New Bearpaw Blog

Henry Bodnik’s personal bowstring is a new hybrid* string which was developed in collaboration with renowned American archers.

The Whisper String guarantees a fast arrow flight with an incredibly soft shot. The ends of the string are additionally reinforced and therefore protect your bow from damage. The Whisper String is created from three different materials which give it its specific qualities.

When tested with an accustic device, the Whisper String convinced us because it was more silent than a Fast Flight String with attached noise absorbers, when the Whisper String itself was shot without noise absorbers.

Especially for cheaper bows as well as for high end bows which can be shot with a Fast Flight string, we recommend the use of this incredibly high achieving string. It can prevent your bow from damage that might otherwise be inflicted by the much harder Fast Flight string.

We recommend the following number of strings:

All bows up to 40 lbs: 8 strands
All bows from 41 lbs: 10 strands

The string has a thicker center to ensure a tight fit of most standard nocks.

There are 3 important reasons for the new Bodnik Whisper String:

• The new whisper-quiet hybrid string dims the unpleasantly loud shooting noise considerably
• It is a powerful string with an ultimate “Fast Flight” performance
• The Whisper String protects your bow and minimizes damage

You can buy the Whisper String as an inidvidual custom string (90018) in our Bearpaw Shop.

Henry Bodnik shoots an 8 strand Whisper String with his 53 lbs bow.

Hybrid = bundled, crossed, mixed

We have just received an email from the living legend Byron Ferguson telling us that he did some testing of the Bearpaw Heavy Hunter shafts using the “Velocitip” system by Full Flight Technology.

He used a 72# Z58 longbow and the 5575 (400 spine) Heavy Hunter arrow. The arrow weighed 556 grain with the 100 grain Velocitip. All shafts were fletched with 5″ Gateway Feathers, left wing helical.

Byron’s first shot was a flight of 4 arrows from 20 yards. At this distance the arrows retained an amazing 92.3% energy.
Next he shot a flight of 3 arrows from 30 yards. From here the arrows still retained 90% of the energy they had at launch. “Well….. except for 1 that hit with only 86% but that was caused by a REALLY BAD release on my part,” Byron wrote.

Next he plans to test the 7595 (320 spine). Although he is a little concerned that the 100 grain Velocitip may be a little light for this super heavy weight shaft (15.3 gpi), he hopes that by installing the 100 grain steel inserts he can make it work. More on that as soon as Byron has finished his next testing.

See our brandnew episode of our “Feel the Spirit” series. Christoph Unger and Markus Flach visited a 3D-Parcours deep in the frankonian backcountry. Hope you like it!

Your Bearpaw-Team

It had long been an idea that I carried with me. After a few years of abstinence from bow hunting, I finally wanted to once again pursue the origins of our present-day archery and indulge in my passion for nature, natural experiences and my own hunting instinct. Finally, in February, me and three like-minded Germans made our way to the Lincoln Ranch in Texas. We wanted to hunt javelinas and hogs there and experience the wild Texan nature up close. Information and formalities were all organized and exchanged in advance. When in the beginning there had been a total of 12 interested parties, there were finally another 3 people left, who joined me in the first Wild and Dirty Camo Camp: Lars Iversen, a Bearpaw dealer from Denmark, Stojan Purgej from the Black Forest and Mirco Scheler, a partner in the Printing Company Hoffmann in Sonnefeld were my supporters on our way to the First Dirty Camo Camp.

There is not much to report about the flight except that everything went as expected and without significant problems. We all met at Frankfurt Airport and flew to Houston/Texas and then to Laredo. After a night in a hotel, we left the next morning to drive a rented Impala to Enzino, in order to get to the Lincoln Ranch in the Texan wilderness from there. We met Tim Cosgrove from Kustom King Arrows, Jim Belcher from Sky Archery and Paul Williams, a Canadian bowhunter, in Enzino. After we had got ourselves hunting licenses for javelinas, we finally left civilization. Meanwhile, it had started to rain and Jim looked at my Toyota Impala skeptically. With the words “I hope he will do it”, he told me that the way to Lincoln Ranch would probably cause some difficulties. If only someone had told me before that we needed an SUV!

The following hours were dynamite! Our American friends drove in front of us with their long-legged pickup, it was of course a 4 wheel drive. Before me a more than 30-mile-long, soggy dirt road stretched itself, which was also mostly frequented by oil transporters and therefore indented with deep ruts. I drove and drifted as well as I could with my snow-white Toyota Impala, at some passages wondering if we could get through at all. But with momentum and the underside of the car dragging along the dirt from time to time we mostly went pretty well. However, a few mud holes were pretty nasty. The crossing of streams by means of planks was only one of the many difficulties.

