, and the other that uses an interchangeable module, for the control cable. The lower cam has three tracks, one for the shooting string, one with a module for the buss or power cable, and a third small integral track to pay out the control cable to the cable track on the upper control cam. Both cams are equipped with sealed anti-friction bearings. To aid in tuning, each cam is marked with a white painted timing mark that can be aligned with the cable to assure that optimum timing for the cams is set. Five module sets are used to provide draw lengths from 27 to 31 inches.
The rigging for the Dream Season consists of a 60.875-inch- long BCY 8125 shooting string, a 34.13-inch BCY 450 Plus buss cable, and a 36.875-inch 450 Plus control cable. The string carries two weight assemblies of five nocksets each positioned about 2 inches inboard of the cams to control string oscillation.
The Dream Season is offered in draw weights of 50, 60, 70, and 80 pounds. The finish on Iimbs and handle is Mossy Oak New Break Up camouflage.

The Tests

The bow 1 had for testing was rated for 60-pounds draw weight. It arrived from the factory with a module set for 29 inches draw length installed. 1 substituted 30-inch draw length modules to conform to standard test configuration. The interchange was made without the need for a bow press. Set at 60 pounds draw weight the brace height measured exactly 7 inches; however the bottom of the valley occurred at 30  3/16 inches. This is within the 1/4-inch tolerance stablished by ASTM Standard F1544-04, however 1 have always held the test draw length on my shooting machine to the exact draw length when performing test work. To design  and manufacture cam systems to control draw length to less than plus or minus 1/4-inch tolerance for all variations is asking a lot of a bow manufacturer, but it is a simple matter to control the test setup to precise dimensions. 1 feel that we obtain a better comparison among bows using this approach.
1 have tested bows for recent Bow Reports at uniform increments of draw length, so 1 decided to test the Dream Season at three uniform increments of draw weight: specifically 60, 55, and 50 pounds. This format reveals the consistency of the cam and bow design in maintaining performance as limb stress is reduced and other dimensional characteristics are altered.
Static tests are conducted using a force-draw machine equipped with a Mark 10 digital force gauge capable of reading to the nearest 0.1 pound. Force readings are taken at one-inch increments from brace height to just beyond the test draw length in order to define the valley and back wall of the force-draw curve when applicable, The area under the force-draw curve is integrated by elemental summation and then converted to foot-pounds to obtain the energy that is stored when the bow is drawn from brace height to full draw. Other pertinent measurements are also taken with the bow at brace height and at full draw. Comparative data from the static tests are tabulated in the first fine nine of Table 1.
Dropping the draw weight of the Dream Season had a minor effect on the brace height. The initial 5-pound reduction increased the brace height to 7 1/16  inches—hardly worth discussing. An additional 5-pound reduction increased it to 7 3/16 inches. However, these changes moved the bottom of the valley from 30 3/16 inches to 30 1/2 inches (at 55 pounds) and successively to 30 3/4 inches (at 50 pounds). Since 1 already had the string on the minus post for the 60- pound measurements, this had a undesirable effect on the holding weight and letofí as draw weight was reduced. The following table shows that effect:
Observe that the letoff at the bottom of the valley is within one-half percent of the value that the manufacturer promised. As draw weight was reduced and the draw length increased concurrently, the percent of Ietoff at the actual test draw leght was lowered. When you study the force-draw curves in Figure 1, it is readily apparent that the HF Hybrid cam system is decidedly aggressive. The draw force peaks early in the draw cycle, maintains the peak weight for 7 to 8 inches, and then moves easily into the letoff. To appreciate this one has only to review the very high values of stored energy per peak  draw force (S.E,/P.D,E) given in Table 1. When a bow gamers values of 1.465  . to 1.479 over this wide range of draw weight, it is in rare company.
While static hysteresis is only an indicator of high performance and not an objective guarantee, the Dream Season again managed to record sorne exceptional levels. In years of bow tests 1 have generally found static hysteresis to range frorn near 4 te 12 percent of stored energy, The Drearn Season delivered figures ranging frorn 3.90 to 4.06 percent over the 10-pound spread of adjustable draw weight. This can only be the result of considerable attention paid te free-running carns and a slider that operates with rninimum friction. As proof of this 1 observed very little tendency for the force gauge to stick or jump while running the force-draw curves. This is quite cornmon with compound bows and practically nonexistent with stick bows. When testing statically, this phenornenon is readily apparent en sensitive digital gauges.
Dynamic tests are conducted using a shooting machine and a double chronograph arrangernent. The standard chronograph, a Custorn Chronograph Model 1000, is positioned 3 feet downrange frorn the back of the bow at the arrow pass. The checking chronograph, a Custorn Speed Tach, is located irnmediately adjacent (downrange) te the standard unit. Seven test arrows, rang Over the 300-grain range of arrow weight included in our tests, Table 2 shows a loss of arrow velocity of 70 to 75 feet per second from the lightest to the heaviest arrow. This corresponds to a loss of dynamic efficiency of 4 to 4.5 percent with the greater loss at the higher draw weight. These figures should prove of sorne value when opting for lighterweight arrows to increase velocity, or heavier arrows to gain kinetic energy.
Figure 2 presents curves of initial arrow velocity versus arrow weight for the three draw weights tested at 30 inches draw length. Of particular note is the uniforrnity of spacing arnong the curves. 1 was irnpressed during these tests by the remarkably consistent performance delivered by the Dream Sea- son, Figure 3 shows curves of initial kinetic energy calculated frorn the results of the arrow velocity values and the arrow weight used. Again, the kinetic energy was plotted versus arrow weight. Kinetic energy is the energy possessed by an arrow as a result of its mass and velocity. With ah else equal, the penetration potential of an arrow is dependent upon its kinetic energy.
The Rating Velocity is a parameter developed by ATA to permit comparison of the perforrnance of bows using a standardized procedure. In accordance with ASTM Standard 1544-04, it is expressed as the initial velocities of two arrows, one weighing 360 grains and the second weighing 540 grains, shot frorn a bow set at 60 pounds peak or maxirnum draw weight, and 30 inches AMO draw Iength. The ASTM standard establishes specific methods, tolerances, and controis governing the tests. The standard calls for the Rating Velocities to be the average of five shots with the test arrows. The rnethod of determining the Rating Velocity that 1 have used for these Bow Reports consists in picking the initial velocities from the performance profile of the bow. The performance profile is the plot of initial arrow velocity versus arrow weight. It is established from tests of seven arrows and a total of 35 or more shots. The Bow Report method actually includes the tests prescribed by ASTM Standard 1544-04 so the results of both methods are available. It has become my practice to provide values determined by both methods. They seldom differ by as much as one foot per second.

