Bear Compound Bow Serial Number Lookup
2021年12月11日Download here: http://gg.gg/x7hmm
Find the maker of the compound bow and email the picture or serial number to the company, asking for a confirmation on the bow’s year of production. Lists of compound bow makers are found at websites such as Hunter’s Friend. Check a Bear bow (the name of the maker) for a series of different criteria to determine its age. Bear bows have been in. Find the maker of the compound bow and email the picture or serial number to the company, asking for a confirmation on the bow’s year of production. Lists of compound bow makers are found at websites such as Hunter’s Friend. Check a Bear bow (the name of the maker) for a series of different criteria to determine its age. For example, a serial number of 6Z3884 would be a 1966 bow. Prior to 1965, the serial numbers for all Bear bows were started over every month, making these bows almost impossible to date by serial number alone. The “K” series of serial numbers (for example KZ9399) were started in 1970.Identifying or Dating Hill Bows It is by no means unusual for Hill bows to appear on the traditional archery lists for sale pages or on auction sites. Those who buy Hills used often want to identify the model, the basic information about the bow, and perhaps when and by whom it was made. Fortunately, there is a code on each bow that will help with this. The following material is from a small series of posts that appeared on the Hill Shooters email list, supplemented by a post from Craig Ekin of Howard Hill Archery. With this material, you should be able to get a pretty good idea of the model of the bow and who probably made it. The who also helps with the dating of it.From time to time, as we get more information through the HH email list, we will supplement this page.I have two Wesley Specials. The serial numbers are: WC 664970 and WC 665066. Do the serial numbers have any meaning other than production sequence?
Gil Moss, Portland, OregonGil..I am working on a page for identification of Hill bows. Not ready yet. However, I can tell you that your serials:
WC 664970 and WC 665066
can be read as follows: ’W’ means it’s a Wesley. The ’C’ means that Craig built it. ’66’ means it is 66’ long. The remaining numbers are serial and, I believe, once I get organized, can be used to tell when it was built.
More on this whole subject in a week or two.Richard..
The serial # on my Big 5 is BC 685319
--
’Mike your friend in traditional archery’Mike.. ’B’ = Big Five ’C’ = Craig ’68’ = 68 inches etc.By now I’m sure you’re all getting the idea.. it’s really quite straightforward. What I’m after and contacting Craig about is other variations of the ’who made it’ initial, like ’T’ for Tim Meigs, etc. and perhaps some reference points for the serial number part to that a bow could be put into a time reference.
I’ve done similar projects in the identification of antique sewing machines, and all it takes is a sufficient verified data base. However, it’s always easiest to go to the source if you can.The following was provided by Craig Ekin:Hi Dick:
There are some general ones (rules) that will help out ’most’ people. There have been quite a few bowyers over the decades, but the most common are:
5 numbers without any letters or with just an R in front were made by John Schulz. The R stands for reverse handle. There are a ’few’ that have a Y for yew.
4 numbers followed by 3 numbers without any letters were made by Tim Meigs...ie: 7077 134
2 letters or 3 letters where the last letter is K were made by Ted Kramer and/or his son, Lee. For example: BK is Big Five by Ted and Lee Kramer. BLK is Big Five
by Lee Kramer. BTK is Big Five by Ted Kramer. They worked together lots of the time in the same shop. Early on they did everything together. Later on, they worked
in the same shop but individually. These letters are then followed by 4 or 5 numbers which are the length of the bow with the serial number of the bow.
And a bow with C in the beginning two or three letters was made here and stands for Craig.
Occasionally, someone would request something unique and that won’t fit into this scheme, but this will take care of most of the bows from late 60’s on.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you don’t understand something or you have a question.
