The story behind the discovery
Dyebow had a Dale Dye bow for sale. (Uh, can you figure how he came up with his online name)
He was contacted by a guy that had just won a '66 Kodiak with factory camo on e8ay. He asked Dyebow if he would take it in trade for his Dale Dye. The guy had just won it and had not yet made shipping arrangements. Dyebow agreed to that trade so the guy had the seller ship it straight to Dyebow. He never even saw it.
When the bow came in, Dyebow decided that he did not like the factory camo so he decided to strip it. He was removing the paint wit MinWax paint remover. He started removing th pain in one spot expecting to see the standard wood, but came up with solid black. He figured it was a black undercoat that just would not come off. He continued on that spot for a while but was getting no where. He removed more paint on the riser until he came up wit this.
About now was when he realized that he had something other than a standard '66 Kodiak Camo bow.
Eventually the situation found its way to this Forum under the following URL (worth a read to catch up)
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=004102 somewher in there I made a commet that I would swap him for any two of my Bear bows, with the exception of two, and any Bear collector would probably make him that same offer. I was just trying to emphasize the rareity of what he had. I had no thoughts of ending up with the bow. I also stated that I would like to see more pictures and hear the story of how he came by it, figuring he would post it on the discussion thread.
Next thing I know, I got an e-mail from him with additional pictures, and the story I told above. He also stated that he was interested in knowing what two bows I would be eilling to swap for.
I sent him many pictures of bows I though would interest him from the group pictired here.
This is about 1/2 my collection and some of the bow pics I sent him are on other racks.
Dyebow (aka TOM) and I talked and traded e-mails for a couple of days and had pretty much settled on my Greenstripe takedown with 70# limbs, plus cash from him...well, that was before he got flooded with e-mail offers from other collectors here for swaps and out right purchases. I finally stepped up and offered an even swap for my takedown. He said that was acceptable but wanted to wait a couple of hours to think about it. I made him a three minute offer to throw in a 61# Browning Cabra I to seal the deal right now. He accepted that. Tom would have made a great horse trader. Tom is a great guy amd was great to deal with. I could have gotten a lot better trade if all the other collectors would have stayed out of it, but that's what gave tom his negatiating room.
I think we both left the trade happy campers. I hope he jumps in hers and corrects any misstatements I may have made.
I will post more pictures of the bow later.
Tom, thanks for trading to me.