Vabowman

Honestly, I found the guy at Gander mt in my area to be quite worthy of working on bows. My pro shop guy is the one that said I did not need to tune my bow!!! It depends sometimes!!

Sliverflicker

Percentage wise your much better off going to a pro shop, but then I have seen peopleworking in them that would not know a Rats arse from a hole in the ground also . I wont get into some of the stories, Ill just say I dont let no one work on my gear.

Washington Hunter

I used to get some funny looks working next to a 60+ year old back in the archery department at Sportsman's Warehouse. A lot of the older guys (at first) weren't comfortable with how young I was -- until I worked on their equipment. As it stands now, I have customers calling me and getting ahold of me on AT who want me to work on their bows from my home, rather than having to take it into Sportsman's.

Go figure.

Not ALL young people are inexperienced. Its a stereotype that gets real old real fast. Just because you work at a chain store doesn't mean you're inexperienced. Sometimes its difficult to get hired at a lot of the mom and pop shops locally because they're family owned and operated.

YooperMike

Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back. The shop I go is very good, all workers are pretty good. I have learned alot in the last year, so I can do most things myself now, which is handy.

greenboy

I usaully special order my stuff(ie...guns, bows, and accessories) but if I need work done I always go to the local proshop they just seem to do a better job, and have been around for about 20yrs

Vabowman

I say that personality is a plus too. My local pro shops seem to be quite rude and simply could use a course in customer service!! Pure, firstclass _ssholes !! At least the chain stores Ive been to have been polite and helpful.

buckeye

I can honestly say that my local Gander Mtn has better techs than any of my "local" shops....

BigJ71

+1

HNI_Christine

I've had mixed results from different pro shops. Many moons ago I took my bow into a bigger pro shop in Northern IL. It was mostly a gun shop, but they had a guy there who really *thought* he knew everything about bows and bowhunting. I brought my bow in once to shoot some targets and mentioned I was having some problems getting my feathers to clear the rest. He grabbed my bow and a said "Well, here's your problem." He then took a pair of pliers (pliers!) and bent the 'L' shaped rest on my Huntmaster 2000 until it faced away from the riser. Needless to say, I kept my bow far away from there from then on.

The guy ended going on to work at Basspro (eek) and the 'pro shop' hired more competent archery staff.

Now that I live in Central IL, I've tried a couple of pro shops. BlueRidge Backwoods Archery shop in Monticello is my favorite. Recently, my nice NAP rest suddenly became the feather-eating-untunable-rest-from-hell. Deb worked on it for two hours straight and never once did she break out a pair of pliers. (though, "mallet" was brought up more than once) Eventually, it was determined that the rest was somehow broken and no amount of tinkering could make it work right. A new rest later and I'm not making feather confetti everytime I shoot.

-end rambling here-

MdDave

a mechanic wasnt the best mechanic his first day...that 20-40 year veteran wasnt always as good as he is now.....they got tostart some where.... i know i dont like the idea of some inexperienced person workin on my stuff.....but its the fact of life in my opinion