CraigHill ID CodesHere is a photo of two of my Hills. The first is a brand new Black Bear Carbon. The code can be read as:’BBC’ = Black Bear made by Craig’64’ = bow length is 64’’5444’ = serial number (note that the last 4 has shed a bit of its paint)’52 @ 25’ = the tillered draw and weight (note that making an ampersand by hand with a brush is tough! The ’@’ usually looks like a small ’e’)Second bow is a Halfbreed and the code would read:’HC’ = Halfbreed made by Craig’66’ would be the bow length’1961’ would be the serial number (kinda low!)Note: I just laid out all my own Hills for a ’group photo’ (Hey, you do it with your family!) and noted the following that is relevant to this topic. First, I do have a very fancy Cheetah with a fully checkered ebony riser. This bow has no identifying marks on the riser, undoubtedly because the checkering would have destroyed it anyway. I thought it was unmarked, until I noticed as I was posing the photo that Craig had actually signed it in full ’Craig T. Ekin’. This is quite small, on the belly of the top limb just above the riser, and cleverly located in the middle of a knot in the Mountain Juniper.. pretty hard to see. This is the only actually signed bow of his I have.Second, I have two Bear Cubs. This is the ’kids’ bow that Hill Archery offers. To tell you the truth, I’m a bit beyond the kid stage, by about 60 years or so, but I love these bows. I have one that is marked 40# @ 23’ that pulls 45# for me. It’s an older bow but, other than the poundage, draw and length ( 56’ ), is not identified with a model or maker initial or serial number. My other Bear Cub is a new one made for me by Craig, also the 56’ one. It pulls 27# @ 25’ and is the bow I shoot when my arm and/or shoulder are acting up. This one is also only marked with the draw weight and length and the bow length. Bear Cub bows are marked ’Bear Cub’ on one limb, however, so you do know what model it is.DickSome additional helpful info:Tim Meigs worked at Hill from 1977 to 1992.John Schulz worked at Hill from 1968 to 1974.Hill Limited Edition BowsHere is a list of Limited Edition Hill bows that Howard Hill Archery has made:Commemorative.. 75 made.. one for each year of Howard Hill’s lifeRogue.. 50 madeJungle Cat.. 40 madeBear Compound Bow Serial Number Lookup 2472810King of the North.. 50 madeOl’ Three Toes.. 50 madeCentennial.. 90 madeWild Boar. 50 madeScirroco.. 50 to be made
Nothing has grown so fast and furious in the hobby of Archery Collecting anywhere near the growth that collecting Bear Archery memorabilia has. It doesn’t seem to matter what the item is, be it broadhead, bow, catalog, or even LP record albums of Fred telling hunting stories, if it says Bear Archery on it, someone wants it bad!
In this article, I will present an overview of Bear Archery, and give you just a taste of the different items which you should be looking for. Then in later columns, we can get into the details of particular items. But for now, sit back and enjoy our time capsule of the most famous archery company of all time.A Brief History of the Bear Archery Company
Begun in 1933 in a small shop in Detroit, the company was first known by the name Bear Products Company. Archery consumed only a small corner of this new business whose main line was silk-screening and other advertising work for the major automotive makers. Although Fred made bows for himself and friends, it wasn’t until 1938 when Fred hired a very skilled woodworker from Detroit by the name of Nels Grumley that the Bear Products Company line expanded to include bows.
By 1940 the archery line had grown to the point where Fred decided to sell out his part of the advertising business to his partner and continue to pursue his hobby/business as the Bear Archery Company. Times were tough, but Fred was a very good business man, and the business continued to grow until the move from Detroit to a brand new plant which Fred had completed in Grayling in 1947.Fred Bear Compound Bow Serial Number Lookup
Fred sold the company in 1968 to Victor Comptometer so that he could raise the needed capitol to grow the company even more. Even though he was not the owner any longer, Fred stayed on as President of Bear Archery Company under Victor. The Bear Archery Company thrived in Grayling until 1978 when a strike at the plant forced the owners to move operations to Gainesville, Florida where the company remains today. Fred stayed active with the company that bears his name until his death in 1988 at the age of 86.
Now that we know a little about the Companies roots, let’s take a look at some of the more popular products which have been produced by Bear over the last 65 years.The Bows of Bear Archery
Without a doubt, Bear Archery Company has produced more traditional bows than all the other traditional bow companies combined. In fact, in one year alone (1975), Bear Archery made over 360,000 bows. Why then, if there are so many Bear bows out there, are they so valuable? Wouldn’t it make sense that other bow companies who made fewer bows would be rarer, and thus command more value? Well, remember that we are talking about bowhunters here, ever worse than that we are talking about bowhunters who collect. Enough said?
