Dating Bear Limbs

[Jay Bow]

Is there a way to date Bear take down limbs?
Mine is numbered 1B-01520
Thanks Ben

[Blackhawk]

I've not seen anything that can definitely date limbs by the serial.  

There are some general guidelines that I follow:

White tip Grayling = 1969-74

Red tip Grayling = 1974-78

Green tip Gainesville= 1980-90

Do not know about later limbs, but that recently released book about collecting Bear may have more details...so I will have a look at my copy if the Super Bowl is boring.

Interesting topic...  

[Hud]

I tend to agree and would add, I have Blue that were made between White and Red. Green tips came out in 1984 with the GS riser.  If you have a CD collection of Bear Catalogs, you see most.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, forgot about the blue.

Also, the white limbs from the Grayling years could have either red or black tips.

Hud, I thought the greenstripe TD came out in 1980 with green tip limbs.  Am I wrong?

[Jay Bow]

These that I ask about are green tips, barely , they are clearly wood grain and more brown than green.

[Hud]

Lon,
You are correct, the 1980 Gainsville Green Stripe was put in the 1981 catalog, according to the following.  There is a chapter on take-down limbs. I have not seen this book by Jorge L Coppen.      


 https://books.google.com/books?id=JM12CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT122&lpg=PT122&dq=History+of+Fred+Bear+TD&source=bl&ots=uhIhLBEpLI&sig=ukJI1IdkNiuJ0nblIysiVVPyJus&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijgPixmO fKAhUT02MKHfoGDDoQ6AEIZDAN#v=onepage&q=History%20of%20Fred%20Bear%20TD&f=false

[Hud]

Bear Take-down history:

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=14;t=000521

[Hud]

Early Bear History

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=14;t=000521

[Jay Bow]

Thanks for all the info.
Ben

[alex321]

oh I am glad someone has asked this as I have just bought a pair of limbs secondhand...

Does anyone have a clue on their age?  The serial number is:
TDb-12
5-099

I have written it how it appears on th limbs, spread over two lines.
Cheers
Alex

[Roy from Pa]

How about dating a C wooden handle? The serial number on it is C-2052. I bought it new in 1971 or 72. Just can't remember which year it was.

 

[alex321]

Hi Roy,

This thread is specifically about dating limbs and not risers or bows.

There are lots of threads on dating the riser\\bow, they should be more help to you.

It took me ages to find a thread about dating only the limbs.  

Cheers
Alex