Old compound bow info
Contributors to this thread:General Topic
From: BOX CALL
16-Mar-17
Picked up an old bear grizzly 11,two wheel compound in factory camo and has birch creek outfitters printed on the top limb and bear on the bottom limb.anybody heard of this bow type before.
From: MNRazorhead
16-Mar-17
I have one of those hanging in my bow room downstairs right now. Was the last compound I had before I switched over to recurves full-time. Just a few specs: Early-mid (maybe late) 80's bow. Fiberglass and maple laminated limbs - not carbon. Weight and draw-length adjustable. 50% let-off, round wheel = means draw curve looks like a hill with a valley instead of a two vertical cliffs = much more pleasant to pull/shoot. Split-limb (split just around the eccentric, not the entire limb) plastic wheel two-wheeler. Teardrop steel cables and a 39" string. Was a good bow that killed a bunch of deer. Back then I shot 70 lbs at 30" draw with 550 grain arrows which chrono'ed at just over 200 fps, IIRC. I pulled it out a few weeks ago and shot it barebow/instinctive and was breaking nocks off with my groups. That let-off is REALLY nice for holding and focusing in on the spot. It was tempting to keep shooting it... It was not the top-end from Bear at the time, the Alaskan 4-wheeler was their premier bow, but the next level down. PM me or post any questions you have about it and I, or others I'm sure, will try to help you. One thing to check is wheel alignment. Since they were plastic wheels with no metal bearings, the axle hole could round out after a lot of shooting and cause the wheels to cant off-center. A bit of cant isn't a huge deal but too much, like anything, is not good.
From: Scooby-doo
16-Mar-17
Early Eighties for sure, definitely not late 80's. I had one that was brand new in 1981. For their time they were a very good bow. By the mid 80's the technology was really taking off and Bear did not really keep up in my opinion until the late 90's, then they started coming on again! Scooby
From: White Falcon
16-Mar-17
Box Call, does it look like this?
From: BOX CALL
16-Mar-17
Here's the bow,got a new set of limb bolts and washers coming for it.
From: Scooby-doo
16-Mar-17
The only thing that scares me about those older bows is those tear drop cables. I have seen them let loose. I have an original Bear Whitetail from 76-77 and I shoot it a bit but I am always worried about those tear drops. Scooby
From: BOX CALL
16-Mar-17
Had one of the old Jennings t shaped string anchors go bad,but it just had one of the t anchor ears break.made a new set of cables and good to go.
From: Charlie Rehor
17-Mar-17
Hard to believe we actually killed stuff with those early bows:)
From: ACB
17-Mar-17
Mark is right on with his assessment of this bow. It is the first compound I ever owned . All my friends kept telling me how behind I was still shooting my recurve so I took the plunge and bought one of these . Shot it with no sights till the wheels were so worn I became afraid it was going to derail . It shot great , but what a difference the new bows are now .
From: Scar Finga
17-Mar-17
Yep those crappy anchors!!! I have a 3inch scar on my left hand from one that let loose at full draw. it whipped around and cut me to the bone... OWWWIE! Very cool old bows for sure!
God Bless,
Scar:) (I aint got this name for nuthin)
From: MNRazorhead
17-Mar-17
White Falcon, that bow is the indestructible 6-wheel Whitetail Hunter. They were very popular and many, many were sold. Cost was a whopping $80-100. Can't buy any accessory for that price now, much less a bow.
From: BOX CALL
17-Mar-17
Don't care what ya say,i m still an old school compound user.got martin cougar 11,Jennings split-t,PSE magnaflite,and this bear grizzly 11.got a couple of recurves.like them all and I'm a bowhunter.
From: safari
17-Mar-17
Guess my Darton 5000 MX is worthless?
From: bud
17-Mar-17
BOX CALL that Martin Cougar was my dream bow at the time. I just didn't have the money haha.
From: ACB
18-Mar-17
Martin cougar magnum is the bow I bought after the bear
From: BOX CALL
18-Mar-17
If anybody is building a martin cougar magnum bow,I have a set of limbs with the energy cams and the original cable guard.
