Before I bought my Martin Jaguar, I did a bunch of research on it and found mostly reviews by entry level archers. After having it for one day, it has become one of my favorite bows of all time. And this is from someone who has literally shot hundreds of bows from Bears to Borders, from selfbows to ILF, from short horsebows, Saluki's to long olympic rigs.

Every time I have taken it out to shoot since receiving the bow yesterday, I am punching out the two inch cardboard disc from various distances from 10 yards to 30 yards.

Tonight I just shot this two to three inch group of nine arrows from 17 yards and spiked a robinhood on the last shot. I started writing a review earlier today, so here is my opinion on this under rated bow that is usually recommended for the entry level archer.

But note that this is the Martin Jaguar Elite version that is ILF compatible and I did put some Border Hex 5 limbs on it! I'm sure that with some fiddling, the standard limbs can shoot nearly as good.

I know that to some, this might seem an incongruous match of Border limbs with a super reflex riser. People either love or hate the looks of the riser. I did, but have grown to really like the design.

I was looking for something out of the ordinary to mount my Border limbs on. I have always been a fan of the look of the Oneida eagle, and thought that the deeply relexed riser and the deep hooks might present an interesting combination that you don't ordinarily see on the range. I haven seen anyone with this combination before.

Having tried the Borders on various typical risers like the Hoyt excel, the Bernardini Mamba, rambo warf, I didn't get too excited about them, but this one is unusual to me. I like being different!

In research, many ILF enthusiasts said that the setback reflex of the riser would make shooting difficult and create torque. This did not happen. It shoots as smooth and torque free as any of my expensive and deflex ILF risers including a Bernardini Mamba Italian riser! In fact, I am shooting better with this combination than any of the many that I have been trying in the past few months.

This will be a review of the New Martin Elite that is ILF compatible. There is some confusion, because there is reference to the Martin Jaguar Pro which is ILF compatible, and to my understanding, the older elites might not have the dovetail cut. Martin simply enable use of ILF limbs by providing a dovetail machining into the support end of the riser.

Note that not all ILF dovetails are the same size, so while I was able to mount my Hoyt limbs on the riser, the Border ILF fittings were too tight, so in order to mount the Border limbs, I had to change out the ILF bushings.

The limbs slide easily into place, and the limb bolt cutout is the usual half engaged with enough clearance so no binding occurs with ILF turnouts.

You can see the little shoulder provided for the stock Martin non iLF bolt down limbs.

The Limb bolt on the Martin riser is oversized and not the usual 5/16 but a full size 3/8". This means that no brass ILF buhing sleeve is required.

The provided bolts are not very long, and the threading into the riser is not very deep, so only three turnouts from all the way down is recommended with the original bolts. Long bolts could provide more I am sure. The Limb bolt has about 1/2 inch of unthreaded surface so even turned down all the way, the ILF limb is not too snug.

My setup currently is with three turns out.

The new elite version of the Jaguar is cut out and much lighter than the solid version one. I was very pleased and surprised at how light this riser is. Lighter than my Hoyt Excel. It's solidly built, but the Blackout finish looks like it can chip easily. They either dip it or spray after machining, and I had to clean out the threading for the plunger rest, and use the bolts to clean the threads on the limb bolt holes as they would not go easily in at first.

Martin does not provide ILF limbs with this riser. The riser has edges on the limb bracket that Martin limbs fit tightly into. I tried a few shots with the provided Martin limbs and string before going on to set up with a couple of ILF limbs. Fairly noisy with the Martin limbs and string with no silencers. Martin does provide some foam pads to mount on the limbs, I guess to quiet the noise, but never got to that. The limbs are a little longer than the Sage limbs, but more curve. The sage limbs are interchangeable into the riser pad.So I am pretty sure that the majority of bolt on limbs will fit also, such as the Polaris, OMP, great tree, Ragim, etc

Here is is setup with the Border Hex 5 wood core limbs. They are rated at 38 pounds on a 25 inch riser, making a 68 inch bow, so these are mediums limbs. This riser is 19 inches with 14 inch bolt to bolt. I haven't measured the limb pad angles, but fairly deflexed. The limbs are gaining about 4 pounds with the three turns out, making about a 42 pound bow (at 28") The standard setup with the provided Martin limbs is 64 inches AMO with the provided 60 inch string. The ILF setup with the medium limbs is strung with a 57 inch string and at 6.75 inch brace. Typically on these types of risers, a low brace because of the deep reflex design.

I was a little concerned using the Border limbs because they recommend a low brace for longer string contact, but all seems fine at these angles and I can feel the "cam" kick in at the end of the draw. Very smooth limbs and throws the arrows with authority even at this weight.

