When I was in junior high school, my stepfather introduced me to the sports of archery and bowhunting. At the time, the compound bow had been around for a couple of decades, but we are talking about the round cam era. My first bow was a PSE Scamp. Its metallic silver riser and laminated wooden limbs made it a fashionable bow for the mid-80s. When my father gave me the bow, I literally cried tears of joy.
Like any teenage boy, I longed to be like my dad — an archer, a bowhunter. Although he made his living in the small eastern Arizona town in the logging industry, you would never know it from his “shop.” In fact, you may have thought it was an archery shop, except that really didn’t exist in our world at the time.
At any given time, there must have been at least 20 dozen arrows — all fletched and ready to fly — hanging from the walls. Among the arrows were several variations of the ever popular Easton Gamegetter and newest Gamegetter XX75s. Trust me when I say, “It was more aluminum than any two guys could fling in a lifetime. That said, eventually a dozen would be gone, another dozen having replaced them on the wall.
During the mid- to late-80s, I remember the following bows hanging from the shop walls. I recollect two Browning models: the Nomad and the Xcellerator, their beautiful, laminated wood risers hidden with camo spray paint. At one time, there was an 80-pound Bear Delta V, an advanced bow for its era. Of course, later on there were the newer magnesium riser PSE bows, the riser cut away with a Dremel-like tool and a overdraw installed for the ultimate in broadhead clearance.
My father liked to tinker. As a young adult, he and a few friends owned and operated a top fuel drag racing team, and the tinkering came from the racing industry I’m quite sure. The goal of all of the bows, various aluminum projectiles and the inordinate amount of tinkering was simply to get a properly-spined arrow to fly true at or more than 200fps when released with fingers — this was also the tab era.
Through high school, I spent countless hours with my father tinkering with bow setups, building arrows, and of course, hunting every chance we had. I suppose my inner archery geek was kindled during that time.
Having served in the United States Air Force for half of the 1990s, I was removed from the archery world to some degree for that period. After re-entering the civilian life, it was several years before the flame was once again rekindled. Now, my archery geek is worn on my sleeve.
