Bear Whitetail Hunter
 

Just had a bow given to me. It's a Bear Whitetail Hunter. The fella who gave it to me said it was bought in 1990, so it about 12 years old. He said it wasn't shot for about 3 or 4 years. String is frayed a little and some of the plastic coating on atleast one of the cables
is chipping away near the pulley. So.....I WOUILD OBVIOUSLY NEVER EVEN DRAW THIS BOW.....I'm not very knowledgeable about bows at all-but I'm not stupid.

This is my first compound bow so looking for knowledgeable input.

I want to bring this bow in to a shop and have it thoroughly inspected, make sure it's sized to my draw, install new cable and string and install some sort of a sight.

My questions are:

1) First - Is this a good bow to spend some money on getting it back in shape? I mean is it powerful enough?

2) Second - What do things like having the inspection, installing strings & pulleys cost on average?

3) Third - What are the simpler & reliable sights? (i.e., tried & true)

4) Fourth - How do I start shooting? At what? What distances? What type of arrows? How much practice before actually drawing down on an animal? Hay bales? I don't know.

I don't want to waste any $$$.

Any input will be much appreciated>

Thanks Uncle Matt (IL)

RE: Bear Whitetail Hunter
 

I should mention that I'm talking about a "Whitetail Hunter 2" - Not a "Whitetail Hunter".

RE: Bear Whitetail Hunter
 

Uncle Matt,

This is a post in which you are probably going to get some varying opinions. The time frame in which you quoted is probably about right for the Whitetail Hunter 2 bow. The original Whitetail Hunter was produced even earlier than that...circa 1985 or so.

Many thoughts initially popped into my head after reading your post but it seems I am having somewhat of a difficult time placing them into some form of coherrent order (its pretty early yet...:))

One thing to consider is that considering the age of the bow and the type of parts you are talking about replacing I think you are going to have a very difficult time finding or getting them. Most bow companies keep some parts in stock for a year or two after the bow is discontinued but rarely longer than that. The bow in question hasn't been made for almost a decade so I sincerely doubt you are going to be able to get new steel cables or new cams/limbs.

I do still suggest that you take it to a pro shop to have them look it over but chances are that they are going to tell you the same thing. They might be able to do "band aid" job to the bow to make it safe to shoot for now but in the long run I believe you would be better served just to buy a new one.

I hesitate to answer any of your further questions until you respond to what I posted above. Good luck and let us know what the local shop does for you.

RE: Bear Whitetail Hunter
 

was reading through the topics and a link was listed on a post about the copper john dead nuts hunter site so i checked it out.
htpp://www.ezlivinsportscenter.com. this place custom builds steel cables, they say they also stock hundreds of cables for the brands they carry and i would imagine as popular as the whitetail line was years ago they would have some. they will go through the bow and fix and tune it for you in 24 hour turn around time. i don't have any experience with them but the web site looked good and it would probably be worth your time to call them and get a price quote to fix up your bow. hope it helps.

RE: Bear Whitetail Hunter
 

There's a saying that alot of us in the guitar community use to describe the process of buying cheap pieces of crap guitars and throw ing new parts in them to try to MAKE them into good guitars: You can't polish a turd!!

A part of me is thinking that this phrase applies in your situation. :)

Honestly, for the amount of money you'll spend fixing it up, then getting good arrows, then a new sight, then a new rest, etc. your still stuck with an old crappy bow. You'll have no guarantee that this bow will even tune properly for you!

You could buy a brand new bow "package" for just a little bit more money. I know one of our local pro shops sells "ready to hunt" bow packages. Absolutely everything you need to shoot...bow, arrows, sight, rest, quiver, etc from Martin and Hoyt. Both are excellent bows. As I'm typing this, I have a Bass Pro Shop catalog that lists complete bow (sans arrows) setups. The cheapest runs around $129 and the most expensive is $499.

My advice is to go ahead and go to a local pro shop, see how much they would charge to fix up the old bow BUT compare that to the packages the pro shop is most likely selling, I think you'll find that going new will be the better value.

-Mike