What if I told you you could have a compound bow that shoots over 320 fps, has several flagship features, shoots tight groups at 50 yards, and costs less than $600?
You’d say I’m crazy, right?
Meet the Bear Adapt 2 HP, which was launched in August 2025, just in time for the fall hunting seasons. This latest collaboration between the iconic Bear Archery and the popular, run-and-gun guys from The Hunting Public is a screaming fast, no-nonsense bow that outperforms its price tag by a mile.
Could it be the best budget bow of the year? Let’s find out.
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Specs
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Bare Bow Price:
$550 -
Package Price:
$650 -
+ Package Price:
$850 -
Draw Weight:
45-60lbs or 55-70lbs -
Color:
Mossy Oak Bottomland or Throwback Green -
Draw Length:
27 to 32 inches -
Axle to Axle:
31 inches -
Let-Off:
80%
Make Sure You Buy the Right Bow
Before we dive into the features and functionality of the Bear Adapt 2 HP, we have to scold Bear Archery for the name of this bow, because it’s sure to confuse people. The Bear Adapt 2 HP that was just introduced this summer follows the Bear Adapt 2 that was introduced last year. The Adapt 2 also was a Hunting Public-branded bow, and that brand’s logo appears on the limbs of both the Adapt 2 and the Adapt 2 HP.
If consumers confuse the two bows, we understand why. In naming the bows, the only difference is the “HP” on this year’s bow, which is easy to miss. Why not give the bow a totally new name? Aside from the relationship with the Hunting Public guys and the fact that both bows are compounds, the Bear Adapt 2 and the Bear Adapt 2 HP are very different bows.
Cams and Tuning
Where the Adapt 2 was a single-cam bow that was nice to draw, but a bit weak on speed, the Adapt 2 HP is powered by a hybrid-cam system that’s screaming fast for a bow in this price range. Screaming fast as in 30 fps faster than the Adapt 2. Bear’s speed rating for the Adapt 2 is 320 fps, as compared to 330 fps for the Adapt 2 HP. However, when I tested last year’s bow it was well under the advertised speed.
The Adapt 2 HP is a 31-inch aluminum bow that weighs 4 pounds. It has a rotating module that allows draw length adjustments in half-inch increments from 27-32 inches. There are two options for draw weights, with one being 45-60 pounds and the other 55-70 pounds. The brace height is 6.5 inches and the speed rating is up to 330 fps. (I’ll tell you about my speed test results in just a bit.)
As mentioned earlier, the Adapt 2 HP is powered by a hybrid cam system, as compared to the single cam of the Adapt 2. The hybrid cam system is a cross between a single cam and a dual cam. It’s got some of the single cam’s smooth draw, but with the speed of a twin-cam bow.
I’m actually a big fan of hybrid-cam bows because of the pleasant draw cycle and decent arrow speed, but also because they’re pretty easy to tune. You do need a bow press to tune the Adapt 2 HP, but the process is a snap if you have access to a press.
As part of the hybrid system, the Adapt 2 HP has a split yoke that connects the top limbs to the bottom cam. Each half of the yoke attaches to the outside of each of the two top limbs. When paper tuning, if you get a left-right tear, all you do is press the bow and then add twists to one yoke, while removing the same number of twists from the other.
Let’s say you get a nock-right tear shooting through paper. You’d add a couple twists to the right yoke and then take that same number of twists out of the left. This causes the cam to lean right, which is how you fix a nock-right tear with this system. This is an old, tried-and-true system that has been in archery for decades. It works, and it’s easy to do as long as you have a press.
Accessory Mounting
Moving down the bow, Bear has included a bolt-on picatinny rail on the front of the riser for mounting a sight. It has the standard threaded holes on the side for mounting standard sights as well. And it has a machined dovetail on the back of the riser for attaching an Integrate Mounting System – IMS – arrow rest. There also are two Berger holes for mounting a standard rest. The pic rail and the IMS dovetail allow for a streamlined bow setup by removing typical side-mounted accessories.
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Accessory Packages
As they often do, Bear has put together two different packages of accessories that allow the buyer to fully rig their Adapt 2 HP for the field. They’re Trophy Ridge products, which is under the same umbrella company as Bear, so there are some savings built in if you buy the kit, as opposed to buying each part independently.
The RTH package includes a Whisker Biscuit V rest, Trophy Ridge 4-pin picatinny sight, Trophy Ridge 5-arrow quiver, Trophy Ridge 6-inch stabilizer, wrist sling, peep sight, and D-loop. This package adds $100 to your Bear Adapt 2 HP bow price.
