BC, a lot of the time you do get what you pay for. I've yet to find good wood shafts that were cheap--the cheap ones I've tried were pretty much junk. I'm not familiar with Rudder bows, but I think they are wood bows (no glass)? If that is the case, that's a good bit of material cost taken away.

With a lot of bows (and pretty much everything else on the market) there is a lot of overhead to cover--one biggie is advertising. Notice the "generic" products on the shelf next to the "name brands". It's not always the case, but often the generic is the same quality as the name brand, but about half the cost or less--guess where that savings comes from? They are packaged the same, have the same ingredients, are transported the same way, and sold in the same store--but one spends a fortune on advertising, while the other doesn't.

Another factor with bows is the bowyer's experience and equipment. I don't know how many threads I've read over the years proclaiming that it takes in the neighborhood of 40 hours to build a laminated bow. Marc (bowyer for Chek-Mate) can build 10-15 bows in 40 hours--he has the experience and equipment. Wood bows can take even less time--at the TN Classic at Twin Oaks, there's kids and adults that scratch out a wood bow in a weekend--many that have no prior experience at all, and using mostly hand tools. Some of the more experienced adults may build 3-5 bows in a weekend, using the same method. I've seen a glued-up stave become a bow in less than 20 minutes using power tools. It needed some touch-up and finish work, but it shot just fine.

Anyhow, don't feel like a sucker--you just followed human nature. Just consider that laminated bows, in general, cost pretty much the same as far as materials go. Experienced bowyers shouldn't have a ridiculous amount of time invested in one bow. If they advertise, that cost has to be covered somewhere.I don't know for sure (as I haven't seen the books), but I've been told by someone that should know that as much as 30% of the cost of some bows goes directly into advertising costs--a pretty big chunk if you are talking about a $1,000 bow.

Chalk it up to experience--learning is a big part of the fun!

Chad