Trad Gang
Main Boards => Trad History/Collecting => Topic started by: Archer Fanatic on December 30, 2010, 01:48:00 PM
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I have started to collect old Bear Bows and all I can say is Fred knew what he was doing. I have a 59 Kodiak (64" & 47#) and it shoots just as good as any new bow. I also have 3 Super Kodiaks(69,70 & 76) models and 2 Kodiak Magnums, 1 Grizzly. They are all great shooting bows. I have owned several custom made bows and they are not any better than the older Bear bows. I got to meet Fred Bear and I got to talk to him several times he was not only a genius but the most humblest person you could meet.
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I think Fred was a hunter and knew what he liked and made bows he would want to own. You don't see much by way of wild, radical or extreme in performance or design elements. He made rugged, reliable and smooth hunting implements that could be counted on no matter what. That is why they endure. They are good. Damn good.
Ben Pearson was a hunter who designed a bow manufacturing process, and the end result is similar. A range of conservative bows that could be repeated in a manufacturing setting and be smooth and reliable.
You don't see a good day/bad day bow from either (while they were alive and in charge). They were all good day bows.
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I agree, I own many Bear bows. I have also owned and shot many custom bows and every year an old bear bow goes into the woods to hunt with me.
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Fred definitely new what he was doing. There is not to much done today by modern bowyers that he had not tried back in his bow building days. Still love the classic looks of some of the old Bear recurves, both hunting and target. That is probably why they are so popular today and many of them are being copied.