Seriously, Bear bows were the best marketed bows in the world for over 50 years. Most all of us who grew up in the days before compounds saw Bear ads and promotions everywhere we turned. And as a result, many of us grew up with Bear bows in our hands for a good part of our lives.The Pre-Grayling Era Bows of Bear Archery
Fred’s first bowyer back in 1938 when the fledgling Bear Products Company first began commercially producing bows was a remarkable man by the name of Nels Grumley. Nels was a fantastic craftsman, and his skills show in each and every one of his bows. The pride in his craftsmanship is demonstrated in that each and every bow which Nels made is either stamped or signed with his name, along with the words ’Bear Products by Grumley’ or ’Bear Archery by Grumley’.
Beginning in 1938, Grumley bows bore the stamped mark of the maker, sometime in the early 1940’s, the stamp was broken and all bows after that date bore the written mark of their famous maker.
Why the different means of signing the bows? Well, when Nels first began making bows for Fred in 1938, he used a sort of branding iron to stamp into the wood his mark ’Bear Products by Grumley’. Then somewhere in the early 1940’s, the brand was dropped and broken and instead of buying a new one Nels simply began writing his name on the bows.
Note: Remember that the company was known as Bear Products until 1940, so the ’Bear Products by Grumley’ bows were obviously made before those marked ’Bear Archery by Grumley’.
Nels left Bear in 1948 when Fred made the decision to begin mass production of bows at the new factory in Grayling. Nels felt strongly that bows should be individually crafted, and not made by machine. So Nels left, even though Fred tried to convince him to stay with some handsome financial offers, and struck out on his own to make bows. However, his private venture into the bow making business lasted only two years before he took a job in an appliance manufacturer as a model maker. These ’Grumley by Grumley’ bows are marked with a simple stamped signature ’Grumley’ either on the limb or on the riser, and are very scarce and excellent collector items.
Not all Bear bows made in these early years were made by Nels. There were dozens of other bowyers who made Bear wooden bows, mostly the lower line lemonwood models such as the Ranger. These bows were simply marked ’Bear Archery’ in a written form. However, in late 1948 Bear began using what later became known as the small ’Running Bear’ decal, and thus some bows built beginning in 1948 may have this decal instead of the written brand.Bear Archery Serial Number
Models of Grumley bowsBear Compound Bow Serial Number Lookup
Nels made 4 basic styles of bows:
Download here: http://gg.gg/x7hmm
https://diarynote-jp.indered.space
Find the maker of the compound bow and email the picture or serial number to the company, asking for a confirmation on the bow’s year of production. Lists of compound bow makers are found at websites such as Hunter’s Friend. Check a Bear bow (the name of the maker) for a series of different criteria to determine its age. Bear bows have been in. Find the maker of the compound bow and email the picture or serial number to the company, asking for a confirmation on the bow’s year of production. Lists of compound bow makers are found at websites such as Hunter’s Friend. Check a Bear bow (the name of the maker) for a series of different criteria to determine its age. For example, a serial number of 6Z3884 would be a 1966 bow. Prior to 1965, the serial numbers for all Bear bows were started over every month, making these bows almost impossible to date by serial number alone. The “K” series of serial numbers (for example KZ9399) were started in 1970.Identifying or Dating Hill Bows It is by no means unusual for Hill bows to appear on the traditional archery lists for sale pages or on auction sites. Those who buy Hills used often want to identify the model, the basic information about the bow, and perhaps when and by whom it was made. Fortunately, there is a code on each bow that will help with this. The following material is from a small series of posts that appeared on the Hill Shooters email list, supplemented by a post from Craig Ekin of Howard Hill Archery. With this material, you should be able to get a pretty good idea of the model of the bow and who probably made it. The who also helps with the dating of it.From time to time, as we get more information through the HH email list, we will supplement this page.I have two Wesley Specials. The serial numbers are: WC 664970 and WC 665066. Do the serial numbers have any meaning other than production sequence?
Gil Moss, Portland, OregonGil..I am working on a page for identification of Hill bows. Not ready yet. However, I can tell you that your serials:
WC 664970 and WC 665066
can be read as follows: ’W’ means it’s a Wesley. The ’C’ means that Craig built it. ’66’ means it is 66’ long. The remaining numbers are serial and, I believe, once I get organized, can be used to tell when it was built.
More on this whole subject in a week or two.Richard..
