[Archers] Some Random Bow Musings

[Garth Groff]

Noble Friends of the Bow,

Yesterday I was in the new Field and Stream sporting goods store in 
Charlottesville. Field and Stream is a division of Dick's Sporting 
Goods, and expands the line of outdoor goods from what our previous 
Dick's store carried. The Field and Stream is co-located with a new 
larger Dicks, and the two share the same check-out stations. Dick's 
licenses the Field and Stream name from the famous magazine, but 
otherwise there is no connection.

I was quite surprised to find that Field and Stream had adult bare hand 
bows. They were offering a Samick take-down recurve, which I didn't pay 
to which I didn't pay much attention. The real finds were the Bear 
Montana longbow and the Bear Grizzly recurve. I didn't write down their 
prices at the time, but I seem to remember that the Montana as priced at 
$349. 3Rivers sells this bow for $379-$399, plus special shipping. 
Dick's is not exactly known for bargain pricing, but neither is 3Rivers. 
Here in Virginia you are supposed to pay the same sales tax on 
internet/mail order purchases as you would in a brick-and-mortar store 
(I may be one of just a handful who does). I don't know if adjacent 
states within the Kingdom have similar laws. It looks like Field and 
Stream might be a good source for these popular hand bows. If you don't 
have a Field and Stream store near you, you probably have a Dick's that 
will order the bows for you. I didn't see either bow listed on the 
Dick's/Field and Steam web site, so at least for the present this will 
probably have to be an in-store order.

I also saw the new brightly-colored Bear 1st Shot youth bows. The ones 
at Field and Stream were all an orange color so garish that it was 
almost blinding. The Bear web site shows these bows in pink, purple, 
orange and the original green. I can't blame Escalade Sports (Bear's 
owner) for trying to jazz up their products, but I really like the 
sedate green. At WoW, Viking Archery was selling a steel gray version of 
the classic 29# Bear Titan (it really pulls about 30#, but by rating it 
at 29#, Escalade avoids paying a Federal excise tax on "hunting" 
equipment). The Bear web site now only shows this bow in gray. Bye-bye 
green.

Note that the Bear 1st Shot comes with strings that are closed with a 
metal clip. These strings were banned by our previous DEM on bows of 
over 20# and by children older than 8. The low poundage on these bows 
makes them o.k. for us to use with the clipped string, but why take 
chances? No alternate strings are available in this length, so I 
replaced the strings of all Isenfir's loaner bows and those in my own 
kit which custom-made Flemish strings bought through Black Rhino Archery 
(now I'm learning to make my own strings). I also replaced all the 
clipped strings on other Bear bows we had such as the Crusader, Titan 
and Firebird.

I also noted that the string used on the well-known 15# Barnett Little 
Sioux bow is now coated in some sort of rubbery plastic at the return of 
the loops. It is still tied with a knot, but at least the knot is less 
likely to come undone. I suspect this string should probably be banned 
under Society-level safety rules, but lots of these bows are in use. 
Why, I don't know. The Little Sioux stacks so badly that most children 
can't draw it to an anchor point, and only get frustrated. I retired the 
two in our loaner kit and replaced them with Bear Crusaders.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge