Well, Doug Campbell told me I got a bargain when I just happened to back into the winning bid for the 1 dozen custom arrows generously donated by Rick Stillman, owner and fletcher of The Feathered Shaft for the 2009 Saint Jude's Childrens Research Hospital Auction.
After the dust from the auction settled Rick and I began a process of communication that would eventually lead to a set of new hunting arrows for my daughter.
2009 was filled with travels and my family just happened to spend most of last summer in Montana working on the wheat harvest. My daughter had her bow along so Rick created a very nice set of test arrows for her to shoot under controlled conditions.
Now one needs to understand here that Rick was going WAY BEYOND the call of duty here for a donation --
Rick built the test set of arrows based on some feedback that he got from me. Shipped the arrows to Montana so my daughter could shoot them under some semi-controlled conditions and do some paper tuning. He spent time on the phone with my daughter trying to figure out which shaft was going to be optimal for her. My daughter really shot the *stuff* out of those test arrows in order to determine what was going to be the best decision.
My family returned from Montana and my daughter convinced me - with a sound demonstration of shooting - what shaft was flying the best from her bow.
Well, we got the word back to Rick and he ordered a special set of *heavy* shafts at my daughter's light spine and short draw. Again, here we see Rick going to what I thought was way beyond the call of duty working to get the optimized hunting arrows for my daughter.
It was decided that Rick would finish the custom FULL DRESS plus arrows for my daughter and ship them in time for her birthday last month, January 2010.
They arrived on time....