Five miles from the Lincoln Ranch it was ultimately over. The wheels were sealed with mud and the Impala was deep in its suspension. A controlled ride was no longer possible. Meanwhile, it was already late at night and it was raining heavily. We drove the Toyota to the roadside and parked it on a cattle pasture. The first of us Europeans got into the pickup and drove to the ranch with our friends. Two hours later the last pieces of luggage had arrived with us on Lincoln Ranch. After a couple of ‘Late Night Bourbons’ we moved into our rooms and were glad to have arrived here. With a Jeep, the ride would actually have been a lot of fun.

The last thought I had went to my rented, white Toyota Impala, which in the end had no longer looked so white. Hopefully the car was still functioning, and again hopefully – we could get it clean again.

I was looking forward to the next few days, however, in the Texan wilderness.

Here are some impressions and pictures from our first adventure on the way to the 1st Wild and Dirty Camo Camp 2012.

On 31st March, 2012, Jean-Christoph von Oertzen of “JC Arrows and Archery” invited retailers, hoteliers, parcours operators, manufacturers and representatives of the press into the Bavarian Geitau as a basis for dialogue. The aim of the conference was to give its participants impulses and suggestions for their commercial dealings with archery through various presentations, best practices and exhibitors.

Many familiar faces of the archery scene did themselves the honor of visiting this event unprecedented in Germany. Besides Bodnik Henry, who gave a lecture on the challenges and tasks in wholesale trade and the history of Bearpaw, there were Dietmar Vorderegger, Angelika Hörnig, Hubert Wursthorn and other luminaries of the scene giving interesting lectures on various archery topics.

It really was an exceptionally interesting event and we are looking forward to the next PAX in 2013. Below, you can find some pictures of this successful event.

There is now a new 100 grs. insert for Heavy Hunter shafts. The possibilities to fune tune the Heavy Hunter shafts have thus become more precise and versatile. We had just received demands for a heavy insert to influence the FOC (front of center balance) more strongly towards the tip from the US, when Byron Ferguson revealed in a live interview during a Bearpaw dealer meeting that he shot an FOC of over 20%. This assures him with more accurate and precise shots.

Along with the company Gold Tip, we now introduce the new Heavy Hunter 100 grs. Insert. It is made of 100% Stainless Steel and produced in the United States. We don’t allow for any compromises and only work with quality manufacturers in the United States. Only then can we guarantee the quality and precision we are famous for. An additional feature of this new insert allows for fine tuning via a thread on the underside by means of small weight screws (Gold Tip Weight Screw System).

The standard inserts (aluminum) of Gold Tip can now be optimized with the Weight Screw System as well.

The Archery Academy has been successfully training archery coaches.

Meanwhile, the Archery Academy has gone into her 3^rd year of action. One can say without hesitation that the success story of the Archery Academy is unique in German archery. It is already well known beyond the borders of Germany that good coaches are trained in instinctive archery at the Archery Academy. From 23^rd to 25^th March, 19 committed archers again took their first step towards a qualified trainer in instinctive archery. In these last three days, Henry Bodnik and Hans-Dieter Linke gave them the necessary background knowledge and skills about instinctive archery and how to work as a trainer. Lectures, presentations, group work, demonstration lessons and practical training were the components of this intensive training.

As of this year, the Archery Academy will also conduct another training course for archery coaches of the German Shooting Association in Wiesbaden.

The work of the Archery Academy follows these important principles:

• Training of highly qualified coaches for instinctive archery

• Dissemination of correct instinctive shooting technique using competent specialist trainers

• Ensuring a consistent and comprehensive training system

Here are some pictures and impressions of the past 3 days.
For the year 2013 trainer courses 1 and 3 are planned. More than 50% of the available places for the Trainer 1-apprenticeship are already booked. For further information please take a look at: www.archery-academy.de

www.archery-academy.de

Each year various awards and honors are awarded at the meeting of the Bearpaw dealers. The “Bearpaw Gold Dealer”-Award is considered to be the most important. The status of Bearpaw Gold Dealer is given to special dealers for one year. Bearpaw gives this award to both a national and an international dealer.

Today we want to present the international gold dealer for the year 2012 to you.

