Been looking at some Bear bows and have no idea how to read the Ser#. I know there is a rime and reason to them.
Can someone in the know post how to read them to know things like model and year a bow was made.
Thanks.
best to do a search on this forum for the model your looking up,,say ..kodiak identification and it will clue you in
Roy is right...try a search as there is good info here to read.
One thing I have learned is that there can be a definite lack of "rhyme or reason" when it comes to Bear serial #'s.
I can only speak for myself and the only ones I can be realtively certain of are the 1960's era bows. Usually the first digit is the year of mfg. BUT there can always be exceptions and for 1950's and 1970's this rule is no good.
This is part of the fun in collecting the old Bear bows.......
Ok I see, I was not look for any certin bow just wanted to learn how to read the numbers. Guess thats not going to be as easy as i thought.
Thanks for the info
It is not that difficult because some very fine guys posted here all their knowledge,so it is interesting for you if you read some of the many post here in this forum and you can have the answer you want,too long to explain in a single post.Have fun.
There were a few years in the '60s where the first digit referred to the year model with most Bear bows; other than that serial numbers are of little value.
Riser shape and glass color are the most consistant way of identifying the various bows. There are several threads on here for classifying Kodiak, Kodiak Specials and Grizzlies.
They are likely on the first few pages here-browsing may be the best way to find them. Let us know how you are doing.
Thanks guys did some searching and found some posts of Wade Phillips that will help a lot. Thanks again for the info.
Realy like the looks of the plain old 64 kodiak but it also sounds like it might be a hard one to find.
This site has some very good info.
www.stickbow.com/stickbow/Collector/beararchery (http://www.stickbow.com/stickbow/Collector/beararchery)