Where did you buy your bows and supplies back in the day? Hardware store, Sears, Montgomery Ward.....?? Did you make any of it? If you want to know what I concider an old timer, let's just say that I've been at this over 35 years and I DONT concider myself an old timer!!! :nono:
Luckily, i lived near Hoyt for a short time, so stuff was easy to get, but at age 8, no money! Bows were sold in those places and mail order. Supplies from mail order or sports stores. I did not have $ for jigs, so we got arrows from stores. One arrow at a time. I am not old enough for a real answer as I am only 67, but that is how I did it
If you have been at it for 35yrs, then I am surely not an "old timer"! In to see what responses you get.
Bisch
Most of my stuff came out of a bi-monthly newsletter called "longbow". I couldn't wait to get it but it was only 6-8 pages. Plus there was this young guy who had a traditional shop. I think his name was Ron La something :) tippit
Back in the 70's, I used to get most of my bows from the SPORT SHOP in Grifton, N.C. A fellow named George Suggs ran it. (a nicer guy you will never find!) I also got a lot of Bear Razorheads from Walmart, too. Years later the POWDER KEG in Rocky Mount, N.C. was my "go to" store.
Guaranteed, back then, there wasn't as much "stuff" to get as today. A lot of it was contrived. Believe it or not, there were archery shops back in the 60's and 70's and until the 70s, not a one of them saw fit to sell compound bows ! Most were mom and pop stores, someone who hunted a lot that opened a shop, often in his garage.
It was seemingly during the 70's that the sky opened and the race to supply anything begun. I recall building or refurbishing bows, building tree stands when they were finally legal. Broadheads were available. I don't recall much in the way of mail order back then. Certainly no web sites.
ChuckC
Aww, Bisch, I'm just sayin I'M not old!!! I guess at leat in my head anyways!!!! :dunno:
My friends dad had an archery shop that he opened in '72. I have a new "old" stock '73 Grizzly that was pulled from the attic of the store. He has an new in the pack St Charles quiver waiting for me.
Kitrich(sp?) Bow shop, Finney Sports (mail order), local hardware shop and built all my own arrows using straight sewing pins to pin feathers on shafts. Herters a little later.
What a great number of resources we have today compared to the late 50s and early 60s.
Arne
First bow set came from a local sporting goods. Then came "Bow and Arrow" magazine 1963? Found an archery store in Forest Park, IL. Mostly target and field archery but some hunting. Bought my Pearson Pinto from monkey wards catalog. Arrows came as singles from sporting goods store. We also had Kittridge Bow Hut, bought my first DYI arrows as a kit. $15 for the whole smear, painted shafts, feathers, nocks points, glue and a fletcher gizmo. Ah, those were the days.
Only one place for me HERTERS. I would wear ther cataloge out.
Mr. Whiggs department store (like a Kmart). Bowhunter warehouse. I think there was a mail-order called "Anderson" or something like it.
Frankly, I didn't buy much.
I bought a 56" Grizzly in 1971 directly from the shop at Trueflight near Monticello, IN. Also some fellows had shops in their garage or house. I bought a few things from them.
Been shooting for close to 60 years (I am 66). Dad started an archery shop in the basement doing mostly service work, fletching arrows and making bow strings. Life was simple back then. You had instinctive archers and freestyle archers. The site shooters used a pretty simple and easy set up.
As dads business grew he rented a building that had enough room for 8 lanes of shooting. My dad was a really good instinctive shot winning the Midwest national in 57 in Chicago. We nominated dad for the local hall of fame and came up with records that showed that he won or placed in 300 archery tournaments. Growing up we went to tournaments almost every weekend in the summer months. Dad became friends with Fred Bear, shot for Bear Archery for 3 years and was on bears advisory staff for 3 years. Dad renamed the archery shop Bear Archery of Muskegon, Michigan.
It was nothing for Fred to call the store or house asking for dad. Dad also sold Root and Sovereign Bows. I went into the Marines in 67 and my brother got married leaving my dad alone to work in the store. Dad was a full time iron worker so he closed the doors in 68. Couldn't compete with K-mart that opened up down the road and sold, Bows and arrows.
