Bear Grizzly Identification Guide 1949-1969

[Wade Phillips]

Jan -

Glad you find this thread to be a useful source of information about Grizzly bows.

The lettering on the bow does not look original to me. With the replacement grip and strike plate, would also guess someone refinished the bow and added the lettering and guessed at the length.

Your bow looks like the center bow in the first photograph on page 1 of this thread which states....

 "1951 – Blond Glass on Back, Alum Lamination under Cherry on Belly"

[Twitko]

Wade .. thank You for Your comment

(I'm sorry for delay, but I was almost two weeks at holiday - without computer and Internet access )

Jan

[TonyW]

ttt

[Kingstaken]

As my adiction for collecting bows has slowly and steadily crept up on me over the past few years I recently acquired this beautiful '61 camo.
It's in way better condition then I am considering we were both born the same year.

     

[TRAP]

Ttt

[crazynate]

Thanks for posting pictures Mr. Phillips. Now I know for sure my grizzly is a 1959. I had a hard time telling the difference between the 59-60

[bowhunterfrompast]

Another great thread from the past. Thanks Trap

[TRAP]

Ttt

[Wade Phillips]

Made a few updates to the first page to aide in identification.

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=003114

[johnnyrazorhead]

Was looking through the different Grizzly bows shown here and on another thread about the Grizzlys and didn't see any like these so I thought I would add them to the post for any input.They are different than most of the other early 1949 Grizzlys I have seen so I am thinking these bows may be earlier than that,possibly made during the 1948 "transition" era.Both of these Grizzlys have the word Grizzly written on them in black ink similar to the writing I have seen on many transition era bows.Not written in the same spot on both of them and one of them has some additional writing that goes up under the leather grip.Tried to make out what it says but difficult without removing the leather grip.Both have the earlier square decal similar to the transition bows,both with low,3-digit serial numbers.The biggest difference I see on these two bows from most of the early aluminum lam Grizzlys is the lack of tip overlays on the back side of the tips.Both have the basketweave or woven glass full length of the limb with no additional overlays.I have a transition era Hunter model with the same glass and no overlays with Bear archery written in black on the upper limb belly.No square decal but does have the running bear decal.Both Grizzlys have no running bear decal.I just thought they would be interesting to see and wanted to add them to the threads.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

[johnnyrazorhead]

 

 

This one is the transition era Hunter I wanted to show for comparison.The other pics I took of the tips and glass didn't download.
 

[bowhunterfrompast]

John...great information. Thanks for sharing.

[TRAP]

Very cool bows John!!!

Okay, what's the story behind them?

[Wade Phillips]

John-

Great posts.

With your two, have only seen a total of three now of the large rectangular decals that I can remember. Very nice. Would guess that Bear must have had just a small batch of these decals made as bows before & after have the smaller decal for specs.

For sure they are early in the 1949 production.

There is no evidence that a Grizzly was ever made, or even thought of before 1949… So any illusion or suggestion about any Grizzly being made in 1948, is likely nothing more than unsubstantiated speculation of an over active imagination.

I have several of the just "Bear Archery" printed on the transition bows, that were not made by Grumley. They were made after Nels left Bear.

Interesting that the script "Bear Archery" that appears on some Transition bows, is different printing than the Grizzly printing. This clearly indicates that another person printed the Grizzly after the Transition era.

Lots to learn and so little time to learn it.

[crazynate]

Thanks for all the info guys and for posting pictures. It really helps out guys like me that have a lot to learn.

[Wade Phillips]

Nathan-

This has been an interesting thread since it began 7 years ago. We have all learned a lot as time has moved forward.

[johnnyrazorhead]

Rick- you are very welcome.Love to share this old archery stuff.

 Trap- No real story.Bows came from two different sources but similar to each other.I belive they are just very early Grizzly bows as indicated by the low serial numbers.Probably made right around the time Grumley left Bear or shortly thereafter.

 Wade- I knew you would be able to add some information about these bows.

[TRAP]

In the last 24 hours several of these very early Grizzlies have shown up on the big auction site. Coincidence? Maybe.

One has "Grizzly" hand written just like yours John.  A little higher serial number though.

[Wade Phillips]

John-

Your two early 1949 Grizzly bows are the only two plus the one other now, that I remember seeing that are three digit serial numbers.

Always wondered why we had not seen numbers below 1000, but now three are known.

Thanks so much for your posts.

[Noblesinclair]

I have seen 3 1956 grizzly and all 3 had a gl serial number , also would love to see some 55 to 57 grizzly limb tips and the difference between them. Why are there bunches of 55 and 57 grizzly always posted for sale but no 1956 models