How Fred Bear Makes Compound Bows

The bow and arrow is one of the oldest known weapons and next to the discovery of fire is one of the longest standing technological advancements harnessed by mankind the earliest known evidence of the bow and arrow dates back to around forty thousand years ago found western europe and recent archaeological discoveries now show that it was used throughout the world in just about every continent the bow and arrow was used in a array of events but mainly hunting and war sporting events and archery competitions here we are forty thousand years later and the traditional bow is alive and well its still manufacturing used by many of the traditional way to hunt game on todays show we're taking you back to bear archery in gainesville florida to show you how traditional bows are manufactured and used in modern times the last time we were at bear archery operations manager Neil bise took us through the process of manufacturing there truth 2 compound bow let's take a look back at that visit for a quick recap of that process hey how you doing today good really good can we get a tour of the plant today i would love to give you a tour of the plant and show you our processes from start to finish from raw materials to a box of products ready for the consumer god that would be great since i'm from michigan and i grew up with fred bears equipment this has been a lifelong dream for me can't wait to get started well lets get started alright lets go step one with making a compound bow is starting with a good solid limb we manufacture that out of fiberglass longitudinal fiberglass that we pull on strands through a resin bath then we actually mold it in a press under 50 tons and under heat we form it than we actually machine it with custom made machinery then we tumble the limb and get it ready for paint then once we get that part ready we also machine cams and idler wheels and risers out of sixty sixty one t6 aluminum that is high grade aircraft aluminum and we machine it on computer american controlled machinery and we cut that material to one one thousandths of an inch we tumble them parts to get a nice smooth finish for the cams and idler wheels so that we can have them manadized and then then the risers we tumble to get them prepared for paint this is a electrostatic powder baiting system we do a water transfer we use apg all purpose real tree film on our products then when we dip them through the water the camouflage is transferred to the part and then we wash the part off if there's any touch up or knocking down on the part we do it in a operation were we 100% inspect the part then we put a urethane coating on top of both the risers and the limbs and then we assemble the limbs to the cams and the idler wheels we assemble the riser with all of the components then we assemble the two together he will check the bow over to make sure that there's no imperfections in the bow make sure everything's tight he will push the dampers on and make sure there centered properly also what he'll do is still actually apply the axle dampers on the truth 2 a feature that is only on the truth 2 on both the upper and lower limbs then he will sign the tag saying everything is correct putting the proper draw length and proper weight on the tag and also his initials saying that this bow has been inspected by him boy is that smooth the truth 2 the truth 2 and that's what we do to make a high-quality compound bow stay tuned we'll be right back with more of factory to field