I still have some of the old stock left over from the store and I have given a lot of it away as folks ask for things that are hard to find or need something although I am about done with that as most is gone. what I have left goes to my grandkids. I have one new, never shot Super Kodiak left that one of the grandkids is going to get when they get a bit bigger.
So that is where I got my archery items in the past. Now I make my own selfbows, knapped arrowheads and even arrow shafts.
Even though I'm 71 and could probably be considered an "Old Timer", I haven't been at this trad stuff that long. Didn't actually start in archery period until the 70's. Took my first ever deer (gun or bow) with a Browning Ex 1, in, I think, '76 but then got caught up in the "newest and best". Getting started was easy as we had two good shops near me here in NJ. One was Robin Hood Archery and the other Len Cardinale's "Butts and Bows", in Montclair, NJ. I think both are gone now. Also used Bowhunters Warehouse.
Started in 1967, I just turned 63. Got my stuff from a local sport shop and a discount store called "Big N". I would drool over the Herter's catalog for hours. Got some small items at Western Auto. Not sure if I'm an old timer because I learn new stuff all the time.......
A distant relative of mine came to my school and did a presentation during the first year PA had the Hunter/safety course. His outfit was half camo and half red talking about Bear's "Be a two season hunter" campaign. That was 1966. He owned the oldest Bear Archery dealership in the country at that time. I immediately saved my money and went there and bought a Bear Bearcat, 8 arrow quiver and a dozen green cedars with Bear Razorheads on them. That cost me a whopping $62.00! It was great having a "real" bowhunting shop to go to.
I was lucky enough to live on a farm that had a creek running threw the pasture. In the spring and summer the carp would roll around for hours. Each year there was a man that would come in and ask to shoot them so I got trained buy a very well known tournament shooter in western Pa. He gave me old magazines and some of the same bows could be bought back then. Hoyt and Bob Lee I can remember. And as the gentlemen said above Herter's was like a bible to the sportsman. I remember Model Perfect everything. My father bought my first Ben Person from a local hardware when I was 5 or 6 around 1960.
My first custom was a recurve made in the Pittsburg area and I got it used from the carp shooter for 35 dollars with a dozen cedar arrows. I was about 16 then and it was 50@28. I remember how hard it was to pull it back and I could not hold it there until about a month later when I built up my strength. I can remember more ranges in the area than archery stores and would trade or buy used from the people I got to know.
Herters, then Kittredge Bow Hut.
When I stared in 1969, we had Wolfs here in Dutchess Co. and Spada's in Kingston. Bought my Bear arrows from both places. My Browning bow came from Arlington Sporting Goods.
Then I started buying from Anderson Archery, MI and finally settled on Kittredge Bow Hut early 70's. Doug got all my business as I shot Forgewoods and his one piece Signature Recurve.
For cheap PO Cedars for stumping and small game along with Pearson Deadheads....Robin Hood Archery, Montclair NJ.
Uncle gave me a 25# kids Jet bow as a Christmas gift in the late 60's but don't know where he got it,,, but my first big boy bow I bought with my own money earned by my paper route and mowing lawns and bought the 45# Ben Pearson Cougar from the Western Auto they had displayed in the front window in downtown Uhrichsville Ohio, sometime around 1972 - 1974...
Also bought cedar shafts tipped with Bear Raorheads at the same time from the Western Auto...
If I remember correctly, Western Auto was more of a hardware/general type store, rather than auto parts store...
This is great. I love the nostalgia. Keep'em coming.
hardware store in Arlington Washington in the 50s.
Toledo was the closest city when I was getting started in the late 60's and early 70's and got most of my stuff at The Tackle Box and Trilby Sporting Goods, both now closed, and some odds and ends at Netcraft, a fishing supplies wholesaler. I bought a very nice bow, a 1969 Bear Polar lefty that I recently sold, at a big discount store, Bargain City...it was back in a corner the sporting goods section for a couple years and I finally talked the sporting goods manager into marking it down to $35!