The riser is way cut past center, so I was able to shoot without any adjustments quite a variety of arrow sizes from 1712's to 2312's and some 5575 gold tips. All seemed to fly good and accurately.

The shelf is very radiused, so it could be shot off the shelf, but the rest would have to be built out because of the extreme cut past center, or a second plunger hole drilled near the shelf.

Remember, this is basically a recycled compound riser made to fit recurve limbs. Nothing new in the world of archery. It's been here for quite while before WARFs.

Good review Randal. I haven't had a chance to shoot one of those but will keep my eye out for one at Denton Hill.

Here's a closeup of the riser. There is a cushion rubber grip that is pretty comfortable, and a hole drilled for a sling. There are two holes for a sight, but no holes for a bow quiver. Very little vibration after shot.

The grip is fairly low and center looks to be the rest/plunger hole. When strung the riser looks almost asymmetrical but I measured the tiller and the limbs are balanced. Just the design of the riser I guess.

All in all, I am totally happy with the setup. Balances nicely in the hand, shoots great, comfortable to carry and hold, very quiet not only for an ILF setup but compared to many of my single piece bows, looks great (to my liking), unusual, and shoots great.

I had it mounted with my Hoyt Talon extra short ILF limbs before I mounted the Borders. That made a neat 56 inch AMO bow using a 52 inch string! That was a smooth shooter too, and I might get a matching riser just to get that setup again.

I have 1 of these mounted with cartel fiber medium limbs. This riser is LIGHT!!! Within 30 minutes of recieving the riser i had it set up and shooting. ZERO hand shock. Very impressed, and this riser is way underrated for what it is. For $79 off ebay this riser blows away every other ilf riser i have ever owned, and theres been several. I am set up shooting off the shelf after a lil experimenting. To shoot off the shelf it needs to be built up 0.385. I used a bolt and plastic washer setup with velcro over the bolt head. I also added tennis racket tape to make the grip a lil thicker to my liking. And will be in the woods sat. Morning with this setup, wish me luck.

Just picked up one of these and planning on trying it out with my Blackmax carbons when it arrives and replacing my Hoyt Excel.

Have wanted to try one since it was released but needing to buy the complete bow package at the time put me off. With the riser now being offered on its own figured its time to give it a whirl.

Question for you: does it balance top or bottom heavy ?

The old Jaguar (despite its thumb chaffing grip) had a satisfying downward tilt when shot even without a stabilizer or weights.

Nice review, well-written, succinct and informative.

Another question, you mentioned yours came with the untreaded area on the bolt .. any of the standalone risers I've seen on fleabay seem to have the fully treaded bolt (including the one I ordered!). Will this be a major issue ? Do you reckon I can get a collar perhaps ?

Mine came with fully threaded, and a longer set of bolts with a nonthreaded area.

I have been shooting mine with TT #40 limbs. I cant say enough good things about it. Great riser for the money.

Does anyone use these with longer draw lengths? I am 30in. Thanks for the feedback.

Long limbs will make a 62" bow.

Did Larry design the riser? I thought he mentioned somewhere he did at least the original jaguar.

Mine arrived !

First off the balance - its awesome!!! Martin really nailed it on the head and it drops down like a target bow rather than back towards your head and thats without any additional weights (just like the original jaguar). Thankfully they got rid of that nasty thumb-knuckle busting shelf.

Its a REALLY REALLY LIGHT riser - and I mean feather light. Lighter than the majority of wooden risers out there - I'd say around 3 or 4oz less than a Samick sage riser and maybe 8-10oz less than my Hoyt Excel (which is already a light bow). Now that I think of it the steel limb bolts probably make up 1/4 of the weight!

The grip is insanely comfortable, I have a real problem with grips being too wide / high / low, positioning etc ...They always need lots of modification. The Jaguar looked quite low, too low but actually its higher than it looks in photos due to the way the bow tilts and it really plants itself firmly against your palm while being slim avoids torquing. The added holes for a wrist sling are a nice touch too.

With my #35 Tradtech Carbon longs its pulling I'd guess around 42-44 with the bolts all the way in (I did not get the unthreaded bolts included)

With Tradtech Medium #25's its pulling around #32-#33 and smooth as heck up to a 28" draw. I'll be picking up some #25 longs and use this as an indoor target bow I reckon.

I got mine as a package (Ebay) and it came with the insanely short 52" bow fishing limbs.They didn't lie about the quick stacking "feature" in the brochure. They are genuinely only good up to around a 26" draw length, beyond that and the stacking hits like a brick wall, maybe it works for fishing ?