The serial # on my Big 5 is BC 685319
--
’Mike your friend in traditional archery’Mike.. ’B’ = Big Five ’C’ = Craig ’68’ = 68 inches etc.By now I’m sure you’re all getting the idea.. it’s really quite straightforward. What I’m after and contacting Craig about is other variations of the ’who made it’ initial, like ’T’ for Tim Meigs, etc. and perhaps some reference points for the serial number part to that a bow could be put into a time reference.
I’ve done similar projects in the identification of antique sewing machines, and all it takes is a sufficient verified data base. However, it’s always easiest to go to the source if you can.The following was provided by Craig Ekin:Hi Dick:
There are some general ones (rules) that will help out ’most’ people. There have been quite a few bowyers over the decades, but the most common are:
5 numbers without any letters or with just an R in front were made by John Schulz. The R stands for reverse handle. There are a ’few’ that have a Y for yew.
4 numbers followed by 3 numbers without any letters were made by Tim Meigs...ie: 7077 134
2 letters or 3 letters where the last letter is K were made by Ted Kramer and/or his son, Lee. For example: BK is Big Five by Ted and Lee Kramer. BLK is Big Five
by Lee Kramer. BTK is Big Five by Ted Kramer. They worked together lots of the time in the same shop. Early on they did everything together. Later on, they worked
in the same shop but individually. These letters are then followed by 4 or 5 numbers which are the length of the bow with the serial number of the bow.
And a bow with C in the beginning two or three letters was made here and stands for Craig.
Occasionally, someone would request something unique and that won’t fit into this scheme, but this will take care of most of the bows from late 60’s on.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you don’t understand something or you have a question.
CraigHill ID CodesHere is a photo of two of my Hills. The first is a brand new Black Bear Carbon. The code can be read as:’BBC’ = Black Bear made by Craig’64’ = bow length is 64’’5444’ = serial number (note that the last 4 has shed a bit of its paint)’52 @ 25’ = the tillered draw and weight (note that making an ampersand by hand with a brush is tough! The ’@’ usually looks like a small ’e’)Second bow is a Halfbreed and the code would read:’HC’ = Halfbreed made by Craig’66’ would be the bow length’1961’ would be the serial number (kinda low!)Note: I just laid out all my own Hills for a ’group photo’ (Hey, you do it with your family!) and noted the following that is relevant to this topic. First, I do have a very fancy Cheetah with a fully checkered ebony riser. This bow has no identifying marks on the riser, undoubtedly because the checkering would have destroyed it anyway. I thought it was unmarked, until I noticed as I was posing the photo that Craig had actually signed it in full ’Craig T. Ekin’. This is quite small, on the belly of the top limb just above the riser, and cleverly located in the middle of a knot in the Mountain Juniper.. pretty hard to see. This is the only actually signed bow of his I have.Second, I have two Bear Cubs. This is the ’kids’ bow that Hill Archery offers. To tell you the truth, I’m a bit beyond the kid stage, by about 60 years or so, but I love these bows. I have one that is marked 40# @ 23’ that pulls 45# for me. It’s an older bow but, other than the poundage, draw and length ( 56’ ), is not identified with a model or maker initial or serial number. My other Bear Cub is a new one made for me by Craig, also the 56’ one. It pulls 27# @ 25’ and is the bow I shoot when my arm and/or shoulder are acting up. This one is also only marked with the draw weight and length and the bow length. Bear Cub bows are marked ’Bear Cub’ on one limb, however, so you do know what model it is.DickSome additional helpful info:Tim Meigs worked at Hill from 1977 to 1992.John Schulz worked at Hill from 1968 to 1974.Hill Limited Edition BowsHere is a list of Limited Edition Hill bows that Howard Hill Archery has made:Commemorative.. 75 made.. one for each year of Howard Hill’s lifeRogue.. 50 madeJungle Cat.. 40 madeBear Compound Bow Serial Number Lookup 2472810King of the North.. 50 madeOl’ Three Toes.. 50 madeCentennial.. 90 madeWild Boar. 50 madeScirroco.. 50 to be made
Nothing has grown so fast and furious in the hobby of Archery Collecting anywhere near the growth that collecting Bear Archery memorabilia has. It doesn’t seem to matter what the item is, be it broadhead, bow, catalog, or even LP record albums of Fred telling hunting stories, if it says Bear Archery on it, someone wants it bad!