The RTH Plus package features some better accessories, including the Trophy Ridge SWFT Duo sight, Trophy Ridge VRSA 5-arrow quiver, and 6-inch Trophy Ridge Hitman stabilizer with sling and quick disconnect, in addition to the Whisker Biscuit V rest, peep sight, and D-loop. This package adds $300 to the Adapt 2 HP bow price. Just for reference, the sight alone sells for $230.
No, none of the accessories from either package are considered high end, but they’re not junk, either. They do what they’re intended to do. And this is where Bear Archery is really flexing their muscles today. A Bear Adapt 2 HP with the RTH Plus package can be bought for $849. That’s a fully-rigged compound bow, ready to hit the field.
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Testing the Bear Adapt 2 HP
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A 50 yard group shot during testing. -
The author’s “fist sized” groups at 50 yards. -
Testing the Bear Adapt 2 HP
For my review, I borrowed a 55-70-pound Bear Adapt 2 HP with the RTH Plus package from Lancaster Archery Supply. After building the bow with the Trophy Ridge accessories, I headed to the range. Two shots through paper showed a slight nock-right tear, so I went to the bow press, put half a twist in the right yoke, and took a half twist out of the left. The next shot through paper was a perfect bullet hole. The tuning process took all of about 5 minutes.
Speed
Next, I went to the Garmin Xero C1 chronograph. The bow was set to a 30-inch draw length, and a handheld scale showed the weight was 70.6 pounds. The test arrow was an Easton Sonic 6.0 that weighed exactly 350 grains. The parameters Bear would have used for deriving the bow’s 330 fps speed rating would have been 70-pound draw weight, 30-inch draw length, shooting a 350-grain arrow. So we nearly matched those specifications.
My speed test produced a reading through the Garmin chronograph of 325 fps. So we were just 5 fps off the rating. In my book, that’s a good result. With last year’s Bear Adapt 2, I got 294.8 fps, matched to Bear’s rating of 320 fps. That’s why I said this year’s bow gained 30 fps over last year’s. That’s a huge gain in performance. And 325 fps for a bow that costs under $600 is insane.
Shooting Experience
But how does it shoot?
The draw cycle on the Adapt 2 HP is noticeably stiffer than that of the Adapt 2. That’s 100 percent expected, given that Bear switched from a single-cam system to a hybrid cam. But while the new bow’s draw is stiffer, that doesn’t mean it’s harsh. It’s not. It just takes a little more effort to get the cams moving.
The cam rollover into the valley is noticeable, though not abrupt. And the valley is deep, which is critical for bowhunters – like the Hunting Public guys – who might have to hold at full draw for a bit before a clear shot is offered. The back wall is a bit soft compared to flagship bows, but as long as you keep pulling into it, you can hold steady at full draw.
At the shot, you can feel a slight thump in your hand. It’s subtle, but it’s there. After five or six shots, I didn’t really notice it again.
There is some noise from the bow at the shot, but I would say it’s a quiet bow before I’d say it’s a loud bow. Are there quieter bows on the market? Yes. But again, the noise isn’t problematic.
Whenever bowhunters today complain about the noise produced by current compound bows, I think back to the Browning, High Country, and Golden Eagle bows I started hunting with in the 1990s. I killed a lot of whitetails with those bows and they were infinitely louder than anything on the market today.
Accuracy
For me, the true test of a bow’s performance is seeing how well I can shoot it at 50 yards. That distance is longer than any shot I’d expect to take at a whitetail, and longer than most shots I’d expect to take at any other big game. Does it hold on my aiming spot well? Do my arrows hit behind the pin? How tight are my arrow groups? If the results of all those tests are positive, then the bow does everything I need it to do in the field.
The Adapt 2 HP performed well on the range. It was a bit windy the day I shot it, but it aimed well at the elk target I was shooting at. My arrows hit consistently behind my sight pin, and the groups were one-hand tight at 50 yards. That is, I could get one hand around all of my arrows in the target. And again, this was with a completely rigged bow that sells for $849.
Final Thoughts
Like many things in life, how much you want to spend on archery equipment is a personal choice. I like to play golf, but my full set of clubs cost $300, while there are individual clubs that cost more than that. I don’t want to invest that kind of money in golf clubs.
Flagship compound bows from the big manufacturers are fast approaching $2,000. Not everyone wants to pay that price. So then the question becomes – Can a bowhunter be successful with a $549 bow? A bow that costs $849 fully rigged?
When it comes to the Bear Adapt 2 HP, the answer is yes. It tuned to the same perfection I’d demand from any flagship bow, and it performed to a level where I’d feel not just comfortable, but confident, carrying it into the woods to hunt big game.
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