Red Wing Hunters that get hunted.

[tomsm44]

Originally posted by KodaChuck:
Have one also...58" shoots fast. Pre Head Ski and AMF ownership. Nice curl in the limbs. Heard stories that when compounds were making their entry, they would show the speed of the new compounds by shooting them thru chronographs at shows. Then a gent with a Red Wing Hunter would show up and be faster than the compounds. Both Mike Palmer and Bob Lee used to work at Wing Archery and I think the RWH was the basis for the very fine bows and these men make today. Palmer makes a fast bow and I think he lights up talking favorably about the RWH being so good and smooth. I think it's a fine vintage hunting bow.

Bob Lee did more than just work there.  He started the Wing Archery company in 1951, was heavily involved in the design of all of the Wing bows, then later sold the company to Headski.  He later bought back the rights to the Wing name and he'll occasionally sell a new bow with the old Wing decals and model names.  I recently saw a used "Bob Lee Red Wing Hunter" for sale on RMSGear.  Looked just like the old ones, except with a two toned riser and a steeper price tag.

[nineworlds9]

I just snagged a superb condition circa 1967 RWH pre-Head Ski 58" 48@28 on the big auction site.  I am just floored how sweet the grip is, just as good as any modern Bob Lee.  It is super smooth for a short recurve and easily handles my 29" draw.  I ordered a new B55 Flemish string from Allen at Tenring and can't wait to try it.  I won't even shoot it with the old tired B50 that came on it Lol.

The piece of Shedua the riser is made out of is about the nicest I've ever seen.

[Drewster]

How do you determine the age of a RWH?

[tomsm44]

Originally posted by Drewster:
How do you determine the age of a RWH?

I've never found a way to get the exact age.  I looked around online when I got mine and found a few tricks to narrow it down to a 3-4 year period.  I don't remember all of the years that things changed though.  

One thing to look at is the decal.  They started with a gold sticker, then went to the white silk screen, then added the Headski info in small print under the Wing logo, and lastly had AMF with the Wing logo.  You can find the years that these changes occurred pretty easily.  

Another is the letter prefix on the serial #.  The Red Wing Hunters originally had an R prefix.  Next, they had an RW prefix.  Later they had an RA prefix.  If I remember correctly, some of the prefixes were used under multiple ownership, so you can combine the two to get a rough estimate.  There may be a way to get more accurate, but I haven't found it.  I wish I had kept up with all of the information I was able to find before where I could give you some actual years to go by.

Mine is pre Headski with an RW prefix.  If I remember correctly, the range I came up with when I was digging around was something like 1963 through 1966 or '67, so I just call it mid '60s to make it simple.  

From what I've heard, the pre Headski bows and the ones sold in the first few years of Headski ownership typically have nicer wood and a much better finish.  Then that started trying to cut cost and quality went down.  The later ones should be just as good performance wise, just not typically as pretty.