[Archers] Some Random Bow Musings

[Lorelei Elkins]

Thanks for this, Lord Mungo.

Lorelei

On Thu, Oct 27, 2016 at 5:45 AM, Garth Groff <sarahsan at embarqmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>
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