March is winding down and it is time to get serious about Spring Gobbler hunting. I recently acquired a vintage Bear Kodiak Hunter recurve and just finished building a set of wooden arrows to shoot from her.
The Bow
I was lucky enough to pick up this mid-70’s era Bear Kodiak Hunter recurve – a 60″ AMO bow rated at 51# @ 28″ – for a song. The string was shot, there was a site drilled and screwed to the bow and it was covered in black guck.
I ordered up a new flemish twist string from stilldub over on eBay and removed the old rug rest and strike plate. This revealed the original 51# DW rating of this 50# – according to the visible factory marking on the handle – bow. I used an isopropyl-soaked paper towel, and a gentle finger nail here and there, to get it all cleaned down. I filled the drill holes using tooth picks and 2-part epoxy to within 1/16″ of the surface, then topped off with white acrylic and green/black color matching acrylic mix respectively. Then I punched holes in electricians tape to mask the fill spots so I could seal them with a couple swipes of clear nail polish. I installed a new rug, side plate and beaver fur string silencers. I located the silencers at the 1/3 up and 1/4 down locations on the new string.
Good to go.
The Arrows
I’ve had a half dozen 11/32″ cedars laying around that are just a shy week for my 51# longbow which is fitted with a high performance Fast Flight string. I figured these would be better suited to this matching weight bow with Dacron string. I stained the shafts using Minwax Dark English Wood Finish, and sealed them with 8 coats of rub-on Poly. I had some Tru-Flight feathers laying around that I had purchased from the classifieds on one of the forums a while back. I fitted the shafts with Classic Nocks, glued on the fletchings, and this morning put 125gr points on 2 fletched arrows and one bare shaft to do some initial tuning.
We’ll see how it goes – but I’m feeling pretty ready to get shot in for turkey season now.
One Reply to “Getting Ready for Turkey Season”
Nice restoration job on a classic bow. I had a 43 pound Kodiak Hunter with the handle riser in exactly that colour, that I bought in about 1972 if my memory is correct. I sold it in a moment of temporary insanity to get a compound, but have since rejoined the traditional archery world. I currently have one of the new (2021) Kodiak Magnums in “Grayling green”, and a stunning black phenolic/bubinga Super Kodiak that I think dates from 2019 (04-019 on the handle riser). Both of these are 45 lbs DW. The SK is a bit long for hunting at 64″, however and shiny black to boot, so I have just ordered one of the new Kodiak Hunters in “Arctic grey”, also 45 lb DW. This should fill the gap left by my old KH, which to this day remains my favourite recurve design.
Nice restoration job on a classic bow. I had a 43 pound Kodiak Hunter with the handle riser in exactly that colour, that I bought in about 1972 if my memory is correct. I sold it in a moment of temporary insanity to get a compound, but have since rejoined the traditional archery world. I currently have one of the new (2021) Kodiak Magnums in “Grayling green”, and a stunning black phenolic/bubinga Super Kodiak that I think dates from 2019 (04-019 on the handle riser). Both of these are 45 lbs DW. The SK is a bit long for hunting at 64″, however and shiny black to boot, so I have just ordered one of the new Kodiak Hunters in “Arctic grey”, also 45 lb DW. This should fill the gap left by my old KH, which to this day remains my favourite recurve design.