Most notable about the tests of the Dream Season are the very high levels of dynamic efficiency achieved regardless of the draw weight. Even with 350- grain arrows 1 found leveis of 82 plus percent. At 650 grains the dynamic efficiency values were near or beyond 87 percent. This represents significant engineering achievement in compound design, and the engineers at PSE deserve  well-eamed plaudits for their efforts. This is the basis for the outstanding performance that this bow delivers.

General Commentary

At 30 inches draw length 1 measured the included string angle as 71 1/2 degrees. The cable clearance, measured from the inside of a 5/16-inch-diameter shaft set of centerline to the nearest cable was 11/16 inch. I installed an API Ultimate arrow rest for the tests and used it for all shooting. 1 used a laser tool for the initial lateral positioning of the arrow and found this location to be satisfactory for the entire selection of test arrows. As a matter of interest 1 noted that on the test bow 1 found the optimum alignment of the centerline of the rest to be slightly inside of the groove on the shelf.
PSE has added no major shock and vibration elements to the Dream Season. Instead there are the four mini-units on the tips of the limbs and one on the end of the cable guard rod, plus the large multi-fingered circular device near the center of the guard rod. These seem to do an excellent job of reducing vibration and hand shock, and they add minimal weight to the assembled bow. Complete except for arrow rest, the bow weighed just 4 pounds, 2.5 ounces. 1 found the bow to be quiet and passive when shot by hand,
1 was impressed by consistency with which the Dream Season repeated itself from shot to shot. Out of the 105 shots that 1 chronographed for the test, only four shots varied from the velocity pattern established for a particular arrow weight, and no variation was more than 1 foot per second. That is to say for every test arrow shot, only three of the 21 arrows did not repeat the same velocity reading for ah five shots. One arrow recorded two variations, and two arrows recorded one variation each. In no case did the variation exceed 1 foot per second.
The limb tips on the Dream Season move just 1 5/8 inches during the course of a full draw. This is for a bow set at 60 pounds and drawn to 30 inches. It’s just a bit more than that (about 0.050 to 0.060) for the lesser draw weights. Actuafly, the movement is slightly forward of vertical due to the pre-load of the limbs. One could speculate that the recovery theoretically and minimally opposes the impetus for hand shock. In any event, considering the levels of dynamic efficiency that this bow delivers, I’m going to have to rethink my thoughts about opposed action of the limbs affecting dynamic efficiency. It appears to have nothing but salubrious effects.
With the benefit of 7-inch brace height, the Dream Season, despite its outstanding performance, is not a difficult bow to shoot. 1 didn’t find it the least bit tricky. 1 predict it will be very popular as a hunting bow and equally well received for 3-D shooting. The notable level of consistency that 1 found during the tests should recommend it for accuracy and dependable performance.

Norb Mullaney