Consequently, some 1990 guitars bear 1999 “N9” serial numbers. 1956 - Bear markets his Bear Razorhead broadhead for the first time. 1959 - First year for the coin medallion in the bow risers. 1967 - Fred Bear museum opens in Grayling, Michigan; closes in 2003 and collections sold to Bass Pro Shops. 1968 - Fred sells Bear. Prior to, the serial numbers for all Bear bows were started over every month, making these bows almost impossible to date by serial number alone. The 'FRED' series of serial numbers for example KZ were started in Even looking at the finesse is not a sure way of dating a Bear bow, as sometimes the pictures were used for more than one year, even. The Serial Number: These bows usually have, what appears to be a hand inscription on one of the limbs that gives a serial number along with the length and pull weight of the bow. This serial number works very well for dating Bear Bows from 1965-1969 when the first digit of the serial number is the year of manufacture. Slotted Recurve Bow, Archery World, February 1983: Bear Archery (1982) Bear 'Special Limited Numbered Edition' Take Down Autographed by Fred Bear (1980) Includes 22 karat gold plated limb mounts, clear glass and custom display box.The limbs are Yew wood with clear glass. The Yew for these bows was cut and seasoned by Earl Ulrich, at age 91. Fred Bear makes a number of compound bows: the Attack, Assault, Strike, Charge, Young Gun, Apprentice and Ultra Light. Although these bows differ in weight, size, features and draw strength, they do have many parts in common: the cam, which smoothly moves the drawstring, the pocket limbs, and the multi-curved bow shape.

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 madey fewer bows would be rarer, and thus command more value? Without a doubt this can be attributed to the influence of the man himself, Fred Bear and his immense popularity

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.

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. Melco scsi & raid devices driver download.

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 several 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.

Models of Grumley bows

Nels made 4 basic styles of bows:
◦ Field (straight limb)
◦ Hunter (steamed limb tips but without Brush Nocks)
◦ Bush Bow (having brush nocks carved into the ends of the limbs about 1-2 inches long)
◦ Deerslayer (with brush nocks 3-4 inches long).
These bows were available primarily in one piece design , but a few were made in 2 piece take-apart and some in 2 piece hinged models. The later Grumleys also can be found in laminated woods as well as self-wood models. Additionally you will find Grumley’s backed with sinew, rawhide, and various types of wood. A characteristic of Grumley bows is the trapezoidal limb cross section. By this I mean that the face of the limb is wider and tapers down towards the back of the limb giving a cross-sectional view which appears as a trapezoid.
Remember also that Bear would take special orders for bows during this time period, and the above models are only the “stock” models. Many one-of-a-kind Grumleys exist in collections that represent the buyers wishes expressed by Nels Grumley’s hands.
But whatever the model,and whatever the wood or backing, the quality of the craftsmanship was simply unparalleled. Of the bows which I have seen over the years, the only bowyers who I would put in the same class as Grumley would be James D. Easton of California and E.F. Pope of Texas

The Grumley bow on the left is a Bush Bow, while the bow on the right is the Deerslayer model. Notice the different length of the brush nocks.

The Grayling Era bows of Bear Archery

Beginning in 1947, Bear Archery moved into a new plant in Grayling, Michigan. Bow sales were now beginning to soar as new archers and bowhunters entered the sport in record numbers due in large part to the successful promotions of Fred Bear.

Fred realized that he could not meet the demand which would come from these new recruits by making bows one at a time like Bear had been doing since it’s inception almost 15 years earlier so he came up with a new method of mass producing bows, finally allowing his company to meet this demand.

But Nels Grumley would not accept that quality bows could be made by any other manner than one-at-a-time, so Nels left the company to go out on his own.
Upon Nels departure, Fred moved another employee by the name of Bob Meeker over to supervise the manufacturing of the new bow lines. Even though bows were then largely the result of machine work, Bob came to be considered a fine bowyer in his own right.

The Aluminum Laminated Bows

The first new bow model which was introduced in 1949 after Nels’ departure was the Grizzly. The Polar and Kodiak were introduced in the following year, 1950.

These bows of 1949, 1950 and early 1951 can be recognized by the lamination of aluminum in the limbs. This aluminum was scrapped from B-17 bomber airplanes of WWII, the purchase of which was arranged from the government by Glenn St. Charles. The aluminum lamination on the Kodiak and Grizzly is found only in the inner lamination, surrounded by layers of maple and glass. However, on the Polar, the aluminum is found both under a layer of maple and glass, and on the outside lamination.

In 1949 and 1950 Bear was using a bi-directional glass on their bows which looks somewhat like a basket weave pattern. Then in 1951 Bear began using a new Uni-Directional glass in which the glass fibers all ran lengthwise to the bow limbs. This is a good way to tell the difference between the 1949/50 and the 1951 models.

The 1951 Grizzly also began production with the aluminum lamination, but very early in 1951 the aluminum was dropped due to the high reported breakage

Fred Bear Bow Serial Number Lookup