Pinwheel 12

"RE: Is your Dealer QUALIFIED???"

UM, Geee, I dunno, it's been so long since I've been to a dealer.... I think they're all dead now.[8D][8D]

Wait--

Nope! Emery Loiselle is still alive, just retired. (he's 82 or 3) Pinwheel 12

Orions_Bow

My area has lots of bow shops - no pro shops! This is how it goes in my area.

Store A sell Mathews, Darton, PSE, Parker - He bad mouths Shops B, C, & D, and also puts down bows he does not sell such as Hoyt, Bowtech, AR, Champion, and Bear/Jennings. He only likes to stock a couple of types of arrows (carbon expres) and charges way too much for them. Accesory stock is way down & if it's not the brands he sells he will put it all down. He does have a good knowledge of archery & bows & tuning. He does help new shooters somewhat, depending on who is spending the most money at the time! He also carries a small selection & likes to order your bow for you. This is how he sells almost all of his Mathews.

Store B sell Mathews & thats it, very little accessory stock, no bow tuning skills, and no selection on arrows, etc. They mostly sell guns & ammo - go figure this one out! They are happy with what they have & don't care to add anymore brands.

Store C sells Mathews & Hoyt, Easton arrows, and a fair amount of accesories & they do have a range. They are way overpriced, not much help & mostly rude to any new customer.

Store D sells Bowtech, PSE, AR, Parker, Alpine & Champion. Mostly CX arrows, good deal of accessories, no range and fairly small store without much room to stand around. One guy is super nice ( a bit behind the times), the other is up on the times but rude. They bad mouth 2 brands Hoyt & Mathews because they don't have them but they wish they had them. Never seen them deal with a new archer so I have no clue.

Store E - mega mail order store - moves tons of equipment & a couple of guys that are really good working with people & are up to date. The others suck & would sell a guy a 35" draw if they are 10 years old! This is like a lottery - if you get the right person you are in luck if not well sorry about your luck! They do have the stock & good buys & are cheaper than the pro shops.

Is any of them a pro shop in my opinion.....NO. Archery in my area would appear to be active but it's not, I have no idea where to shoot indoors in the winter, no common way to find out about 3-D shoots in the summer, and no one worth a flip to work on your bow anymore. It's a sad state for archery in my area, the shops are doing nothing to help with it either. They are extreamly over priced & it is much cheaper for me to go to the mega store or to mail order from companies like Keystone or Lancaster.

Straightarrow

Some dealers are in business with the object to make money. When money dictates how you react to a situation, you usually end up failing. Other dealers are in business to serve the customer. Their decisions are based on what right, not what's profitable. The ironic thing is that doing what's right and honest, is also one of the quickest ways to profit. To acheive high profits, all energy must be put into serving the customer. It sounds like you suceed in this area, Len. Fortunately, I have a shop in my area that also concentrates on serving their customers, so I'm all set.

BOWFANATIC

We have two dealers that push products based on $$ and not personal fit. Neither one of them has a tech who knows what their doing. Unfortunately the Mfg's could care less! It's all about the mighty $$$! Their both big sporting goods chains. Ones Gander Mountain and the other is Sheels Sports.

Fortunately we have a few small proshops around that offer great service with knowlegable technicians!

Ate-Up

Ill. Cornfield not sure where Fulton county is,but Mike's archery in Irvington Ill is awsome. He has over 30 years experience and is the nicest guy.He mostly deals Mathews-Hoyt-PSE,but i'm sure he could get anything that you would want.

I have a local shop(Town Hall Archery) 12 miles from my house,and would rather drive the 100 mile round trip to have Mike work on my bow.

zak123

I love my shop. The owner has another job so his shop is there just for fun. I know that because he donates brand new tournament PSE bows and treestands for free. I'll go in there and ask for some points and I get them for free. He does it just for fun and likes getting others started.

ewolf

Len your a good man. I have had 4 buddys who have bought bows that were not fit for them. I hate to say this but i don't even have a shop to go to. I did before i started shooting IBO, I beat the owner the second year out and was never welcomed there. He wanted to charge me 50 bucks more for a bow then my buddy. He also asked my son one day if i was so good why didn't i start my own shop. All because i beat him in IBO. I totally respected the guy and never tried to contradict anything he said. I got tired and made buddys with the bow distributors. I drive 2.5 hours to get to the distributor. I hate to go over the shops heads but if any of them were worth a crap i would go to them. The worst archery shop of all... Bass Pro Shops.

