Kodiak Hunter

[brmize]

I was kicking around starting to focus my collecting on the Kodiak Hunter. After watching e-bay for awhile it seems as if they are not all that sought after. Am I imagining things or was it perhaps not up to "Kodiak Standards"? It seems to have had a realatively short production run. I curently have a 73' and I really like the way it shoots, I will probably go ahead and focus on them anyway I was just curious about the seeming lack of intrest in what seems to me a nice bow.

Thanks,
Brian

[Horney Toad]

Hard to say why some bows are more collectable than others. In my opinion, the most collectable bows from Bear where the late 50s and early 60s Kodiak bows. The later super kodiaks and the early wood takedowns were also high on the list. Many of the early 60's kodiaks were made of rosewood, and some of bubinga.  

The kodiak hunters were made I believe from 1967 to 1978 and there are a lot of them around still. I have seen some hunters in near new condition. The Hunters are definately a nice bow with a good design. The beefy riser adds nice mass and is a stable design. I like the 1970 to 1972 models with the laminated riser a lot as well as the later green ones like you have. The later ones had stained futurewood overlays and were nice.

I think they are not as collectable due to not being rare, and not having exotic woods. They are up to par with the kodiaks IMO as far as being quality shooters, if not moreso. I'd much rather shoot a kodiak hunter than shoot a 59 kodiak and worry about it blowing up! Enjoy shooting your nice Hunter.

[Precurve]

Maybe someone with more knowledge than myself could clarify this for me, but it's my understanding that the Kodiak Hunter was Bill Stewart's bow design from the short time he worked for Bear.  I agree the K. Hunter is a great shooter.

[brmize]

Thanks for the info guys.

Brian

[TonyW]

Not that it matters, but Jon Voight used a Kodiak Hunter in Deliverance. He strings it with one hand, swims with it, throws it on the rocks (ouch!), climbs a cliff with it, and then breaks it.
I just decided to refinish a '69 Kodiak Hunter that had yellow varnish and a shattered glass look to the finish and was pleased to discover that a day of careful sanding with 320 grit dry sandpaper and 600 wet and dry took away the yellow, the checks on the limbs, and the other "stress" and makes it look like it just came out of the factory. I found that the dry sanding helped, even with wet and dry, because you see the white dust of the old finish, not the green of the glass, or the silkscreens, or the wbrown of the riser wood. I am going to spray polyurethane, but does anyone recoomend spar varnish instead?