Collecting...what sparked you to start?

[Drew]

For some reason, I've been thinking about collecting a few Bear bows to pass on to my sons..hopefully to ground them to their Michigan roots and family back ground in archery.

I guess, my interest starting always watching my Dad leave to go hunting with his '72 Grizzly, and the open end Quiver showing those Bear razor heads. My wife now uses that bow.

I was given a 67 Bear Cub by my Uncle that I'd like to run in arrow through a nice late season deer just to say I did it.

So why did you start colleting?

[Migra Bill]

I have hunted with compound equipment for years. Always thought in the back of my mind that it would be a great challenge to hunt traditional. I never did anything about mainly because I didn't know anyone else who did. Then I met Jim (Raineman on this site). He bought my house. I saw he had all these "wooden bows" on the wall. I asked him about it, and haven't looked back since. He's still my number 1 shootin' buddy.

[jcar315]

Great thread! Two part answer:

1. I remember as a young kid about 7 years old or so going to shoot with my Mom and Dad at some land we owned as a family. Just walking through the woods "stump shooting." Dad with a Bear Grizzly and my Mom with a Bear Tigercat (I think) and me with my little red Bear kids bow. I have a specific memory of climbing over downed trees with them while shooting. Great time!

2. My Dad passed away a few years ago and it occurred to me that his old Grizzly was rolling around the house somewhere. So I asked Mom if I could have it and she brought his old bow (with a spring arm Bear quiver) and I got some arrows for it. Shot it in the yard for a year than it dawned on me that there must be other bows out there and here I am today with a living room filled with bows and more on the way all the time it seems.

The only way I knew was **** until I came upon this site earlier this year. So thankful I found TG and all the great people I have met here. Everyone I have met has been great.

Last year was the first year of trad bowhunting only and had lots of misses and loved it! Switched to lefty this spring and can't wait for September.

Thanks for asking.

[TRAP]

A bow I purchased at a Trapper's Convention several years ago.  When I laid the $75.00 down I had no idea what I had.  

Turned out to be a 1962 Kodiak.  

I'd been shooting longbows and recurves since 1987.  I took the bow home, cleaned it up, made a string for it and after 2 or 3 shots I was hooked.  Here I had paid a minimal fee for a bow that was as good as any bow I could buy today and it had the "Mojo" already built in.

Soon thereafter I sold every modern recurve and longbow I had and started prowling for more Kodiaks.  

Trap

[SlowBowke]

I shouldn't post.

I sit here daily (and sometimes several times daily) shaking my head at the great things you all find and/or buy.

Not much of a "collector".. just flat don't have the funds to be one. Otherwise I see about a bow a day I'd be trying to buy.

If loving the old bows, bowmakers, workmanship and woods used then and the giddy feeling of finding some unused Bear heads or Micro-flites in a yard sale makes me a collector...I am one.

If my meager "collection" consisting of a 61 Hi-Speed, 64 Diablo, 64 K. Mag I'm looking to trade and matched 45 and 55 Shakespeare Root Brushmasters, AND ARRIVING TODAY A 68 Super K!!!, two dozen microflights 9 and 11s, Mohawk head, a couple of unused Razorheads, a couple of Herter's Farbenglass arrows as well as two MJ Logs......puts me somewhere on the bottom of the list of collectors here.....I will humbly concede.

However, trying to shorten the story, I just love the hunting equipment of decades gone by.

To be honest I actually feel it is (for what little I can afford to buy/swap for) linked to wishing for a simpler, less hectic time when the family was still speaking and some still with us, there were jobs to be had, and you could actually AFFORD a new bow that you knew was made by a handful of talented men, who's name you would probably recognize.

I'm not sure I COULD buy and collect bows I couldn't shoot, but understand the draw. There have been a couple that I found a way to buy and then sell, just so I could see, hold, and shoot one just once in my life. I've a collector's heart, but not the billfold.

For me, what I can find and afford just allows me to "step back" a few decades when in the woods with my 60s equipment, no tree stand, no "cover scent", no attractants, one on one with Mr (0k, more often MRS) Odocoileus Virginianus win, lose or draw.

All else fails, I just sit and admire the wood and workmanship of the "stick" in my hand, take in all the things I cannot admire sitting home and have a hellova great time doing it.

Just therapy...traditional style.

My heart felt thanks to those of you posting bows I've only read about, never have seen or held in my hand.........since they were made decades ago. I do appreciate seeing them.

God Bless,
Steve

[fatman]

A misspent Bear Hunt involving Bowdoc, Diablo, and Simon.....  

[JL]

I'm not sure if I can classify myself as a collector. I do own several vintage Kodiaks and several customs.