Techy

How stupid[&:]. I wonder if that guy holds a grudge[:-]

hoyt_boy

When Hoyt came out with their Cam and a 1/2 system a couple of years ago, I was looking to upgrade from my MT Sport that I had learned to shoot on. Being rather naive and having the wrong ideas about what to look for in a bow I just knew I wanted the biggest / baddest / fastest bow that I could find. My eyes found the SuperTec, I was in love. I went to my local Hoyt dealer in Riner where he had one in stock. Correct me if I'm wrong but when Hoyt came out with that Cam and a 1/2 I think they gave the dealers a package deal of bows and a SuperTec came with it, a 29" draw which I know now is WAY too long for me. The pro didn't check my draw, ask me any questions about what I was going to shoot, or even ask me why I wanted that particular bow - he just took the bow off the rack, sold me a JUNK fall-away rest and broke my sight putting it on which I didn't find till later. I took it home all excited and cut some arrows to shoot that afternoon AND..... I peeled the skin off my left forearm, down to the raw hide and blood. It took me a few minutes to discover that I was drawing much further back than I had been with my MT Sport, which was set up by my girlfriends dad, a seasoned bowhunter who also gave me the bow to get me interested in the sport. I realized that the spiral cam on the bow was a set draw length and wasn't adjustable like the regular cam, so I took it back expecting him to change the cams out. No, he would sell me new cams but wouldn't exchange them. He wouldn't even sell me cams at cost, he said he needed to 'cover his overhead.' Well, I knew I couldn't shoot that bow set up like that, so I tried to get him to buy mine back and either sell me another one or else I take my business elsewhere. He would buy mine back at his dealer cost, minus his profit margin and I could buy a new bow at regular cost. I called Hoyt. They said it was out of their hands. I finally sold him my bow back and bought a RazorTec at another dealer who worked with me for nearly two hours to get it set up right. I know the feeling of getting screwed, so I shop at a REAL pro shop now. And he gets a buttload of business from other pissed off customers from the other guy.

We've got a bunch of those little half ass archery shops around here, but I've only found one that the employs really care and know what they are doing. I wish there were more like that.

KY_BOWMAN

WELL HERE'S A GOOD STORY. NOW I WHOLEHEARTEDLY BELIEVE THAT YOU NEED TO GET YOUR FIRST BOW FROM A GOOD PRO SHOP OR HAVE SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING SET YOU UP WITH YOUR CORRECT DRAW LENGTH AND A GOOD STARTING POINT FOR YOUR DRAW WEIGHT. BUT AS FAR AS ACCESSORIES ON YOUR BOW GOES. I DEFINATELY BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE MISSING OUT IF YOU PAY YOUR OVERPRICED PROSHOP YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY FOR A SIGHT. YEAH NORMALLY HE WILL PUT IT ON YOUR BOW FOR YOU, BUT A MONKEY CAN DO THAT. I ASKED MY PROSHOP HOW MUCH HE WAS CHARGING FOR A TROPHY RIDGE NITRO EXTREME 3 PIN. HE TOLD ME THAT WOULD BE 85.99 THEN HE HAD THE GAUL TO TELL ME THAT THIS WAS A GOOD DEAL. HE THEN TRIED TO EXPLAIN TO ME THAT PUTTING A NEW SIGHT ON A BOW WAS PRETTY HARD TO DO AND TO GET IT RIGHT. WHAT I DID WAS LOOK AT EBAY. WELL I GOT MY SIGHT AND NEEDLESS TO SAY I GOT IT FOR 32.00 PLUS 6.00 FOR SHIPPING. THAT'S ROUGHLY A 50.00 SAVINGS AND THE SIGHT WAS SIMPLE TO PUT ON AND GET SIGHTED IN. I SIMPLY LOVE IT, AND I THINK THAT MY PROSHOP WAS KINDA BENT OUT OF SHAPE WHEN I TOLD HIM WHERE I BOUGHT IT. HE DOESN'T REALLY TALK TO ME THAT MUCH WHEN I COME ANY MORE, BUT DO I CARE, NO I SAVED 50 BUCKS!!!!! NOW AS FAR AS THE TECHNICAL REPAIR ASPECT OF BOWS THAT'S WHEN I WILL GIVE MY MONEY TO A PROSHOP. I GUESS I WILL GET OFF MY SOAP BOX NOW.