My wife went out garage saling when we lived in New Mexico. I was real big in archery then. One Saturday morning she brought home a beat up old green and brown camo recurve bow. String was frayed, and needed replacing, and she had talked the lady down from $5.00 to $2.00. She showed it to me and said it would look good hanging on the wall. She wanted to hang it next to a print she had of girls practicing archery, that hung in our living room. She asked me to paint it or something to make it look better.
I took it outside and started looking at it closer. I got some mineral spirits and wiped a spot, the camo paint came off. Underneath was a shiny surface. Using mineral spirits I cleaned the entire bow. Underneath was a beautiful #55 Bear Bow. All the scratches and dings were in the thick coat of camo paint. underneath the bow looked brand new. I took it to the local Archery shop, to see if he had a new string. As soon as I walked through the door the owner tried to buy it from me. He offered me $100.00, I said no I want to shoot it myself. Suddenly I remembered seeing similar bows in his shop going for $250.00 to $300.00. I did get a new string.
I started shooting it at the range, and got back into shooting instinctively, the way I shot as a kid, just like I saw Fred Bear doing on TV. The bow never got hung on the wall near the print. Today, 30 years later, it resides in a protective sleeve, hanging in a bow rack with my other bows. When Sky and I go to the indoor range I often take it. Sky can not understand how I can shoot it so well, with no sights or stabilizer. "It's just a stick of shiney, laminated wood, and fiberglass", he says. I am thinking "Not bad for $2.00.
I did kill a Black Bear with it back in the mid 90s. Down in Prince William Sound, out of Whittier, Alaska.