I got my first couple from garage sales and flea markets Back then(early 1980s) $5 was the going rate for old Bears, Shakespeares, etc.
Local hardware stores.
I never was in an archery shop until the early seventies.
God bless, Steve
Got my stuff from two guys in Harrison. Pearson recuves and if you had the money you would buy the best arrows they had . Ceder 23/64 with turkey flech 69cents apiece ! When you busted one hunting rats you would tape it up ! Hey hi low I went to butts and bows from 1970 to about 1978 then Montclair archery when John lefty ran it. Both shops are Gonenow. Man they were good shops and great guys. . Herters. Paul Bruner silver arrow. McCann. Now the web
In 1955 my parents went to a sporting goods store to buy my Ben Pearson longbow kit. I bought my second bow, a solid glass bow, from a local sporting goods store. My first real hunting bow I bought in 1967 and bought that from a sporting goods store along with bow quiver, arrows, broadheads.
Later in the 60s and early 70s we bought almost everything from a local guy who ran a small archery shop in the basement and I'd do runs up to Kinsey's Archery in PA to pick stuff up for my friends and me.
In the late sixties it was a little hardware store. In the early seventies, a Bear Archery dealer opened and I got my first Bear 76'er from there. I also got some arrow building supplies and stuff from the Kittredge Bow Hut in Mammoth Lakes, CA during the seventies. In the late Seventies it was Howard Hill Archery/mail order. Early 1980's I was getting arrows mail order from Kustom King Arrows(this is when they were doing arrows only). Mid 80's I started going to GLLI archery shoot and started getting bows and supplies from those shoots. Also met Ron LaClair at that time and started 'hanging out' at his shop when I was working in his area (3 hour trip).
There was a guy in town by the name of Ken Burgaard. Had an archery shop in the basement of his house. Before I went to college I bought my equipment there (bought way less back in those days than I do now). Later, after graduating from college and getting my first "real" job I bought my archery equipment from Charlie Bledsoe of Sioux Falls, SD, who also had his shop in the basement of his home. Charlie was one of the founders of the SD Bowhunters Association.
I am grateful to and miss both Ken and Charlie...
Herters
Got my first set of aluminium arrows from them 1966. They were silver and very soft, didn't last like my wood arrows did.
James
Back in the 60s, when I was in 7th and 8th grade, I had a little archery business. I sold a bunch of Root recurves to the older guys.
Northwest Archery, started shopping there in 1969 ... didn't have a clue who Glenn St Charles was at the time.
Pretty sure my first recurve came from Sears or JC Penny in the early seventies, it was a Bear Kodak Hunter, not sure about the arrows.
My first bow was given to me. The first one I bought myself was from a little archery shop in Lolo Montana. It was owned by Dick Robertson. Actually I traded my mom's coffee pot for it,lol. I spent just about all of my free time in that shop, if I was not hunting or fishing.
I only started with any real bows in the 90's, when I was 41. I did have one of those yellow fiberglass bows in my adolescent years (the 60's), and had a blast with it.
Got the bow and arrows from the little local toy store where we had our summer camp. I remember being really excited when I went from the regular target points to field points. They were serious business to me back then!
Kinda wish I'd stayed with it since back then, but it's great to have a new passion for the rest of my years.
My first purchased bow came from Anderson Archery (Michigan I believe) back in 1968. I purchased my arrow components from Herters (Farbenglas shafts) and Centaur Archery in Fort Dodge, Ia. My first aluminum shafts (Easton 2020's ) came from Centaur. That goes back a ways!
Bernie
Gee Skipper... I haven't thought about Wolf's, or Arlington Sporting Goods, in years!!!!!
