Author Topic: 27 year old Bear Kodiak Magnum compound bow  (Read 4711 times)

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Offline 38MAN

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27 year old Bear Kodiak Magnum compound bow
« on: July 17, 2010, 01:13:53 PM »
I have an old Bear Kodiak Magnum compound bow that I purchased back in 1983 when I was a young guy. I hunted with it for about 10 years and took my share of deer. I got busy being married, raising a family and growing a business. After a 20 year absensence from hunting I plan on getting back to my outdoor pursuits this year. I'm reviewing my inventory of hardware to determine what I need to replace. The Kodiak is in great shape and shoots well. Does anyone have any experience using older equipment. Any thoughts or reccomendations would be appreciated.

38man

Offline Swampman

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Re: 27 year old Bear Kodiak Magnum compound bow
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2010, 01:27:27 PM »
You have an excellent bow and tons of folks hunt with vintage Bears.  There is a Traditional Archery section in this forum that might be better for this question.
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Offline Empty Quiver

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Re: 27 year old Bear Kodiak Magnum compound bow
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2010, 06:36:49 PM »
Here are a few things that come to mind.

I seem to remember those as having laminated limbs. Look carefuly at all the glue lines, before and after you shoot it. If things start to get a funny buzz while shooting check again. Delamination can be a problem if the bow was stored in high heat like a trunk or attic. If the limbs have plastic pivots you may want to keep an eye on those as well. I had one break on an old Browning Excellerator of about the same vintage, they may have shared some design ideas at that time.

Using the same discriminating eye look over the cables and teardrops for any sign of fatigue.

Change the string, and don't use any sort of Fastflite type strings. Along the same lines you might want to go easy on the light weight arrows and tips that are so popular now. The above mentioned items would be akin to dry firing when that bow was made.

You could do like hundreds this fall, get her out shoot it and see what happens. Kill your deer, hang it up, and repeat as needed.
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Offline 38MAN

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Re: 27 year old Bear Kodiak Magnum compound bow
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2010, 03:00:59 AM »
Swampman / Empty Quiver ....... Thanks for the input.

38man

Offline Cottonwood

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Re: 27 year old Bear Kodiak Magnum compound bow
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2010, 08:39:57 AM »
38MAN

I have a 76 Bear Super Kodiak Grayling that I will be hunting with this year, if that is the kind of response you were looking for.  ;D

Offline gendoc

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Re: 27 year old Bear Kodiak Magnum compound bow
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2010, 01:17:10 PM »
when my son turned 10, i gave him my BKM that was 10years old and did a great job.
to this day he still takes whitetail with it... and he is 25 now.
he would not replace it with any modern compound on the market today.
it has been well maintained and various things have been replaced over the years.
we hope you continue using yours !!!
sea-ya.....
in tha meen time, i'm wait'n for tha  7th trumpet ta sound !!!

gotta big green tractor ana diesel truck, my idea of heaven's chasin whitetail bucks and asa country boy, you know i can survive............

hey boy, hit this mason jar one time...
burn ya lil'bit did'nt it. ya ever been snipe hunt'n ?  come on...

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