sanlida Dragon X8 RTH Compound Bow Package

Sorry in advance for the long review, but I am enjoying this bow and you may also.

Do not let the words “Beginner Package” in the ‘color’ selection dissuade you from purchasing this bow. This is a bow that is an extremely capable bow and can be used by a beginner to an advanced user. I do agree with the word “beginner” as this is a bow you can start out with and grow into and customize to your liking.

I had been looking for a decent and affordable bow for some time and read lots of reviews and watched lots of YouTube videos. All the compound bows meeting my criteria came in around $399 to $499 price range, some of them with dated technology as they have been on the market for years.

While at my local archery store, in their indoor archery range, I almost purchased one of those bows. Back at home I watched some more YouTube reviews and came across a couple showing the Dragon X8. At first, I was skeptical but watching several videos on YouTube and reading the Amazon reviews I was convinced, the Dragon X8 was the bow for me.

Now that I own it and have been shooting it for a while, I am glad I waited and purchased the Dragon X8 and saved over $200. It shoots every bit as nice as the bows twice the price. The only difference is the other bows have vibration dampening on the limbs and the string and the Dragon X8 has none, so the more expensive ones are slightly quieter. This can be easily fixed and is subjective. My bow with a cell phone in my shirt pocket tops out at 115dB. I added some TwistLox split limb dampeners that reduced it down to 110dB. Other archers near me said the bow sounded quiet to them, but I think I will add some string silencers to make it even quieter eliminating the sharp but short-lived ‘twang’ from the string.

Some things that make the Dragon X8 stand out; it has a dual yoke cam system to help prevent cam lean and the draw length and draw weight is easily adjustable. In addition, you do not need a bow press to work on the bow like swapping out the peep sight, add string silencers or other adjustments that can only be done without the bow under tension. Merely use the supplied hex wrench to adjust the limb tension down to nothing.

It is straightforward to assemble and install all the accessories, set the draw length, and draw weight. Note: you will need to download the instruction manual at SanlidaOutdor.com. If you have questions on how to tune the bow there are excellent videos by Sean’s Outdoor Adventures channel on YouTube that will help.

Comes with 5 pin sight that works quite well, a hostage arrow rest, D-loop, and peep sight already installed. Buy it for the bow and if you are just starting out in archery the accessories are a bonus and allow this bow to be usable out of the box. Well… almost, it does not come with arrows or a release so make sure to order those separately. They do provide hex wrenches for all the components of the bow.
This bow is a great platform to be customized to your needs.

Note: the sight illuminates, before you put the light onto the 5 pin sight you need to open the battery compartment and remove a clear plastic disc at the bottom of the battery holder that prevents the light from turning on during shipping.

If you are an archery veteran looking to upgrade to a modern high-performance split Limb dual cam compound bow; do not let the affordable price scare you off. Buy it and add on your high-performance accessories from your old bow to this one. You will be hard-pressed to find new or used bare-bones (no accessories) compound bow this good for the price.

For those of you concerned about customer service from a manufacturer based in China, they have been very responsive to my emails and questions on their product. The bow I received had an issue with the peep sight. Using the email provided on a customer satisfaction card that comes with the bow, I reached out to Sanlida Archery. I was informed that I received a bow with an early production peep sight that has since been updated, “… we have changed the peep sights for the future shipments…” Sanlida Archery was prompt and courteous in their responses to me and quickly resolved my peep sight issue to my satisfaction. From my experience with them, I would say they care about their customers and stand behind their product.

This bow was well worth the price, very easy to set up, and one of few you can back off tension and unstring without a press. And no, I am not with Sanlida Archery and they did not pay me for this review. Just wanted to share my experience on a product that has great value for the price.

Ok right off the bat this is an objective, unbiased opinion of the product.

I think for what you get it’s pretty great, but I found some of the components need upgrading – namely the rest. I am an intermediate archer who mainly shoots compound bows. I had to order one of these to see what it was all about for myself. I set the bow up using all of the components provided but I did not shoot the provided arrows because they won’t work for the poundage I shoot at (62 lbs). So here are my impressions for what it’s worth.

The bow itself is pretty great for 200.00 USD at the time of purchase. Draw length adjustment etc. was not too hard using the guide provided but mainly YouTube. I do find the cut-off allen wrench a little weird. Once I set my draw weight and length, and set the bow up/quick tune – I found the bow to be decently accurate, however the rest is a real weak point. At first I had random very high shots until I realized it was the culprit. I “upgraded” the rest with a normal whisker biscuit style rest that was more stable. I found the provided rest tended to move after a couple shots. Next the D-loop material was crap so that had to go. It frayed immediately so I just did not trust it, but quality D-loop material so cheap that it doesn’t really matter. The sight is just fine and works. Even removing the film from the batteries in the sight, I found the light was weak. Swapping out the batteries for fresh quality batteries brought the scope to life.

All these things are sort-of minor to be honest. My bow had no issues with cam timing or lean. The strings came decently waxed. The adjustability of the bow and the short 30” axle-to-axle (ATA) make this a great bow for a young person that can grow with it, provided they or somebody else can set the bow up properly.

Other things… I swapped both the peep and stabilizer for better ones I had laying around in my ever-growing archery junk collection. I also do not recommend the provided release. It works I guess… but I wouldn’t use it with the better ones I have. I gravitate toward a thumb release anyway.

To sum it up the core of this kit is very good for the money.

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