There was an archery shop in 1961 where I first saw recurve bows and I bought a new Bear K Mag later (1962) from another local dealer who owned a Hobby shop with model airplanes. The same shop sold me my Tamerlane in December that year when they were going to order some based on Bear anouncing them and shoing hem in Archery Magazine (the NFAA publication). It arrive in January of '63. Don't recall when Bear started to sell to discount houses, but I do remember that it was a big topic and we knew it would bring on some members at our two Clubs in Oklahoma City, and it sure did. Seemed like the boom started in 1963 when Hoyt had weird stbilizer balls on their top of the line trounament bows and a lot of [people were shooting them instead of the black or ****e painted risered Black Widow bows, even though the Wilson Brothers were showing up at the big shoots. After that, it seemd the Brazilian rosewood Bear used was never as tight grained or good looking in their bows as it was in those Kodiak Specials ('59 to 62) and the Kodiaks as we had seen. This was especially the case with the Tamerlanes which by then had that plate in their risers. Being an Instinctive Division shooter, just did not care for the side plate in the '64 on Bear bows not the rosewood used in their better bows.
Seemed like specialized shops were our source for the best bows. The discount houses hurt them, but the big companies like Bear and Pearson provided bows that increased our sport to people who wanted to hunt, thus they joined our clubs to be with like minded colleges, so the discout houses really helped to promote archery. Now the specialized shops can be the best sources again as in the past as they support our questions and care for our business. I buy from specialized stores that support trad archery, watch the list of vendors here who support us, and those craftsmen who custom make things I need (like a real cool custom quiver Hidehandler made for me).
Got my first Bow from Dad. Don't know where he got it. I think we were both shooting Bears. I think I was 8 to 10 yrs. old at the time. 58 now so I guess that's 50 years.
Not all that old at 55, but have been shooting since the mid-60's. My first bow was a green fiberglass Bear recurve from the S&H Green Stamp catalog (remember them?) Mom would let me have them if I pasted them in the books. Arrows came from the local Sears, Woolworths or hardware store. The Herters catalog was my bible through the '70's. Seems like we sent an order out monthly. Later on I remember K-mart carrying Bear Razorheads and accessories. Once I started driving I discovered the world of mom and pop archery shops and there was no turning back.
Gambles hardware store.
First bow bought at a drug store. Clothing from Sears or Montgomery Wards, a lot of it made by Ideal. Boots from JC Penneys. Arrows from Kmart. Then found out about Feline Archery, they got a lot of money!
QuoteOriginally posted by Jmatt1957:
Only one place for me HERTERS. I would wear ther cataloge out.
I couldn't wait to get a Herters catalog,
we made and sold fishing jigs,we ordered bucktails
from them.I was tying jigs when i was 10yrs old.We got most of our hunting and fishing stuff from them.
Ernie
I was 10 years old when I got my first bow, it was 1960, my mom took me to the local hardware store, got a Ben Pearson
Solid glass kit bow. There was a local Sporting Goods dealer
That handled Bear and Pearson equipment as I got older.
The best catalogue was the Bow Hut owned by Doug Kittridge in California. I remember looking at it for hours on end, couldn't really afford anything, but he offered everything.
As the 60's rolled into the 70's there were lots of small shops
Opening up. You could get whatever you wanted or I might add, whatever you could afford. But more than what they sold, they could give you shooting and hunting advice. Some of these guys had actually shot a deer with a bow, imagine that !!!
RW
first bow was from the local sporting goods, Ben Pearson Ol Ben was my first bow, saved up lawn mowing money for a spell to purchase it, arrows were too expensive for a young'un so bought dowels from the hardware store and made my own, made my own trade points also, used wild turkey feathers to make my fletch, glued them on with elmers and used thread on each end, cut them down with scissors. Did not have anyone to teach me, but I learned. Killed a bunch of rabbits and small game with that bow and homemade arrows. That was 52 years ago.
Herters seemed to be "go to" catalog back in the day!
