Reunion with The Yellow Jacket Bow.

[Tony Sanders]

Reunion with  The Yellow Jacket Bow.
                                                                                                                                    By: Tony Sanders

    This story actually starts back in  1997.  I had just acquired a Yellow Jacket Recurve Bow that was built by fellow TBM(Traditional Bowhunters Of maryland) Club Member(Fred Dolinger). When I received the bow from Fred, I was more that pleased with the bow. The handle is made out of Bolivian Rose Wood, with a yellow accent stripe.

    Once I had the bow in my possession, I had only shot it a few times. My plan was to hunt with it that fall. But unfortunately ill fate intervened into that plan.  While up in Glen Burnie,MD  at a friend's apartment fate entered the picture.  Sometime later when  I came out to leave, I did not see my truck where I had parked it. You know, you say to yourself, I thought I parked my truck right there. Then I suddenly realize that my truck is gone.  I call the police and filed a stolen vehicle report. They sent out an officer and took my info. Well folks, I tell you, I was really bummed and upset about the whole matter.

    After going through all the emotions during a time like this, with questions of why and how. It really hit home hard when I fully realized that my new Yellow Jacket Bow was in that truck, along with other hunting gear. Two weeks to the day that my truck was stolen, I got a call from the Police in another county, saying they had found my truck. Of course when I was able to get the truck back a couple days later, my Yellow Jacket Bow was gone, along with a lot of other hunting equipment  I had in the vehicle. They even snatched the rear differential out of the truck and stuck another one in its place that was no good.  Needless to say, he or those that stole the truck were never apprehended or identified. I was glad to get the truck back, but at that time I would have been more happier to have gotten the bow back than the truck(truth). At times over the years I thought about the bow, but never expecting to ever see it again. I was even hoping it would turn up in a pawn shop, or I might even see it at some of the shoots I attend, but that did not happen.

  Now let's jump ahead to the evening of May 6, 2013(16 years later).  A phone call came in, and my Wife(Deborah) looked at the number, and since she did not recognize the number, she was not going to answer it, but decided to answer it anyway.  When the person on the other end asked to speak to Tony Sanders, she knew then that it was someone that knew me. That person on the other end, was none other than our very own Stan Trice, who is the Editor of The Traditional Bowhunters Of Maryland newsletter. A person by the name of Robert Trapps had called Stan about getting in touch with me, because it had something to do with a bow with my name on it. So Stan told the guy he would pass on the info to me along with his phone number, which he did and I in turn called Mr. Trapps.  Mr. Trapps proceeded to tell me that he came into possession of a bow with my name on it. Of course at the time he did not  know who I was, neither did I know him, and I certainly wasn't thinking about the Yellow Jacket Bow that was stolen 16 years earlier, when he mentioned a bow with my name on it.  

      He then told me that the bow had Yellow Jacket written on it. I then asked him was it a 3 piece takedown bow, and he said it was. The only one that I knew that made Yellow Jacket Bows, was Fred Dolinger, and I knew that the bow Fred had made for me was named Yellow Jacket.  Folks I can not describe in words the feelings and emotions that came over me as I could not believe that this could possibly be the same bow that was stolen that many years ago, and I could not wait to see it just to be sure that it was the one and self same bow.  So we agreed to meet that very next day.  

     On May 7,2013 I met Mr.Trapps at his home. We each greeted and introduced ourselves. We went inside, he told me to have a seat. He went to the basement and emerged with my Bow that was stolen 16 years earlier. As I stood there holding and examining the bow, I still could not believe that I had just been REUNITED with my Bow after all these years. All I could do was thank and hug the guy for following through with getting in touch with me.  Come to find out he is not a Bowhunter, but he is an avid Archer who have been shooting a bow since the sixties. He is 62 years old and still shoots a recurve today.  I then asked how he came to have the bow. Well his Brother does the kind of work where they go around and clean out old houses and get rid of what's left in the houses.  And one of the houses which he was cleaning out was located in Baltimore County, and this particular house had this bow there among the stuff that was to be thrown out. Since he knew his Brother shot bows and was into archery, he gave it to him in the month of Oct 2012. I asked him how did he know to contact Stan. Well Mr. Trapps kept mentioning  someone he called TP. And come to find out the TP that he was talking about was/is fellow TBM Club Member  Tom Parsons, who also is the owner of Kim Sha Archery.