What turned me on to old Bears, my boss was heading to his families cabin in Maine and was planning on doing some fishing for some monster smallies on the lake the cabin sits on. He wanted to give some ultralite equipment a try and asked if I had something he could borrow and try out. I hooked him up with a 5' ugly stick wearing a sweet Diawa reel. He had a blast! He came back from his trip and wanted to buy the rig. We share a lot of the same intrests and I told him his money was no good and see if he had something to trade for it. He knew I liked tradtional bow and said he had a old Bear bow at the house that nobody uses any more these days and if I was interested. I told him to bring it in and I'd have a look see. Turned out to be a sweet 47# 65 Kodiak. I told him the bow was worth much more then the fishing rig but he said he didn't care about that, just go out a get some deer with it.

After shooting that Bear a while, I realized that some of the vintage bows shoot as well, or in some cases, better then some of the customs that have passed thru my hands. Lord knows, few years back, I was going thru bows like changing socks. I was ate up with buying/selling/trading to try as many bows as I could get my paws on. The ones that worked for me got a spot on my rack, the rest were sold/traded off for others to try. My buying/selling/trading pace has slowed quite a bit. I have a pretty well rounded rack of bows now and tend to enjoy what I own. But there is always a few choise pieces that may tempt me....

Jerry

[d. ward]

myself I was driven by greed to make my fame and fortune by pimping off old bows.Oh sure I had the big hat platform shoe's dingle balls and fuzzy dice in my car.Small stabil of ho's I mean bows.
However I fell in lust with one of my ho's many years ago and bam here I'am.I have no idea what happend.
Pretty cool Kevin hopfuly thats all you picked up from hanging around us for a week was liking old bows and none of our other habits.bd

[fatman]

Bowdoc,  some of my old habits may have been CHEAPER...  

though no less addictive....

[joevan125]

I bought a 67 kodiak hunter from SlowBowke about 3 weeks ago and couldnt believe how new it was and how great it shoots. Since that first purchase i have bought 11 Bear bows and all are in near mint condition. I still cant believe how nice these bows are after all these years. Still looking for a 57 kodiak special.  

[Rick Enos]

Robin Hood got me.When I was around 7 years old there wasn't a lot of money to buy anything but food & pay  bills.So my dad & I had to get creative.We chopped a limb off a tree & put slices at each end to hold a string.Cut several smaller branches for arrows,And I was one happy boy. When I was about 12 I shot with the men at a local sportsmans club with a glass recurve & shortly after that I got my first Bear bow.I gave up shooting thru my high school & college years.Shot a compound bow for a while(White tail hunter)And then at about 30 years old I got another Bear recurve & That excitement that I had as a boy hit again.I've met people like Floyd Eccleston-Frank Scott-Carl Rudduck-Hink- Wade Phillips-Razorhead & Al Reader--John Grummly--all you good people on the trad gang & the fire still burns.I build self bows-& collect any archery item that I can afford.I mostly like to shoot my own home made  bows, but take my Bears to the club every chance I get.Thanks to all who promote the traditional spirit of archery.

[The Great Jashu]

quote:Originally posted by joevan125:
I bought a 67 kodiak hunter from SlowBowke about 3 weeks ago and couldnt believe how new it was and how great it shoots. Since that first purchase i have bought 11 Bear bows and all are in near mint condition. I still cant believe how nice these bows are after all these years. Still looking for a 57 kodiak special.    11 bows in three weeks! Wow, you almost surpassed 7 years of collecting for me.  

[The Great Jashu]

To answer Drews question, its actually the way I got into traditional archery. I was a compound hunter and always wanted to take an animal with a trad bow. Since I am from Michigan, Grayling Bears were the only choice. After obtaining a Grizzly, I shot that for a while. Not knowing better I did'nt use a stringer and made it a two piece one day! Then the quest started to replace it. That became a disease and it snowballed. I killed a couple deer with a custom a friend built. Then I fulfulled the true dream last fall by taking a buck with a 69 Super K - built in my birth year. Grayling has always been my favorite place and the bows that were built there inspire me more than any other. Who knows where it will end.

[johnnyc]

I'm not really a collector......but I'm always on the lookout for Bear bows, and probably couldn't part with one unless I traded for something else.
Bought my first bow in Dec. last year, a new 2008 Bear Grizzly.  Then I came across a good deal on a 1964 Zebrawood Grizzly. I've been shooting them both alot trying to decide which one to take opening day.
  I have no idea why I took up traditional archery at 39?  I've hunted with a crossbow since I was 14(legal here in Ar.) and have also gun hunted.  When I decided to get into real archery, I was turned off by the way compound bows are.  Its like when you buy a compound bow, its considered outdated and junk in a few years where a trad. bows only get better. And I've always had Fred Bear etched in my mind from TV. when I was a kid