this ole bow

back in the late 70's or early 80's i was getting heavily into archery and bow hunting. i had already purchased several competitive compound bows from a man by the name of Rube Powell, a five time NFAA national champion that had a shop in the town where i lived at the time, Chula Vista, CA; he had become my, and my youngest son's mentor. we had the pleasure and honor to have shot beside him on many occasions, including major archery tournaments here in southern California such as the Fresno safari, the King Arthur tournament and many, many, local tournaments.

Rube had won his championships shooting recurve bows in the 1950's but he had accepted the compound openly, willingly and never looked back; it was with no wonder that when i told him i wanted a recurve, he said "why do you want a recurve?". he believed the compound to be superior even though all of his laurels were gained with the recurve bow. you can find him in the "Hall of Champions" in San Diego, California now. he has been honored there for his accomplishments with the bow and arrow.

Rube passed on in 1992. i had the sad experience to visit with him when he was hospitalized one day before he died; i have a fanny pack and that recurve bow and some other archery equipment i got from him that still functions perfectly to this day.

i was just getting started at the end of an era of many of the bow hunting greats like Howard Hill, Fred Bear, Jim Daughtery, Doug Walker, Ben Pearson, Art Laha, Harry Drake, Jack Howard, Duke Savora, Bill Cropp, Frank Eicholtz and Bob Swinehart to name a few. i had read about their adventures and felt the lure of the recurve or longbow.

i read an article about Art Laha, as an example, about he and a friend who would, yearly, parachute into the wilds of New Mexico with their bows and equipment and bowhunt their way back to 'civilization'...I've never heard of ANY modern day bowhunter who's EVER done that. (maybe our Special Forces of today could learn from him if he were still around.)

i walked into Rube's shoppe, on Broadway in Chula Vista, one day to just "hang around" and there on his used bow rack was a green and blue Bear Kodiak Hunter recurve that immediately caught my eye. i asked Rube to string it for me so i could 'handle' it; i made a deal with him and took it home.

the bow was one that was made in Grayling Michigan before Bear relocated to
Florida, which makes it a 'collectors item' of a sort, it's very graceful in it's lines and reasonable in it's draw weight poundage (being marked 45XX which means it's in excess of 45 pounds...the X's used before, or after, after a given number denote more or less poundage. the number of X's denote more excess...so "45XX" would denote closer to 55 pounds than 50 pounds draw weight, "XX45" would denote closer to 35 pounds draw weight; the system is no longer in use.) at the time i purchased this bow, i was very capable of drawing a bow of that draw weight so it was not of concern to me and it is sufficient for most north American game animals.

it is 60" long and i shoot it off the shelf utilizing a mechanical release aid now (age causes problems with fingers ya know)

I've had the bow ever since.

it now has many dings and scars in it from the years and i did machine and install some brass inserts to install to use a bolt on bow quiver with but it's still as capable now as it ever was, i still shoot it and I'm still amazed at it's performance. some today might scoff at it but it still delivers an arrow with grace, authority and accuracy. what more does an archer/bowhunter want? what more is needed? very little, if any, I believe.

I've taken more live game with that old bow than any bow i own or have owned and it even accounts for a feral dog that was very aggressive towards my son and i when we were hunting.

it's walked the deserts of southern California and Arizona in the quest of game in 110 degree heat and near zero, knee deep snow of wyoming with me in quest of adventure and game. I've made some beautiful shots, and some horrendous shots with it. the horrendous shots were not it's nature they were because of MY shortcomings.

as we all are aware of, a bow is NOT a living organism and does not have a life of it's own or possess a soul but yet it's been a true and faithful companion that has yet to let me down when called on. it in itself, is a memory generator. nothing more...nothing less.

i don't know if it's because it was my first recurve bow, or because i got it from Rube, but,it has a place in my minds eye, memory and on my bow rack until the time comes for me to answer to the call of our Lord and God to come home to Him. until then, hopefully there are more memories to be made waiting for us.