In this article, I will present an overview of Bear Archery, and give you just a taste of the different items which you should be looking for. Then in later columns, we can get into the details of particular items. But for now, sit back and enjoy our time capsule of the most famous archery company of all time.A Brief History of the Bear Archery Company
Begun in 1933 in a small shop in Detroit, the company was first known by the name Bear Products Company. Archery consumed only a small corner of this new business whose main line was silk-screening and other advertising work for the major automotive makers. Although Fred made bows for himself and friends, it wasn’t until 1938 when Fred hired a very skilled woodworker from Detroit by the name of Nels Grumley that the Bear Products Company line expanded to include bows.
By 1940 the archery line had grown to the point where Fred decided to sell out his part of the advertising business to his partner and continue to pursue his hobby/business as the Bear Archery Company. Times were tough, but Fred was a very good business man, and the business continued to grow until the move from Detroit to a brand new plant which Fred had completed in Grayling in 1947.Fred Bear Compound Bow Serial Number Lookup
Fred sold the company in 1968 to Victor Comptometer so that he could raise the needed capitol to grow the company even more. Even though he was not the owner any longer, Fred stayed on as President of Bear Archery Company under Victor. The Bear Archery Company thrived in Grayling until 1978 when a strike at the plant forced the owners to move operations to Gainesville, Florida where the company remains today. Fred stayed active with the company that bears his name until his death in 1988 at the age of 86.
Now that we know a little about the Companies roots, let’s take a look at some of the more popular products which have been produced by Bear over the last 65 years.The Bows of Bear Archery
Without a doubt, Bear Archery Company has produced more traditional bows than all the other traditional bow companies combined. In fact, in one year alone (1975), Bear Archery made over 360,000 bows. Why then, if there are so many Bear bows out there, are they so valuable? Wouldn’t it make sense that other bow companies who made fewer bows would be rarer, and thus command more value? Well, remember that we are talking about bowhunters here, ever worse than that we are talking about bowhunters who collect. Enough said?
Seriously, Bear bows were the best marketed bows in the world for over 50 years. Most all of us who grew up in the days before compounds saw Bear ads and promotions everywhere we turned. And as a result, many of us grew up with Bear bows in our hands for a good part of our lives.The Pre-Grayling Era Bows of Bear Archery
Fred’s first bowyer back in 1938 when the fledgling Bear Products Company first began commercially producing bows was a remarkable man by the name of Nels Grumley. Nels was a fantastic craftsman, and his skills show in each and every one of his bows. The pride in his craftsmanship is demonstrated in that each and every bow which Nels made is either stamped or signed with his name, along with the words ’Bear Products by Grumley’ or ’Bear Archery by Grumley’.
Beginning in 1938, Grumley bows bore the stamped mark of the maker, sometime in the early 1940’s, the stamp was broken and all bows after that date bore the written mark of their famous maker.
Why the different means of signing the bows? Well, when Nels first began making bows for Fred in 1938, he used a sort of branding iron to stamp into the wood his mark ’Bear Products by Grumley’. Then somewhere in the early 1940’s, the brand was dropped and broken and instead of buying a new one Nels simply began writing his name on the bows.
Note: Remember that the company was known as Bear Products until 1940, so the ’Bear Products by Grumley’ bows were obviously made before those marked ’Bear Archery by Grumley’.
Nels left Bear in 1948 when Fred made the decision to begin mass production of bows at the new factory in Grayling. Nels felt strongly that bows should be individually crafted, and not made by machine. So Nels left, even though Fred tried to convince him to stay with some handsome financial offers, and struck out on his own to make bows. However, his private venture into the bow making business lasted only two years before he took a job in an appliance manufacturer as a model maker. These ’Grumley by Grumley’ bows are marked with a simple stamped signature ’Grumley’ either on the limb or on the riser, and are very scarce and excellent collector items.
Not all Bear bows made in these early years were made by Nels. There were dozens of other bowyers who made Bear wooden bows, mostly the lower line lemonwood models such as the Ranger. These bows were simply marked ’Bear Archery’ in a written form. However, in late 1948 Bear began using what later became known as the small ’Running Bear’ decal, and thus some bows built beginning in 1948 may have this decal instead of the written brand.Bear Archery Serial Number
Models of Grumley bowsBear Compound Bow Serial Number Lookup
Nels made 4 basic styles of bows:
Download here: http://gg.gg/x7hmm
https://diarynote-jp.indered.space
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