eng40sqd

Va Head Hunter.....While I am not here to argue I feel the need to speak up.....by the way what ever happend to the club you were going to start a two seasons or so ago?? I never did get any more information after all our phone conversations you seemed to vanish for a bit?

As far as Gander Mnt. goes... they do not work on precentage true...how ever that alone does not mean that you will get a better deal at a box store.... It also does not mean that you will get a more knowlegable bow mechanic.... how many of Ganders "mechanics" have factory certs... and if the do are they for any brands other than the ones that Gander carries? How many hold certs from outside sources for bow mechanics? They may all have these certs then again I would hope not... I bought a bow from them last summer b/c I was in the mood to try something new... they offered to set it up and tune it etc... so I said what the hey... well I got it home and shot 2 arrows thru it when I saw something was off..... their paper tune was a high left tear..off by almost 3/4"... that is not acceptable for a paper tune...I shot 10 arrows thru paper all with same result... no biggie easy enough fix...how ever upon close examination of the bow I found the tiller was off an alarming amount as well..... at this point I went back and asked them if that was acceptable and the guy there said it would be ok not to worry about it....

Now I am NOT saying that all the guys in their achery department are this caliper of mechanic as I got stuck with, the current ones may be top notch guys...when you deal with a small shop you deal with the same guy over and over...just like your car mechanic... your lawyer... even your maint, guy... you deal with one guy and they know you and your style and they know what will work for you and what wont...Another plus with Neal is he does custom strings and cables...and that doesnt mean order them from someone who ties them for him.. he has a jig and makes his own if you want a set of customs...

I have seen a few other examples of their staff at work... some of the guys are good guys.. but for a bow owner who isnt a bow mechanic or hasnt been in the sport long enough to know much about basic tuning..what happens when that guy gets the guy I dealt with... they go home and think they are where they should be... then they shot and shot and wonder why they can not get good groups... maybe become fed up with the bow and give it up... another sportsmen lost to a cross bow....

I will also say that yes there are a few shops that all they see are dollar signs...they tend be be in northern Va... if yournot a regular then you get treated like an outsider...not a way to keep customers....

Neal runs his shop part time... as he is a full time Law Enforcement Officer... he has the shop due to his love of the sport and wanting to promote it... not a means to live off of.,, he is always cutting people breaks on stuff...he teaches several youth archery clinics in northern va I think..not 100% sure...he is no slouch in other areas as well... he makes his own trail camras which he sells...knowledgable about LE/Tactical firearms, firearms in general...

There are certain items that he will tell you that you will be better off buying at Gander Mountain due to the fact they buy a larger bulk and have a better deal... but on 85% of the archery items he has they are the same or less...plus I know he isnt just trying to make a sale...He will be the first to tell you that he is not pressed about making a sale....

VA HEAD HUNTER

hey whats up. first off let me just say i tried everyhint i could to put that club together but after dealing with the high demands of the land owner of the big piece of land i had aquired i didnt feel it would work out. he wanted to have to much control over everything including amount of deer that could be harvested and insurance issues etc. i didnt think i could get many people to agree to his terms especially since i didnt agree with alot of them. therefore that left the only big piece of land availible was my farm and not to sound selfish but i didnt want to have a hunt club there since i have spent so long managing that farm and getting the big deer to grow. i was afraid to screw up their patterns etc. but i agree with ehat you are saying. i know last year at ganders archery shop they had a few guys working in that dept that were not qualified to be bow techs. the 2 that are couldnt work all the time so they had a few incopitent guys behind the counter. now you either deal with charlie or chris. they are not only skilled and certified but they are both hunters and competition shooters with bith compounds and traditional. ( charlie being the traditional archer) they carry browning,pse,bowtech,parker and a few others and they are well versed and certifeid in those bows. now chris is also sponsored and certified through mathews for 3d archery. now your right there are some shops around that are very one on one with the customer but they still are more likely to have better service to the customer they see all the time instead of the walk in one time guy. and this does suck like you said if your not a bow tech you still want to be taken care off. im just more partial to gander because i have nothing but great service for the 2 years they have been there and maybe that is because i have bought a boat, an atv, trailer and all my other toys there including all my hunting and fishing stuff. but for me they have been great. i just personally feel better dealing with chris at gander then anyone else. im not saying there are other good guys in the field i know there are but like a good mechanic you stick with the one that treats you good and they treat me great. oh yea i was reading a post that you are doing a hunt club. check into the bear island piece of land 3 miles from todds tavern on the right on catharpin rd in spotsy. its 4500 acres split by the ni river and heres the inside info. massaponax hunt club are not going to resign their lease this year because they lost it last year and the leasee wants to go with someone else so check that out it may be great for you guys. pm me if you need additional info.