posted
Looking at the previous posts, I would be guilty of babying my bows. Normally, the day a bow leaves my possession, it looks the same as when I received it.
-------------------- "Instinctive archery is all about possibilities. Mechanist archery is all about alternatives. " Dean Torges Posts: 1654 | From: Hugo, Oklahoma | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Some interesting answers. As I said I don't baby mine when out and about, but I do at the range. Now, if it came down to me or the bow when falling crossing a stream...you bet the bows gonna get used as a walking stick or thrown.
-Mack
-------------------- -Mack Posts: 105 | From: Orange, California | Registered: Feb 2010
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Always good to hear when someone else watches Fred's adventures with such a close eye. Lots of little things stand out to me while watching and you bring up one of them. I am like others: I don't abuse them by throwing them around but I sure don't baby them.
Interesting question though about Fred bringing a back up bow on his trips. He was very specific about how he liked his shooting shelf shaped. Can't imagine he went across the world without a back up but I sure don't know.
-------------------- Thanks Dad for taking me shooting all those years ago...I miss you every day.
Proud to be a Native TEXAN!!!!!
"TGMM Family of the Bow" Posts: 4566 | From: Middletown Maryland | Registered: Mar 2009
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To me, being too careful with a bow reminds me of the guy I knew who bought a new four-wheel-drive and then wouldn't take it to the woods for fear he'd scratch it.
I'm rough on them. I have weak legs and a limp from polio as a small child, and I hunt mostly with a longbow because it makes a much better walking stick than a recurve. I drop them out of trees, toss them up steep hills ahead of me, use them for hooks, wading staffs, and just about any other abuse you can imagine. I've never had a bow fail because of it, although I have ruined a few strings. The only bow I take better care of in the woods is my Dean Torges longbow. It's just too pretty to abuse, and it's the only bow I really have feelings for. Most of my others have been painted camo. I appreciate my bows, but not to the point that I let it slow me down in the field.
I always take a backup, with spare strings and arrows, on a hunting trip. I'm sure Fred did the same.
-------------------- Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.- Ben Franklin Posts: 2390 | From: New Albany, MS | Registered: Jul 2008
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I hunt hard and I’m hard on my equipment but I try to take care of it so it will last. While hunting I’m not thinking about the bow but afterwards I will clean it up.
Posts: 214 | From: Texas | Registered: Dec 2009
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My guess is Fred was putting the bow through some trials for the camera.
I`m sure he wasn`t worried about the cost. He was a clever guy, and he was hoping others would notice the "abuse" his bows could take. After all, the videos were actually an advertisement that you actually WANTED to watch. Look, how after all these years, his "advertisements" are still in use. Clever guy.
I never abuse my bows, but they certainly get used.
Posts: 3247 | From: Michigan | Registered: Feb 2007
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I don't necessarily baby my equipment, but I do take care of everything I own. It's just the way I was brought up.
I learned very early not to use a butter knife as a screwdriver...I guess that's just stuck with me. Posts: 262 | From: Michigan | Registered: Aug 2007
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Don't forget that Fred was the chief field tester for his products. If he babied them he would not know what they could stand up to and the guys who bought them might be harder on them and he wanted to be sure they would take hard use. That being said, if you own the company, cost is not a big factor for you. It's all research/development and advertising expense. You can write off the costs. Posts: 2836 | From: Charleston, WV | Registered: Mar 2003
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I try to take the best care of my bows I can while still utilizing it to the best of my ability. Do I baby it? nope. Would I use it as a walking stick, or throw it around? Definitely not.
Posts: 213 | From: Texas | Registered: Jul 2008
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If I owned the company that made the bows I used, I doubt I'd give a second thought to how I used it. There'd always be another one ready to step up and take its place.Just my opinion and maybe Fred's too?
Anyway that's my take on Fred's mindset.. and I doubt anyone can prove it to be a wrong idea/thought..lol
God bless,Mudd
-------------------- Trying to make a difference Psalm 37:4 God's grace and love! Roy L "Mudd" Williams TGMM- Family Of The Bow Archery isn't something I do, it's who I am! Posts: 9829 | From: Mid-Missouri | Registered: Mar 2003
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Just shooting a bow is approaching abuse of the materials. Dan Quillian used to say that a bow is 90% broken at full draw. If they won't hold up to a little walking stick use or tossing around, they would never make it while being used for their intended function. A scratch here and there doesn't hurt them, unless you buy to resell. I don't.
Reminds me of pulling into Big Pine club in south GA one day, to find Dan standing behind his van and examining his longbow. He had leaned it against the back of the van, and forgot it when he got ready to go to town. He had backed up and run right over it. It was undamaged, still strung. That's tough! Dan was a bow abuser, too- guess that's where I picked up the habit. The day I met him, before he moved his business from his house to a real store, he had a jumbled pile, literally, of longbows and recurves, both strung and unstrung, on the living room floor in front of his fireplace. I was looking for a takedown recurve for flying out west to elk hunt, but he handed me a Bamboo Longhunter to try, and I took it home with me. I still have it, even after all these years of my abuse. A good bow can take it.
-------------------- Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.- Ben Franklin Posts: 2390 | From: New Albany, MS | Registered: Jul 2008
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I missed a really, really, big buck in Montana one day! I bet I threw that bow as far as that deer ran! I know, I know, it's the Indian not the DANG BOW!!!!LOL!
-------------------- "The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." Posts: 305 | From: Thomasville Georgia | Registered: Aug 2007
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Tacky thing to do, regardless of how many you own. My $.02
-------------------- "...there are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, it's melancholy, and its charm." Theodore Roosevelt
Find me at ShareTheBounty Posts: 1652 | From: Santa Rosa, California | Registered: Dec 2008
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