I've been shooting the bow and arrow since 1962...50 yrs....guess I'm an "Oldtimer".....by your definition. Grew up here in Ohio in what used to be a small rural farming community. Our local plumber also ran a small archery shop located out back of his home. Back then there were little shops like that....there were clubs...and even a few indoor ranges. Of course when you associated with other archers/b owhunters some of them made arrows etc. Lot of information was shared that way. It was a great era to grow up in...late 50#s and the 60s. A kid could grab up their bow....out the door...down the street...round the corner and be bowhunting or just shooting their bow and arrow within ten minutes. If a kid tried that now....there would more than likely be problems. This world has changed a lot...even here in the good ole U.S.A. Along the Railroad tracks was "Bunny Heaven"....hunted them for miles along the tracks which were braids. Now you can't even walk on the Railroad tracks or you will be in trouble. Yep....I'm an "Oldtimer"
I've been shooting the bow and arrow since 1962...50 yrs....guess I'm an "Oldtimer".....by your definition. Grew up here in Ohio in what used to be a small rural farming community. Our local plumber also ran a small archery shop located out back of his home. Back then there were little shops like that....there were clubs...and even a few indoor ranges. Of course when you associated with other archers/b owhunters some of them made arrows etc. Lot of information was shared that way. It was a great era to grow up in...late 50#s and the 60s. A kid could grab up their bow....out the door...down the street...round the corner and be bowhunting or just shooting their bow and arrow within ten minutes. If a kid tried that now....there would more than likely be problems. This world has changed a lot...even here in the good ole U.S.A. Along the Railroad tracks was "Bunny Heaven"....hunted them for miles along the tracks which were braids. Now you can't even walk on the Railroad tracks or you will be in trouble. Yep....I'm an "Oldtimer"
Sorry bout the double post....and some of the spelling....if I don't check...this "smart" phone spells something different...lol
Yep, stickbow hunter, it does!!! :readit:
I purchased my first bear recurve bow back in 1958 and began bowhunting the same year as well. The gentleman that helped me get started in archery that year, was a small Bear dealer in the rural community where I lived. He was able to get me all of the equipment that I needed. I remember going on my first big bow hunt in 1959 to the U.P. of Michigan. Because my friend was a Bear dealer, we stopped in Grayling, Michigan, on the way up to pickup some arrows at the Bear factory and got to meet Fred Bear. Didn't realize until some years later, what a big deal that was!
I started shooting on a consistent basis in 1968 after getting out of the service. I lived in San Antonio at the time and there was a large archery store there right next to an outdoor range that covered several acres. The name of the store was Gasmann's Archery and it was huge. The show room had to be at least 100 feet long and 50 feet wide. One of the long walls was entirely filled with bows that hung vertically. They were all arranged by manufacturer. There were Bear, Ben Person, Damon Howatt, Groves, Wing, York, Shakespeare, Darton, Carroll, etc., and then there were used bows of all kinds. On the opposite wall was solid stacks of boxes of arrows. Many of them open to display the arrows and cylinder displays with lose arrow shafts and individual ready made arrows so you could purchase one at a time. In the middle of the room were rows that contained bens of lose field points and broadheads of every kind imaginable. There were also display cases with hunting knives and every kind of quiver made. All kinds of arrow making supplies and every archery accessory one could think of.
It was an amazing store, but I did not remain in San Antonio very long and moved within a couple of years after getting out of the service. The town I was from I moved back to and we had a couple of very nice sporting goods store there that had a fairly good selection of archery supplies. Not nearly as good as Gasmann's in San Antonio but what they did not have you could mail order. There were a number of great archery magazines with advertisers you could order from and like others have stated there was always Herter's that had everything imaginable including their own line of bows.
I bought my Damon Howatt Super Diablo new from Gasmann's for $100 in 1970.
I bought my first bow at K-Mart, and got other supplies from hardware and mail order dealers. Also, I got some stuff through a couple of pro shops.
I started serious shooting in the late sixties and early seventies. It may seen hard to believe but there were a lot of great bow shops back then. Those shops were archery shops rather than large department stores with archery departments like today. Honestly, the old time archery shops were very high quality and the owner operators knew their stuff.
I've been hunting and shooting since 1976. Grew up on Long Island in NY. I started shooting a Ben Pearson Colt. It was one of my Uncle Ed's. He was a my archer mentor and Bowhunters who started his archer career in the late 50's. In the 70s there where a couple places in my area that sold archery equipment. All traditional pretty much. Compounds were barely if at all available. Mohawk Archery on Sunrise Highway in Babylon and Hamptons Department Store in West Islip. I ordered my first recurve, a Bear Grizzly in about 1978 from Mohawk and paid about $70. I think it came with a dozen fiberglass arrows. About the early 80s our hunting group made the switch to compounds. I still have the the Colt, the Grizzly and my uncles bow, a 1960s Bear Kodiak Hunter.
