Burning Feathers Like Fred Bear!!

[Gary Logsdon]

I've shot parabolic shaped fletching, shields and bananas but none of them have 100% satisfied me. That is, until I made a not-so-recent discover.

Many years ago I was vacationing in Panama City FL when I received a call from Fred Bear's secretary.  She told me that Fred had been released from the hospital and was anxious to see people and catch up on his work. He wanted to know if I was going to be in his area as I took my kids down to "see THE MOUSE".  Of course we weren't in that part of FL and I hadn't planned on driving over to the Bear plant in Gainesville, but the prospect of having some private time again with Papa Bear was too tempting, so I loaded up the wife and kids and headed several hundred miles over to see him.  When we walked into Fred's office you could see smoke and smell freshly burned feathers coming from his small work area.  Fred had just finshed making an arrow which he planned on giving me as a momento of our visit.  As we looked over his red and yellow "masterpiece" I asked him if the shape he used was a "shield cut".  Fred leaned backwards and laughingly said, "I don't know what you call it, I just know that I like it!!"  

This morning I took a piece of paper and traced one of Fred's feathers. Using it as a guide for shaping a feather burner element, I burned all of my new arrows using Fred's unique "shield" shape. Well, I think I have found a winner . . . don't know what you call it, but I know that I like it!.

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[Kenneth]

       Great story, thanks for sharing!!

[OldSkoolArcher]

Very Very Cool!!

Thanks for sharing!

[Mike Vines]

Great story, and nice pic of Fred...and yourself.

[trick00]

very neat story! Enjoyed!

[MJB]

OUTSTANDING Gary ! Thanks for sharing  

[jcar315]

Thanks for sharing such a wonderful story. Great looking feathers too by the way.

[DesertDude]

Very cool........

[Coonbait]

Thank you for sharing a great story!
GLENN

[rdoggsilva]

One terrific story, thanks.

[Jack Guard]

Love hearing stuff about Fred Bear.  Thanks so much for sharing.

[howdydoit]

Originally posted by rdoggsilva:
One terrific story, thanks.

I agree, great story.

[reddogge]

Great looking feather and good story.

[Gary Logsdon]

The little girl you can barely see in the lower left hand corner of our picture is my oldest daughter.  She turns 30 years old this year.  The "picture" of us is actually a still stolen from a home movie my wife shot in Fred's office.  Fred had me hold my daughter nose level to a Grizzly neck mount so he could tell her about the night he shot it and how it couldn't be retrieved until the next morning.  There were multiple bears hanging around the downed bear's body that preceded to eat Fred's trophy to the point where all he had left was enough hide for a neck mount!  Fred loved kids.

[tradshooter]

That was a great story and what a treasure to have such a personal gift from Fred Bear and that he was your friend. A neat memory for sure! Thanks for sharing that with us.

[FerretWYO]

That is a cool story Gary. I like his I just like it thought as well.

[cacciatore]

Very nice Gary,thanks for sharing.

[johnis]

Cool.Thanks for sharing with us!!

[kibok&ko]

fanatastic story !

[Stone Knife]

Wow great story Gary.