I'd never intended using them myself anyhow and they'd be fine for kids and those with really short draw lengths as up to 26" they are really smooth.

All in all - the Jaguar elite is probably the best value ILF riser out there currently and IMHO 100% a better at its job out of the box the 21" Hoyt excel which needs ALOT of weight down bottom to just get it balancing right and costs 3 times as much! (Yes I was one of those people).

Seems kinda crazy that there is that much good to say about a $70 riser

Now its time to sell that Excel hehe.

Just an amendment to the original review by HighValleyRanch.

I'm 99.9% sure the Jaguar Elite is not a recycled compound bow riser like the original Jaguar and was actually designed from scratch AS a recurve.

I saw it mentioned in an interview article somewhere.

My ONLY gripe is that its not available in LH

HIGH VALLEY, Thank you so much for this review! I just got on the Leatherwall to ask everyone if they have tried to put on ILF limbs on an Elite Jaguar riser. I just bought 2 of these bows off ebay for a great price with my son in mind. He loves his new bow. But I needed to know if upgradded limbs were available. Now I know the answer. Thank you very much for the great review.

Lancer

@ky_hunter

My Wife's eyes could have killed when she handled it and I had to break it to her that there's no lefty version. There not much in the way of reasonably priced, light and small left hand bows. Never mind ILF ones :(

Its even lighter than her LH 15" Tradtech Onyx which thankfully we got a sweet deal on secondhand.

@Lancer

If you got your bows with only the single threaded bolts included in the kit and you are using ILF limbs don't wind them out any further than a single turn - they are really quite short.

Has anyone got a actual weight with the trad tech limbs to see where they come in weight wise comepaired to the factory limbs. Thanks Greg

My old tradtechs hit right on the money

My measurements with one turn out @28"

#35 Blackmax Carbon Long = #41 #40 Tradtech Wood Medium= #43 #40 Tradtech Wood Short = #44 #25 Tradtech Medium = #31

Increase of about #2 across the board with the bolt wound in fully. I'd have to guess that the pad angle is increasing / decreasing the weight more substantially than on other risers - on my Excel theres only about #2+- variation across 6 turns and With the same limbs they hit exactly at the right weight at the midway mark.

I only have the threaded bolts though and I'm honestly not brave enough to go further than one turn out as they are really really short bolts with only around 1/2" going into the riser with just one turn out.

With maybe 3 turns out, I'd guess the limbs would get to the rated poundage or close to it.

So far though I'm loving it - its a darn FAST little bow.

I have been using a 10 strand string. The shot seems a little more quiet with that string. I find the bow to be very easy to tune arrows for also.

+1 GLangley one of the easiest bows I've had the pleasure of tuning.

I'm using a 14 strand with a couple of felt furniture pads and no string silencers - for an ILF bow its very dang quiet.

Will try it with a 12 strand maybe once my string supplies get here for comparison

The bow drop feels freaking great - definitely a keeper.

For reference some slo-mo video :D

Ook video did not show up that time

Hi can you show how you modified the ILF bushings for your jaguar elite so that the border limbs would fit.

I bumped this back to the top to see if any others had added ILF limbs to this setup. I like the bow how it is stock, just wondering if there was more to get out of it. Looking for possible 55# ILF set up for hunting with this bow.

Question for you guys. I just received my Jaguar Elite. The limb bolts provided seem to small. They actuall drop into the riser a 1/4 inch before thread contact. They are 2 inches long with nearly a half inch non threaded. In the package with the limb bolts are two washers for each side and a nut that on the manual shows to go into a hole in the riser for the limb bolts. Of course the Elite riser does not have a hole for the nut. The instructions look like they are for the Martin Takedown and make no mention of the Jaguar Elite. My guess is that I have received the wrong bolts for the Elite riser. Any suggestions? I want to make sure I get the proper bolts. I have a call into Martin but no response yet.

Can you post a pic of what you have? Mine came with a set of long bolts for ilf limbs and a set of short for bolt on limbs. I didnt have any problem. Also id like to add, sage limbs fit the riser perfectly.

The bolts in the photo are the only ones in the box. They actually drop into the threaded hole in the riser about a 1/4 inch without having to screw them in. They bottom out before the limb fits to the riser without tightening. For sure too small or the riser taps are wrong.

Those r definately the wrong bolts. Send me a pm with your email addy and ill send you a pic of my riser bolts.

Those are "normal" riser bolts. The elite takes larger bolts which i do not know that exact size, but ill help where i can.

I purchased by bow from Bowhunting Outlet and contacted them about the wrong bolts. They promptly contacted Martin and have received conformation that Martin is sending me the correct limb bolts. Good customer service.

Glad to hear

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