Archery gear can be expensive. Specially when you don’t what to look for. Or when you don’t get the right advice. That said, prices have gone down significantly, and archery is more accessible than ever. Every so often, I get surprised by bows that are hitting above their weight class. Priced at the entry level but having features that are above it. The Stark Futura is one of these surprising bows.
Bows, specifically ILF risers, come in different models and classes fit for most people out there. There is an ILF riser for everyone. The price of a given bow can help determine the level of use it can handle. This is in part because cheaper bows tend to be made of cheaper materials or are manufactured using more cost-effective mass production methods. In entry level bows, you will see materials like aluminum, magnesium and sometimes wood. You will also hear manufacturing and finishing processes like diecast metal and paint finishing. On the other end of the spectrum, in the mid to high end, you here terms like 6063-t6 aluminum, CNC machining and anodized finishes. These terms you will usually only see in spec sheets for high end, more expensive bows. Enter the Stark Futura!
The Futura 25 inch ILF Riser made of CNC machined extrusion 6063 Aluminum. Lightweight by modern ILF riser standards at only 1090g. It comes in many matt anodized color variations. More color options than most bows do in fact. Now for the more experienced archers, do these specs sound like an entry level bow to you? These are surprising features for a bow at this price point. Like all modern ILF bows, it has the standard tiller bolt and lateral limb adjustments with big grub screws I might add. Again, something you don’t often find in entry level bows. Rare on mid-level bows even. It also has the standard mid, top, and bottom stabilizer mounts. It uses a plastic Win and Win style mid height grip which does a great job at promoting proper grip position.
Being a CNC machined riser albeit from extruded aluminum, the Stark Futura is much stronger and stiffer than cast metal risers that dominate its price range. You can feel the difference when drawing back the bow. It feels solid. No perceivable flex. And unlike many bows of its class, you can feel a more efficient transfer of power from the limbs, to the string, to the arrow. Most bows at this price range are made of die cast aluminum or magnesium which is structurally far weaker than extruded and CNC machined metal. This means the Futura can be setup with higher speed, higher poundage limbs beyond the 36-to-40-pound limit most entry level ILF bows have. This also makes this bow a good option for taller archers. These features make the Futura a great long-term bow.
When talking about less expensive bows, you will almost always see painted finishes on them. It is a less expensive process when on a basic level after all. The Futura though has an anodized finish giving it a more premium look and feel. Anodized finishes are more scratch resistant and will age better as well. I love how the bow looks. Sleek and modern yet kinda timeless. I love how narrow it is. Exposed limb pockets to me makes it look edgy. The slim profile also give the bow a really nice sight window. A really nice bow to look at.
The Stark Futura feels really nice to shoot. Solid and quick with a good amount of feedback. I spent a couple of minutes tuning and the bow already shot like a champ. I didn’t have to fiddle with the limb alignment at all. The tiller bold was so long that I felt I have so much more room to adjust. Far more than the typical 10% we see in most ILF bows. Unlike many cheaper bows, because of the large grub screws, each adjustment I made felt secure. No play at all. And things felt properly locked down. As they should. The riser itself is very lightweight. I feel kids would have no trouble learning to shoot with this bow. More experienced shooters will need to add a lot of weights to get the feel that they like. Like I said earlier, shots felt solid. Vibrations were very minimal. Even with the basic tune I gave it, the bow shot quietly. Even in barebow.
The Futura is not without faults. Although I love how long the limb bolts are, I could be wrong, but it looks like it is made of aluminum. The top is a little hollowed out although it has a plastic washer covering it. I would prefer solid stainless steel but, it won’t even be an issue to 90% of the archers out there. Even less for the market this bow is targeting. Though the grip was fine, it was clearly made of cheaper plastic which is expected of risers at this level. Out of the entire bow, the grip is the only part that looked cheap. Nothing a little grip tape won’t fix though.
This bow would be great for new archers who want to take the sport seriously and want to invest in a riser that is reasonably priced yet will last them the length of their career. In computer terms, the riser is like the CPU. It is the core of the entire system. It is the platform on which you build the whole rig around. The limbs of the bow are like the graphics card. Under normal circumstances, it would make no sense to pair a super powerful graphics card with a cheap CPU. But every once and a while, we get cheap processors the are so good that they can keep up with the best GPU’s and avoid CPU bottlenecks. Like a Ryzen 3 3300x. Entry to mid-range CPU’s that are powerful enough to handle powerful GPU’s. The Start Futura is like that. It is right on the top end of the entry level bow line up, but it is strong enough to handle any pair of limbs out there. If you are starting out in the sport and you want a riser that you will not need to upgrade for a long time if at all, the Start Futura is a great choice for you. At the moment, this is the best bang for your buck bow.
