Eastman528
WKR
Well after about 10 years in on this archery journey it looks like 2023 is going to be the year I begin working on my own bows. I have built my own arrows for a while now and last year I purchased a bow vise.
Roughly 3 years ago I was pretty fed up with my local archery shops and the lack thereof and was about to just take the plunge and buy a press etc. then a new shop came into town with a really solid guy who had previous experience at a bigger pro shop. So the last few years I leaned on him pretty hard and he was extremely helpful, I owe allot of my growth in archery recently to him. Unfortunately he left town and now I find myself without a "pro shop".
I don't want to rag on the specific places but I'll just say my two options I now have are both a 30 min drive into town 1 is at Sportsman's and isn't even a consideration and the other is at a more local chain store and is actually fairly decent but I cant rely on it.My closest option for what I would consider a true pro shop is Spokane Valley Archery a 2 hour drive. I'll likely be driving up there or possibly even further down to Boise or Missoula to test some of the 2023 bows (I am left handed) but I cant afford to be that far away from a shop if I need work done to my bow in the middle of season.
Long story short I am a DIY guy by nature and not to toot my own horn but do all of my own mechanic work, carpentry, etc. so it seems its only natural I work on my own archery equipment. So I think I am finally at the point if I want to continue to progress my archery/hunting game I need to work on my own bow to have a greater understanding and more control over my setup at least then if something happens its my own damn fault!
So all that said I'm going to be looking to purchase a press and will do some research on that, the easy green comes to mind. The big question for me right now is I have never bought a brand new bow but I am looking to upgrade. For those that work on their own bows how much do you take that into consideration when picking one brand over the other? There is definitely some newer tech out there now that looks to make the tuning process easier but if I am going to go full send with all the equipment does that even matter? like I said I am not a buy a new bow every year or even every other year kind of guy so I want to find a system I like and get intimate with it. Further more being left handed and living in rural Idaho even being able to go somewhere and be able to shoot multiple brand of bows is an issue. Ideally I would like to shoot every single bow that meets my specs and pic "the one" but that is seemingly impossible. For example I am really interested in the Elite Omnia but I am not sure I will even be able to get my hands on a left handed model without ordering one.
How are guys in similar situations handling this? I think its great that Bow manufacturers support local shops but when you don't have a local shop its frustrating, at the risk of sounding like a typical millennial not gonna lie if I could order bows off amazon test em out and only keep the one I liked I'd do it in a heart beat. Maybe there is one I am not aware of but its a little surprising someone hasn't started a program where a buyer can have a demo bow shipped to their door and test it out similar to other direct to consumer products. Anyways I'll quit rambling but would appreciate your thoughts!
Roughly 3 years ago I was pretty fed up with my local archery shops and the lack thereof and was about to just take the plunge and buy a press etc. then a new shop came into town with a really solid guy who had previous experience at a bigger pro shop. So the last few years I leaned on him pretty hard and he was extremely helpful, I owe allot of my growth in archery recently to him. Unfortunately he left town and now I find myself without a "pro shop".
I don't want to rag on the specific places but I'll just say my two options I now have are both a 30 min drive into town 1 is at Sportsman's and isn't even a consideration and the other is at a more local chain store and is actually fairly decent but I cant rely on it.My closest option for what I would consider a true pro shop is Spokane Valley Archery a 2 hour drive. I'll likely be driving up there or possibly even further down to Boise or Missoula to test some of the 2023 bows (I am left handed) but I cant afford to be that far away from a shop if I need work done to my bow in the middle of season.
Long story short I am a DIY guy by nature and not to toot my own horn but do all of my own mechanic work, carpentry, etc. so it seems its only natural I work on my own archery equipment. So I think I am finally at the point if I want to continue to progress my archery/hunting game I need to work on my own bow to have a greater understanding and more control over my setup at least then if something happens its my own damn fault!
So all that said I'm going to be looking to purchase a press and will do some research on that, the easy green comes to mind. The big question for me right now is I have never bought a brand new bow but I am looking to upgrade. For those that work on their own bows how much do you take that into consideration when picking one brand over the other? There is definitely some newer tech out there now that looks to make the tuning process easier but if I am going to go full send with all the equipment does that even matter? like I said I am not a buy a new bow every year or even every other year kind of guy so I want to find a system I like and get intimate with it. Further more being left handed and living in rural Idaho even being able to go somewhere and be able to shoot multiple brand of bows is an issue. Ideally I would like to shoot every single bow that meets my specs and pic "the one" but that is seemingly impossible. For example I am really interested in the Elite Omnia but I am not sure I will even be able to get my hands on a left handed model without ordering one.
How are guys in similar situations handling this? I think its great that Bow manufacturers support local shops but when you don't have a local shop its frustrating, at the risk of sounding like a typical millennial not gonna lie if I could order bows off amazon test em out and only keep the one I liked I'd do it in a heart beat. Maybe there is one I am not aware of but its a little surprising someone hasn't started a program where a buyer can have a demo bow shipped to their door and test it out similar to other direct to consumer products. Anyways I'll quit rambling but would appreciate your thoughts!
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