   But before going over to see Tom, he had taken the bow  to Freds Sporting goods down in Waldorf, MD. He took the bow there because someone had twisted the bottom limb of the bow quite bad, and he was hoping they could help him out. They being a modern archery shop, told Mr Trapps that they could not help him and reccommended him to go over to Kim Sha Archery which is owned by Tom Parsons. After looking the bow over and assessing the problems with the bow, Tom told him he would not try and shoot the bow. Tom saw my name on the bow and told him he needed to get in touch with me about what he wanted to know and do about the bow. So Tom gave him Stan's number, because he did not know my number, and Stan in turn called me,  and  as they say the rest is history. And I really want to thank Tom, Stan and Mr. Trapps for following through so that I could be reunited with my Yellow Jacket Bow. Praise be to God through his Son Jesus Christ, that there are still good people in the world today. Mr. Trapps did not want anything in return, but I gave him something anyway and he was very thankful and was glad that he could help out.  He also had someone to break into his house and steal a bunch of his Archery equipment, so he could Identify with me and know how I felt. I also sent him some brand new arrows to show my appreciation. Once I had the bow home in my posession, I worked on the bottom limb to try and straighten it out. I ran the bottom limb under both hot and cold water while twisting it in the direction it needed to be, and after doing this over a few days, I was sucessful in getting the limb straight and  tracking right in the center of the string groove. I have been out shooting the bow quite a bit, and so far it is shooting quite well, and it is still tracking well.  I never had a chance to hunt with this bow, but Lord willing I sure plan to hunt with it some this coming 2013/2014 season. Shoot Straight and Good Hunting.



                                                         Up Date On The Yellow Jacket Bow.

    Well the Maryland Archery deer season is underway and I was able to take the Yellow jacket bow out and take the first deer with it after all these years of never being able to hunt with it. I shot a nice doe with it on Sept 24th.



  Tony Sanders

[EHK]

Awesome story and great shot on the doe.

[ChuckC]

Wow.  you waited a long time for that one.  savor every moment.

Congrats, both on the deer and on the return of your bow.

ChuckC

[Dannon]

Awesome story! Congrats on getting your bow back and closing the chapter by connecting on a long deserved deer with that bow! Good luck with it in the future!

[Jack Denbow]

Very cool story Tony. Hope to see you in Cincinnati.
Jack

[centaur]

Very cool story. That bow has acquired some mojo after all its travails. You are fortunate to get it back after all the twists and turns.
I bet it has a bunch more deer in its (and Your) future. Congrats on the doe!

[Easykeeper]

Wow!  Great story, congratulations on getting your bow back.  The guys involved in it's path back to you are also a nice contrast to the losers that stole your truck and gear in the first place...  

[tracker12]

Outstanding story!  Bow sure did travel around but nice to see it made its way home to do what is was intended to do.  Hope to see it at the Baltimore Bowmans shoot this coming spring.

[wapiti792]

Way to go Tony!!! Great story and beautiful whitetail man    

[Ric O'Shay]

Tony -
That is a marvelous story! I'm so happy for you and your reunion with "Yellow Jacket". Thank you for sharing.
Danny

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

What a story!
Thanks for sharing this with us.

[MCNSC]

Cool story, congrats on getting the bow back. Really Nice looking bow too.

[ron w]

Pretty cool stuff.......  

[FerretWYO]

That is a feel good story right there.

Very cool.

[Guru]

What a great read to start off my day, good for you brother!!

Great shot on a very meaningful doe    

[huntingarcher]

WOW! Good things happen to good people!  

[A.S.]

Tony, what a great story!

[Hermon]

Originally posted by A.S.:
Tony, what a great story!

X2

[Lethalflight57]

Great story Tony and a great looking bow! Awesome way to complete your reunification with a long lost friend.

[rocketman]

Great Story!  Thanks for sharing it!