Can we talk bows for a bit?

[dc dalton]

Well as some of you know many moons ago Tootie and I owned an arrow manufacturing company and were BIG TIME into shooting, both hunting and competition. At the time I was running one of the fastest bows out there and came in 2nd for speed in several shoots (damn Screaming Eagles kept winning) ... it was a Golden Eagle turbo hunter with a massive 3" overdraw and some of the first carbon arrows every made (not Beemans thank god) ... but in 1991 we closed that company and got completely out of shooting (no idea why any more)

So this year we both decided we wanted to get back into it but after stopping at a few shops and seeing the UNGODLY prices of bows these days we figured the heck with it .... fast forward to the past week. I noticed some of the 'not state of the art but not ancient' bows were going used at prices we could actually afford. I got Tootie a really nice Golden Eagle Evolution bow with complete set up for $100. I was trying to get a Golden Eagle Obsession for me but got outbid on it. So I started 'just looking' and there in lies the problem.

We have been out of the picture for so long damn near nothing is recognizable to me any more bow wise so I wanted to get input from you shooters / hunters on what's a decent brand / model, not new cause there's no way we can afford $1000 for a full set up but something that can give a similar performance that my 'state of the art in 1991' Golden Eagle gave me but updated .

I've seen the $800 Mathews bows and the other high priced stuff, I want to start shooting again but can't break the bank either!


And as a side note what the heck happened to Golden Eagle? It looks like Bear bought them out.

[fingers80002]

She's doing better than me, I have a Jennings Unistar plus.........

15+ or - yrs old........

I know what you mean about new bow prices, though.

Spent less on the AR Sat.

[dc dalton]

She's doing better than me, I have a Jennings Unistar plus.........

15+ or - yrs old........

I know what you mean about new bow prices, though.

Spent less on the AR Sat.

Yeah that's whats killing me ... my entire Turbo Hunter, brand new with sites, over draw, quiver, carbon arrows and ALL the play toys cost me about $400 .. but that was 1990. Hell the damn thing was shooting 230 FPS back then.

I'm not looking for the latest and greatest .. to us shooting was a great way to relax (we loved the walk through 3D shoots) and to have some fun. She never hunted but I spent many a day freezing my ass off in a tree stand.

[doc454]

Good to see you're heading back into archery. I love it, gets me out into the woods an extra couple of months.

According to the "experts", last years model is obsolete. BS!

I still have a 14 year old PSE and an 8 year old Hoyt that I use every year.

I've heard nothing but good about the Matthews, and I suspect that if I ever decide to get a new bow, that would be the brand.

A couple of years ago I had tendon tears in both elbows, and had to rely on a crossbow (legal down here in 5C), but I think I'll be able to go back to my compound this year.

I'd love to get a take-down recurve, and go primative, but that's another expensive proposition.

Currently, I'm using a Hoyt MagnaTech, ZR200 limbs, 3 inch overdraw, shooting 28 inch Carbon Express. 31 inch drawlength.

It's an old setup, but still puts down the deer.

[riverpirate]

This happened to me as well. When I was in the military in the early 90's I shot competitions all over england and california using a top of the line........Bear Bruin. Once I got out in 94 i kinda quit shooting. Well 2 years ago I still had the bow and pulled it out and started shooting. I went to go get some new arrows at Lancaster Archery and I thought the guys were going to laugh at me , lol. They were very helpfull and I got some new arrows and started shooting indoors. A couple of weeks later I went to the Harrisburg sports show. I ended up buying a new Alpine Extreme Impact. It weighed about a third of my bear and got it at a great price.
So back to lancaster archery to set it up. A new whisker biscuit, deadnut sight, carbon stabalizer, limb tamers , carbon arrows and all the other stuff ( couple hundred dollars later ). Also switched to using a release which I had never used before. After all of that I love that I got back into shooting again. I hunted last year ( havnt bowhunted in 15 years ) and still shoot all the time. Its worth getting back into and not all the new bows are exsoensive. Bear still makes some in the $200-250 range. Alpine $200-300 range. You can even get used one for a great price just look around

[fingers80002]

Yeah that's whats killing me ... my entire Turbo Hunter, brand new with sites, over draw, quiver, carbon arrows and ALL the play toys cost me about $400 .. but that was 1990. Hell the damn thing was shooting 230 FPS back then.

I'm not looking for the latest and greatest .. to us shooting was a great way to relax (we loved the walk through 3D shoots) and to have some fun. She never hunted but I spent many a day freezing my ass off in a tree stand.

She really needs to experience the kill...

Nothing like the first.

[doc454]

Especially your first bow-kill.

[fingers80002]

This happened to me as well. When I was in the military in the early 90's I shot competitions all over england and california using a top of the line........Bear Bruin. Once I got out in 94 i kinda quit shooting. Well 2 years ago I still had the bow and pulled it out and started shooting. I went to go get some new arrows at Lancaster Archery and I thought the guys were going to laugh at me , lol. They were very helpfull and I got some new arrows and started shooting indoors. A couple of weeks later I went to the Harrisburg sports show. I ended up buying a new Alpine Extreme Impact. It weighed about a third of my bear and got it at a great price.
So back to lancaster archery to set it up. A new whisker biscuit, deadnut sight, carbon stabalizer, limb tamers , carbon arrows and all the other stuff ( couple hundred dollars later ). Also switched to using a release which I had never used before. After all of that I love that I got back into shooting again. I hunted last year ( havnt bowhunted in 15 years ) and still shoot all the time. Its worth getting back into and not all the new bows are exsoensive. Bear still makes some in the $200-250 range. Alpine $200-300 range. You can even get used one for a great price just look around

If I got laughed at, at a shop, for what i brought in, i would tell them to get FUCKED, and leave, the trash their ass, as much as possible....

Course, I'm an asshole, so...........

[Paradigm]

Can we talk bows for a bit?

...and I thought this thread was going to be about controlling long hair.

[deafsmithco]

Would you like to borrow my old Jennings Arrow Star for a year or two? It's about 30 years old, and I have not used it since 1996. I went back to recurves in 97.