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Is there such a thing as the ideal hunting bow? That depends a great deal on who you ask. Some bowhunters demand extremes. They insist on an ultra-short bow or the fastest bow possible (no matter what), or they’re willing to forsake everything else for a smooth draw and a quiet, shock-free shot.

Fortunately, bowhunters today don’t have to necessarily go to extremes to get a bow that delivers a fair measure of everything they want.

A perfect, current example of such a bow is the Diamond Marquis. At 34.5 inches from axle to axle, the Marquis is neither too long nor too short. Its 7-inch brace height blends a forgiving nature with excellent arrow speed. The Marquis’ Pinnacle5 single-cam system draws with a wonderful smoothness, while the bow’s adjustable draw stop delivers a rock-solid back wall. On the performance side, in addition to very good speed, the Marquis is amazingly quiet and vibration-free at the shot.

The new-for-2008 Diamond Marquis is a bow that offers a surpassing amount. I found it difficult to uncover anything that has been sacrificed to design and produce this bow. It has an artfully machined aluminum riser with a superb accuracy-oriented grip, a noise- and vibration-dampening parallel limb configuration, fast cams that are also astonishingly smooth, quiet and shock-free and a trend-setting Roller Guard/ShortStop String Suppressor System that catches the bowstring to absorb string vibration.

The Diamond Marquis is the complete package.

Is the Marquis the ideal hunting bow? A lot of bowhunters might well argue that yes it is, because the Marquis rolls so much good and so little bad (like an overly harsh draw or a loud shot) into its makeup.

How it Shoots

This is a bow that I kept coming back to. In fact, the Diamond Marquis shot so well for me that I found myself using it as something of a standard against which I measured other test bows.

My compatibility with any bow tends to begin with the grip, and the Marquis’ grip is wonderfully designed. It’s thin-throated to reduce torque and constructed to encourage the archer’s bowhand to position itself as high up and close to the arrow as possible. Grip design and positioning seem to significantly contribute to the Marquis’ easy aiming and shooting ways.

For such a fast bow (see the accompanying Arrow Speed chart), the Diamond Marquis draws with a welcome smoothness. The draw weight increases evenly and letoff occurs as a smooth and gentle reduction. One of the things I really liked about the Marquis is its adjustable draw-stop peg. That movable draw stop, located on the lower cam, can be used to conveniently micro-tune the bow’s back wall. I adjusted the peg to get it just right for me and thereafter enjoyed a rock-solid, customized wall that boosted my shooting confidence and accuracy.

As is typical of first-rate single-cam eccentric systems with quality bowstrings, the Marquis proved a snap to tune and deadly accurate for as long as I shot it.

Beyond the smooth draw, solid wall and consistent accuracy, the Marquis was also a genuine standout in terms of a lack of shot noise and vibration. In truth, no bow this fast should be this quiet and this free of shock. I have to admit that my very first impression of the bow’s Roller Guard/ShortStop String Suppressor System wasn’t entirely positive. It’s center-mounted and seemed, well, a bit bulky. But after just a few preliminary shots with the Marquis, some with very light arrows, I was sold. This new cable guard and string suppressor combination works like a charm, and the result is a bow that is astonishingly quiet and shock-free.

Smooth-drawing, fast, easy-to-tune, deadly accurate, quiet and vibration-free––that’s exactly how most bowhunters would define an ideal hunting bow. From what I can tell, the 2008 Diamond Marquis is a strong candidate for that title.

Key Features and Benefits

Pinnacle5 Single-Cam System

The 2008 Diamond Marquis is equipped with a state-of-the-art single-cam eccentric system known as the Pinnacle5. It’s an over-sized system that delivers an easy-tuning nature, a smooth draw and excellent arrow speed. It also features interchangeable modules for convenient draw-length adjustments (no bow press required) and an adjustable draw-stop peg. That peg serves up a very solid back wall and the ability to adjust the exact location of the wall to custom fit any shooter.

Vertical Force Technology

“Vertical Force Technology” is the Diamond Archery term for an advanced parallel-limb bow configuration. With such a configuration, the bow’s limbs essentially parallel each other when the bow is at full draw. Upon release, the upper limb rebounds upward while the lower limb rebounds downward, thereby effectively canceling each other out and significantly reducing the bow’s shot vibration.

Roller Guard/ShortStop String Suppressor System

Mounted just above the arrow rest, the Marquis’ inventive cable-guard system combines a compact roller guard and a string suppressor bumper into one unit. The roller guard captures and tensions the cables, minimizes cable friction, prolongs cable life and dampens cable slap. The ShortStop String Suppressor catches the bowstring, centers it and absorbs residual string vibration. The combination significantly dampens the bow at the shot.

Accuracy-Oriented Grip Area

The grip area on the Diamond Marquis is one of the best in the archery industry. It’s been specifically designed to reduce both horizontal and vertical shot torque. The grip itself is small-throated to reduce horizontal shooting torque. It’s also sculpted so that your bowhand rides high up into the grip. In addition, the bow’s rest-mounting holes are quite low, and a trough has been machined into the bow’s shelf so that your arrow and your bowhand are safely positioned as close together as possible. That positioning reduces vertical shooting torque and significantly enhances the natural way this bow aims and shoots.

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