I am 68 and I "resemble all these remarks",Yuuup!
I got bit by the archery bug in 1942 at the tender age of 6years old. My Mother use to read to me at bedtime and one of those books was Robin Hood. My first bow was a little wooden bow probably hickory that came with three arrows with suction cups on a piece of cardboard. Then my Dad who could make anything made me a bow and I remember shooting cat tails out of it.
When I was nine I got my first "real" bow probably lemonwood from the catalog. That bow was my constant companion when I rode my pony Scout around the woods and fields of the farm.
One day when my folks went into town, while they were in a store I went in to a sporting goods store next door. I bought a single arrow probably made by Pearson that had a broadhead on it for fifty cents. When my Dad saw the arrow he marched me back in the store and chewed out the man for selling that to a 10 year old kid and made him give me my money back.
My next real bow I bought when I was 15 was a Par-X aluminum bow that I got at a second hand store. That bow lasted me until I bought a new 52# Bear Kodiak in 1955 from Van Devorts Sporting Goods store. That was the year I started deer hunting with a bow.
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In the very early'60s , I wanted a bow so bad that I would pretend with my moms wire coat hangers .
My dad got me one of those green glass bows with the yellow tips and handle in 1962 .
It had a massive 25# draw weight and it was a full year before I could string it myself with the step threw method .
When I would break off a nock I would ride my bike to the little bait and tackle shop in town and the man there had new ones in a little draw on the wall .
By the time I was about 13 years old I got an old Bear Cub 36# @ 28 , that I paid $5 for and talked my dad into going deer hunting .
Got my first "MANs" bow when I was 17 , it was a beautiful 45# Kodiak Magnum .
Still had no descent place to get archery supplies , had to go to the big city to a Kreskies or Sears for that stuff .
Got my first bow in about '54. It was a scaled down lemonwood flatbow at about 20# and identical to my dad's 60# bow. Mine died in the spokes of my bicycle!
Dad got me a solid glass bow as replacement and that served until my uncle gave me an aluminum bow when I was 16. That was my all around shooter till '70 when I bought a new Ben Pearson at a Gem department store. That was and still is the only new bow I've ever bought. It has been traded around in the family many times and presently is owned by one of my son in laws.
There are quite a few bows in the basement at this time, all bought second hand or built by myself.
We always made our own cedar arrows although I tried some aluminum and fiberglass for a while. I played with a compound for a couple years in the 70's and shot cedar out of it too, much to the consternation of the other members of the league I shot in.
When I started shooting there was no one around that really knew anything. One of the local hardware stores had some archery equipment. I bought my first bow(s) in Houston at Glenn Slade's. They had their archery stuff on the second floor. I got a brand new Shakespeare Kaibab and an Ocala for $25 each. That was about a week's take home pay for me then.
Arrows were bought by the "each" when I got enough money. Didn't know anything about spine or matching weight and length.
A few years later I was stationed at Ft. Knox and bought a Bear Grizzly for $43 at a place in Louisville.
I'm not an "old timer' but back when I was in high school in the early 80s, me and a buddy would drive about 15 miles south to Anderson Archery in Grand Ledge MI. They had everything. We were compound shooters then, but if I recall they sold recurves also. We would go out there about every other week and listen to Tom Nelsons stories. Every June they would have a big show called " The Bowhunters Clinic". All the big names were there, Fred Bear, Tom Jennings ect. I miss that store.
Not quite an "Old Timer" yet! Got my first bow, a Ben Pearson 15# fiberglass, shoot off either side, fiberglass bow when I was 8. Bought my first real bow, 42# Staghorn recurve, with paper route money in the mid 60's from my Uncle's Archery shop in Marshfield, Wis. I can remember many a time, running down to the Johnson Hills store in town for a box of Fred Bear Cedar arrows, as needed! Been at it ever since, Those were good times!
LD