We are very happy to present our dealer Ola Klåpbakken, owner of TradBow Norge in Vinstra (Norway), with the 2012 Award of the International Gold Dealer. He meets all the criteria we expect of a good dealer in traditional archery. You can read a brief overview of his way to and with archery right here. Apart from that, you can find a direct link to our international Bearpaw gold dealer for the period of one year in the right column of our homepage.

Hi Ola,
congratulations on your outstanding performance for Bearpaw Products. You are a worthy international gold dealer!

The Board of Bearpaw Products pays special attention to the following aspects in the selection of our gold dealers.

• 1. Quality in customer service: This award can only be attained by Bearpaw dealers who convince in customer service and have extensive expertise in archery. This is why both pure Internet retailers and poorly trained “sales outlets” don’t stand a chance.

• 2. Availability of Bearpaw products: A good customer service of course includes the opportunity to try out products, to try shooting bows and to experience archery live. Again, in availability of the Bearpaw products, local dealers succeed over pure Internet retailers and are an important guarantee for the well-known quality of our Bearpaw products.

• 3. Public Image of Bearpaw: Bearpaw dealers are proud and convinced of our brand and show that in public. For us it is important to work with satisfied and committed partners. This is what we like to see represented in the public in writing, speech and image.

Last Tuesday Bearpaw took an important step for the international handicrafting of bows. The company Isosport approached Bearpaw Products as their major international customers in archery with a request to store the glass laminates for bowyers and keep it available for smaller customers. In recent years, bowyers have continuously approached Isosport with orders of small quantities of glass laminate. The company Isosport cannot, however, offer this service, since the manufacturing center in Vienna does not include storage space.

We at Bearpaw are pleased to successfully deepen our cooperation with this company. With this new cooperation agreement, the availability of glass laminate sheets for smaller bowyers and buyers can be assured. Bearpaw Products uses Isosport’s Bearpaw Power Glass for the production of all Bodnik Bows. It is due to the high quality of Isosport’s glass laminates – among other reasons – that Bearpaw Products can now offer the new 30 year Bodnik Bows warranty.

Thomas Koller, Sales Manager of Isosport, who visited Bearpaw Products in Rossach, Bavaria/Germany, confirmed the future business association on the spot.

We are looking forward to having a good and intensive cooperation with the bowyers in providing them with the glass laminate.

Go Bearpaw

On 24th to 25th February 2012, the 6th Bearpaw Dealer Conference took place in the conference hall of the Hotel Steiner in Großheirath, Bavaria, Germany. A total of 50 European distributors had followed Henry Bodnik’s invitation to learn about the latest news and information and have some in-service training. It is one of the basic ideas of Bearpaw Products to support its local archery dealers in order to create an ever better customer service.

After Henry Bodnik’s opening speech, some champagne and a cold buffet, the official part started at about 8pm.
The first evening was spiced with important information about the new Bodnik Bows warranty, and information about the basics of the Bearpaw dealer network. A special highlight was the live broadcast of Byron Ferguson provided via Skype. Byron spoke directly to the attending dealers about the new Bearpaw Heavy Hunter carbon shafts, and was open to questions from his audience. It was pretty impressive to see Byron Ferguson live in his home in Alabama. The CEO of Gold Tip had come all the way from the US for the meeting of the Bearpaw dealers and stood at the ready for individual talks on this first evening. After the official ending at 10pm, long and intensive discussions followed on the spot.

The subject of carbon arrows was predominant on the second day. Tom Zelenovic, CEO of Gold Tip USA, gave his audience a deep insight into the quality criteria and manufacturing fundamentals of the company Gold Tip. The fact alone that at least 10 of the 12 most important 3-D tournaments in the USA have in recent years been continuously won by archers with Gold Tip arrows is impressive evidence of the outstanding quality of this brand. Henry Bodnik later pointed out and demonstated the significant differences in quality between various carbon arrow brands. The terms memory effect, concentricity and other technical background information were discussed and shown graphically. One could notice in the participants, that new and important insights were gained and that those would find their way to the customers. The afternoon ended with a presentation of the new Bodnik Bows quality, and many traders took their opportunity to try out some bows and talk shop with Christoph Unger about the new Sky bows and the ILF system.

As part of the Dealer Conference, Frank Ubozak, owner of Frank’s Castle, was honored with the Bearpaw Gold Award. Henry Bodnik spoke warm and praising words to merit the trader’s success. Oncoming, there will be a report here on the blog on the subject of the Bearpaw Gold Award.