From: ACB
18-Mar-17
The wooden limbs on my cougar magnum could not take the 80lbs I was shooting at that time. After 3 sets I had them send me round wheels and converted it to a cougar. Never was happy with the speed after that .
From: BOX CALL
21-Mar-17
Got that grizzly 11,all set up .does anybody know what the tiller is on this bow.right now top limb is 8 1/2" and bottom limb is 8 5/8"., thanks,dan
From: MNRazorhead
21-Mar-17
Box, I'll measure mine tonight when I get home and let you know. Although, I think I remember from the original instruction book that you should just turn the limb bolts in all the way until they bottom out and then back out an equal number of turns on each limb to get to your desired weight and you are good to go. Make sure your pigtails (cable coming out of the eccentric down to the teardrop) are exactly equal length. Also, one complete turn of the limb bolts will raise/lower poundage by 4 pounds. FYI.
From: MNRazorhead
22-Mar-17
Box, my upper limb has a very slightly higher measurement - 1/16". Hope this helps.
From: Rob Nye
22-Mar-17
Thread brings back memories, my first contraption was a PSE 4 wheeler Citation. Flipper II rest, pins 10 to 60 yards, no peep, shot with fingers. It was an accurate gizmo and put a lot of meat in the freezer.
From: Paul@thefort
22-Mar-17
In 1997 while living in Ohio and planning my first elk hunt in Colorado I purchased a Oregon Dischutes compound bow, my first compound. Yep, real cables and mushroom string attachments. I killed the Colorado Big Game Eight with that bow, the last animal was a black bear in 2001. A few years back I donated the bow, case, arrows to the CBA banquet and we held a youth draw for the bow that night. I noticed that one of the alum arrows still had some bear blood on the fletching. I have great memories hunting with that bow over a 12 year span. The 10 year old kid that received the bow had a big grin on his face but he had a hard time carrying the bow/case back to the table. I still have a Martin Cougar 3 in the garage as a back up bow to my Mathews. my best, Paul
From: Paul@thefort
22-Mar-17
CORRECTION, In 1987 while living in Ohio..................
From: BOX CALL
22-Mar-17
OK,here it is,picked up an old school four arrow bear quiver for it.heading out back to pound the target.setting on 64#.you can drool now,lol
From: BOX CALL
22-Mar-17
OK,here it is,picked up an old school four arrow bear quiver for it.heading out back to pound the target.setting on 64#.you can drool now,lol
From: MNRazorhead
22-Mar-17
Ooops. Double post.
From: MNRazorhead
22-Mar-17
Here is my baby. Bear Grizzly II with my homemade stabilizer I made back when I was in high school. The end is a steel pulley off of an old combine, rod is a long steel bolt that came out of our farm machine shed and I welded the two together. Painted it green to match the bow paint, which I later camo sprayed with brown. I lucked out as the stabilizer perfectly matches the bow and it will sit perfectly vertical when just holding it in the web on my hand.
From: MNRazorhead
22-Mar-17
Box, she's beautiful. And a killer...
From: BOX CALL
22-Mar-17
Did ya put yarn where the cables cross.I tied strips of inner tube on !y cables.quiets down pretty good.pretty noisy shooting with the quiver on.
From: MNRazorhead
22-Mar-17
Moleskin, and yep those cables do rattle if you don't do something to quiet them down. I also put a plastic thingee (don't know if you can still get them) that snaps into both cables, above and below where the moleskin is. It keeps the cable from vibrating against each other- you can see them as little black things in the pic. I used to have a cable guard that worked pretty good. Got rid of it for some forgotten reason. Plus I shoot 650 grain arrows which quiets it down quite well.
From: BOX CALL
23-Mar-17
Put an old Jennings cable guard on the grizzly,and now it shoots quiet as a mouse walking on cotton.trying some xx75 ,2213 arrows today.tried some cabelas 400 yesterday and didn't fly good.there 9/32" arrows.
From: BOX CALL
23-Mar-17
Well,tried the 2213 and they flew perfect at ten and twenty.also tried some beman pork chops and they almost blew thru my target.they pack a pretty good punch.the bemans were 400 .
