Just had to "bite my tounge"

[straitera]

Need to put this on the quote thread, "You can't fix stupid!" Good on your offer L.E. When he comes around you just may have made a good friend.

[bawana bowman]

Gene,
You may have done the right thing, but the shop would have made the same amount of money selling him the right shafts for the bow. Sounds to me like your friend just didn't want to be bothered with doing what I'm sure he knew was needed to sell this man the proper equipment.

I've seen way to much of this going on in shops that cater primarily to cable guns. And to be honest, I no longer stand by and let it happen. If nothing else I will at least offer a trad shooter advise on how to properly go about selecting shafts. And I'll do it in front of the salesman.
Even my 16 year old grandson knows it isn't right, he actually gives my cell phone number to people he doesn't know if he hears them getting bad info in a shop. He doesn't hesitate to jump in and tell the salesman he doesn't know what he's talking about.

[Pinelander]

Gene, I'm surprised that your friend the shop owner didn't ask you to assist him in helping the guy out.

At the pro-shop where I frequent, the owner and I are acquainted enough to have respect for each others' knowledge... his compound bow knowledge and my standard bow knowledge. For kids and newcomers to traditional archery, he always gives me the nod in providing them with guidance.

He knows what good business means, and that is to be honest and helpful to his customers. Whether that help comes from him or me is of no consequence to him. He understands that his customers' satisfaction is the key to returning (and spending) customers.

I hope that fella calls you for some assistance. One of the biggest frustrations for new shooters... are the arrows/tuning!

- Dave

[Gordon martiniuk]

Gene I know it's hard to listen to wrong advice ,, I too keep my my opinions to my self , If your in someones else business and you speak up you could look like a know it all, however if the imformation is plain wrong ,, let them know that you have been there done that, and that there are better options that would work better , I bet everyone involed would thank you !! your right it's a hard thing to listen to !!  

[Froggy]

That's a tough spot Gene. Good on you for the effort. You know the old saying... "You can lead the horse to water, but you can't make him drink"

Lanier

[L. E. Carroll]

Clay and Stujay....

That's the shop... Unfortunately, Dana "the big guy" was busy at that time "hooking": another customer up with the "newest and greatest" all new Carbon, Hoyt Garage door opener.    

Please guys.... Kind of keep this on "the sly". As I still want to be "welcome" there in the future..      

Had Dana not been busy, I'm sure the outcome would have been much better....

BTW, Dana is setting up a Monday night "Traditional Bowhunter League" scheduled to start on Jan 9th.... I'm looking forward to joining in.  If, they will still let me in and the swelling in my right elbow goes down by then.  

[stujay]

Gene, used to live in the Ridgefield area, and that would have been slick to get together, but now live farther north outside Chehalis so a bit far to join the league. But if I get a chance I'll stop by a say hello.    Stuart

[Eric Krewson]

Your story reminds me of my return to trad in 89 and my first arrow purchase. I bought my first recurve, referred to the Easton arrow chart and bought the recommended 2219 shafts for my 50#@26" bow. Of course they came out of the bow sideways. It took me a long time to find anyone who would take these tree trunks off my hands for free.

I will always speak up when I see someone being steered in the wrong direction on traditional choices. If questioned by the person with the bad information I will say" I have made 138 longbows, won the state selfbow championship twice, helped run a city owned, public indoor range for 15 years and spent Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the range tuning bows and bare shafting arrows for people free of charge", end of discussion.

One local pro shop has my phone number and has guys with trad questions give me a call.

[stickbowmaniac]

Your phone will probaly be ringing when he gets those arrows in and sees they dont shoot.lol

[RkyMtn Joe]

Well, those guys usually don't know beans about trad bows.  They probably do pretty good with their compound and x-bow setups though.

I went into a Bass-Pro shop in the Louisville area and they even had a few Bear bows for sale there, but after talking with their "technicians" for a couple of minutes it was obvious they knew very little about trad bowhunting.  

Sure is hard to stay silent when someone is being led astray isn't it?

[guspup]

You might meet the guy again when he puts that 'poor shooting' bamboo/osage up for sale in craigslist.

[Ragnarok Forge]

Gene,  Tricia, Morgan, and I will be at the league shoots.   I was in the shop shooting today and helped a new shooter get the right arrows.   I gave him three of mine to take home since they had to make his up.   The shop had him two full spine groups to heavy in carbons.  I worked with a couple of recurve shooters who's brace height was at 5.5 inches.  They were sold strings that were to long.   I twisted their strings up as tight as I could and got them to 7 inches.  I am meeting one of them to give them strings I made them that are the proper length.  I will keep your secret.  I always try to keep an eye out for trad shooters when the big guy who knows trad isn't in the shop.

[L. E. Carroll]

Thanks Clay    I'll be looking forward to shooting with you and the girls...

Thanks' also, for helping out the guys you mentioned..        

Gene

[Running Buck]

The sad part of this is there are so many people who are new to the sport and feel that anyone who owns a sport shop is a expert. While most who own/work at sport shops are in the know about what is the latest rage, most steer folks in the wrong direction just trying to get a sale of some sort. I have seen this first hand with archery,fly fishing and muzzleloading to name a few.

[kat]

Gene,
For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing.  I was once in a similar situation. I let the customer know that I thought I could save him some heartache and money, and suggested an alternative.  He looked at me like I had two heads. After all, who was I to dispute the 'Pro Shop's' advice.
Some people have to learn the hard way.

[falconview]

As someone who shoots all forms trad bows fishes bamboo rods and shoots flintlock pistols and longguns I have found that you better know your stuff when dealing any non specialty sporting goods stores and sales people they just don't know the technology and generally can only give rudimentary or bad advice, so don't be shy help a new guy out and maybe keep the shop guy from looking foolish as well

[pumatrax]

once went to a sporting goods store that had sights mounted on the wrong side of their compound bow risers....yeah I told them...had second thoughts about it though

[Stump_pounder]

Your a good guy Gene!!! Happy new year

[dhill1520]

Gene - I'll be at the Monday night league also, hopefully with my son. Hoping for a good turn out. See you guys there!