Brandon, I believe you are correct. I don't know about the exact model, but Jerry's bows were fashioned after Howatt recurves. When Jerry was a young man, working at Caterpillar in Peoria, and trying to raise 3 kids he didn't have any spare money. He told me he broke a few Howatts, which were his bow of choice, and that he couldn't afford to keep buying them. That's how he got started making his own. Being a precision machinist by trade, which at that time was the most specialized union job at Cat, he was naturally gifted at the intricate stuff such as the finger joint, which are now known as Pierce Points. That name was arrived at by Dick Robertson. He asked Jerry how he made that design and since Jerry was gracious enough to explain it to Dick, and gave his "blessing" on Dick using the design, Dick wanted to return the favor by giving Jerry all the credit for the design, thus the name "Pierce Points".
As John said, Jerry painted all of his hunting bows flat black. I'm not sure if all of them had the finger joint accents, I highly doubt it. But if you could get your hands on one of the black ones and were able to remove the finish, it would undoubtedly still be a piece of art compared to most bows. Not all, of course.
If you think seeing one painted black would shock a feller, check this out:
Jerry's favorite thing to do in the whole world was to go squirrel hunting with his recurve. He would stay out all day sometimes and he was, and still is, one of the few guys that could kill a limit of squirrels with a bow on a fairly regular basis. Something some of us have yet to do... Anyway, one time he squirrel hunted for several hours and after several shots just could not connect. Most of us would chalk it up to a bad shooting day. Jerry drove home, went in the garage, fired up the bandsaw and cut that recurve in half, right through the riser, and threw it in the scrap pile.
Jerry's hunting bow was 72# at his draw. A year or two before his untimely death, he realized he was starting to show signs of aging and that he needed to drop down in weight. Naturally he made a new personal hunting bow that was lighter. How much lighter, I don't know. Anyway, after shooting all summer and just shaking his head at the thought of having to drop down in weight, he just couldn't get used to either the bow, or the fact that he was getting a little weaker. After all that, when deer season rolled around he put the lighter bow up and hunted with his 72 pounder anyway. He was stubborn, but in a good way.
Jerry and his wife Bettie were originally from Mississippi. I think the local native American tribe to that region were the Choctaw, hence the name he put on his bows.
Topic: Jerry Pierce Choctaw Recurve (Read 1304 times)
