What makes autumn orange Gamegatters so good?

[BOWMARKS]

Billy    

Green Gamegetters yuck  

[Rufus]

I liked them too. Just cause. I have one 2016 left to my name. I have it ready to shoot with a broadhead on it but I won't do it. Kinda like the old sweatshirt I've had for 30 yrs. that I won't throw away(my wife will for sure; retrieved it twice from the dumpster twice), they don't make'em like they used to.

[Charlie Lamb]

Loved the look of them. Favorite combo was a 2219 AO shaft, brown fletch, brown nock, and Zwickey Delta bh.
 
 

[marshall brown]

I took alot of deer with those orange shafts. They sure do have sentimental value to many people. I've only got a few left and treat them as if they're gold.

[Ric O'Shay]

Jack Howard turned me onto 2114's for my Jet many years ago. I bought all the AOs I could get my hands on. Just checked the closet and found 42 of them.....    

Danny

[CDR]

Oh Ric O'Shay I am jealous.

[ron w]

I like them cause when I started they were state of the art arrows and I couldn't afford them on my dishwashers pay...lol. I still like them, but I shoot wood mostly now.

[outbackbob48]

I liked them because they were orange. I hate camo arrows , somethings should be camo but not things I,m trying not to lose such as flashlight, tp, and arrows. Why would I pay more for artifical wannabe wood legacy arrows. Look like cheap artifical wood. Almost as bad as faux fur. UUUUUUR. Bring back all the sizes an orange color.8>}  Bob

[Pepper]

Orange...........vitamin "C"......Thy're healthy.

[NDTerminator]

I always cut the saged nock end off and put on uni-bushings...

[JEFF B]

yup i have seen those we even had em over here at some stage. why do they change  good things that work i just dont understand em at all. oh well i guess thats why they call it progress   :D

[smokin joe]

They looked good in the fall woods.
They were also darn good arrows, much more user-friendly and far better than what Easton is making now -- better looking too.
I have a few AO 2117's and 2016's left from the old days.
I am shooting nothing but wood arrows now, but I would probably shoot autumn orange Eastons too if I could get them.

[rickshot]

Well, nothing wrong with the nostalgia stuff, especially when you can look back and realize you were growing up, along with Easton. Be that as it may, I pulled out a '68 Bear and an '81 Easton catalog to see if I could find something better than my memory...which was the easy part.

In the '68 Bear catalog Easton 24SRT's were still available, as were XX75's and X7's. I have a number of 24SRT's...they are bare aluminum with no added color. The only mention of color was "full length olive drab shaft color, extra.....doz. $1.50." Also listed were Bear Magnum Arrows, which were "made of a special tough alloy to Fred Bear's specifications."

From a 1982 Bear Archery ad, the Bear Metric Magnums specs state X-7 alloy with a "Sylvan Brown Hard Coating. Non-corrosive, will not wear off. Most other arrows are only anodized." (I have both Magnums and Metric Magnums...finish is similar, numbering system changed.)  

However, more to the point regarding the Autumn Oranges, in the '81 Easton catalog specs are given for the Autumn Oranges and the Gamegetters, of the day. The Gamegetters were 2024 alloy with 8000 lbs. less tensile strength and were dull olive green with soft anodized finish. The Autumn Oranges, stronger 7075 alloy and had a hard anodized finish.        

Of course, these few references offer less than a complete story, but it seems a fairly clear indication that coating/anodizing aluminum shafts was evolving. Aside from Bear Magnums (which I also favor), Autumn Oranges and Gamegetters were what many hunters had to choose from...and between the two, Autumn Orange was the winner, hands down. Also, in 1980 X7's were made with 7178 alloy, placing AO's in the mid-price range.

All things considered Autumn Oranges won the day, and still continue to deliver superb performance. IMO, they rank high on the all-time "if it ain't broke don't fix it" list. Rick.

[outbackbowhunter]

The best aluminum arrow has yet to be built by Easton.

I would like to see a legacy shaft with a swaged front end and a loose uni nock system for the back end.

That is to trim the back of the shaft for length and a factory swaged taper up front for the broadheads.

[Mountainboy]

I just thought they blended in with autumm better...  

[Shooty1]

I like having arrows that are a solid, visible color just for the sake of easily checking alignment while shooting. Bright arrows are visible in low-lit woods, or at least more visible than faux woodgrain or black.

[L. E. Carroll]

I gave my hunting partner a full dozen AO 2219's.. [ new full length shafts ] last summer and I know he was sure tickled to get them.. They look great on his SR Swift and sure shoot nice.. what more is there to like???

Gene