Thanks to everyone for your help!!! Let me know what you think of the bow, I've never seen a 56" with thw fiberglass overlays.
Brian

Brian, that appears to be a 1959 instead of 1960...and the serial # looks like Bowdoc's handwriting  

Lon,
 Just bought it at a Trad. Shoot this last weekend, so I don't know it's origins. If Don refinished it, maybe he can confirm that. There are 2 expertly filled holes in the sight window.
Brian

Hi All, I'm not a collector, but just picked up a 1959 Kodiak, and old Indian, and and old Hoyt for $75. The Kodiak is in good condition, but has a lot of olf tape residue that just will not come off.  It's BH162 60" 43#.  However it feels more like 53#. Brass coin, orginal leather, dark brown and orangish brown glass, skinny tips. Just made a flemish string for it. I always wanted one as a teenager, and now I got one! I will try to get a pic up.
Neil

So at least 3 BH series bows out there that are clearly 59's.

DDave

DDave,

My serial # for my 59 is either BEO84L or BEO841. Number is kind of faded away, but sure looks like 84L Oh yeah its 47# @ 60" butcher block, copper coin.

In MHO it is real hard to say which is sweeter to shoot but if I had to pick it would be the '59 by a hair.

Andy

This topic just came up on another site so I am going to bring it back to the top in hopes that we can get some more great pics posted.

DDave

One more time around to see if any more will come out of the woodwork.

I am taking my lefty hunting elk and moose in a couple of weeks. Will post some pics even if not successful.

DDave

I just picked up a 50# lefty  '60 with rosewood & alum coin. Its not a BH but i'll post a pick when my feather rest comes in.

Anyone seen a 1960 Kodiak 60" bow with serial number beginning with 9H?

Dave,
I have a 1960 60" Kodiak with serial # 9H63.  Do you know when they went to a number before the Letter?  Thanks, Dave B.

This thread is getting so long now that it almost needs to be indexed. The answer to the last question is actually near the beginning of the thread.

If you check the second post by Wade Philips you will see that BJ was the end of the two letter prefixes and then he says that things changed to two numbers. Dave, that means that if your bow really does begin with one digit rather than two we have another puzzle to sort out.

A huge part of the magic of owning these bows is trying to sort out what happened over 50 years ago without much, if anything, in the way of records.

Once again thanks for anything and everything posted. It all adds to the knowledge base surrounding these great bows.

DDave

Serial numbers will always be a question mark for us.....while most will fit within the confines as we understand them.....occasionally there is one that just doesn't seem to fall into line.

I was re-reading an old copy of Fred Bear's Field Notes last month.  In the section on the 1959 Little Delta Hunt, Fred has a prepared "expense statement".  At the bottom of Page 105, under "Material furnished for the $200 by Bear Archery Company" , there is a bow mentioned:

1            60" Kodiak  AA023           $36.00

This tidbit gives us pause because:

IF it was a 60" bow, why does it have what we have determined to be a 56" serial number?

Maybe Fred made a mistake?  Maybe we've made too many assumptions!

QuoteOriginally posted by damascusdave:
If you check the second post by Wade Philips you will see that BJ was the end of the two letter prefixes and then he says that things changed to two numbers. Dave, that means that if your bow really does begin with one digit rather than two we have another puzzle to sort out.
DDave

Dave - The "two numbers" statement was an abbreviated way to let everyone know that the numbering had changed. With the second post on the thread, I didn't think it was good idea to include too many in depth details that would only confuse most readers.

However, now that a few guys have questions, it is probably a good time to give a more in depth explanation of what the scheme changed to...

If the last sentence were completed in detail, it would say...

"changed to one or two numbers, followed by a letter, which was followed by numbers...."

That will probably still confuse some guys.

Examples of 1960 Kodiaks with this later scheme have already been mentioned by others on this thread... here are some...

2J154 - Craig/FL mentioned
9H63 - Dave B. mentioned above
11N41 - Ahandle70 mentioned on second page of thread
12P65 - Brian posed photo on first page of thread

This later scheme isn't nearly as clean or understandable as the very straight forward BA, BB, BC etc

QuoteOriginally posted by hayslope:


... Maybe Fred made a mistake?...

Many other possibilities too...

Maybe Fred didn't make a mistake and the bow was really marked that way at the factory...

Maybe Fred didn't make a mistake and someone at the factory made a mistake in mis-marking the bow ...

Maybe the editor made a mistake when he transcribed the statement into the book ...

I'm sure we could come up with lots of other possibilities too...

QuoteOriginally posted by hayslope:
... Maybe we've made too many assumptions!

I try to deal in facts and not make assumptions.

Assumptions that some have made about the serial numbers, are pretty far off from reality.

The thing I like about the way you operate, Wade, is that you set an example for all of us to base conclusions on proven fact and to identify conjecture as just that.

I find myself frequently using the words "appears to be" rather than "is" and that is a good thing when you are dealing with clues that are 50 or more years old.

I just came back from an elk hunt with my 55 pound (closer to 60 at my draw length) left handed 60 Kodiak (BH 667). Before I left I ran it through the Chrony and with a 530 grain arrow I was getting 185 fps. Now my long draw helps, but that is a fast bow. I have no doubt it will punch the 630 grain 2 blades I hunt with right through an elk as long as there is not too much rib involved. Not bad for 51 year old technology.

I have also noticed that good things just keep happening when you hunt with old Bears. I could almost write a book just on my experiences from last week.

DDave

Still trying to get bowdoc up to speed on this thread so going to run it through the mill yet again. Anyone else feel free to contribute too. There is a bookful of good collecting info in this thread.

DDave

Still trying to get bowdoc up to speed on this thread so going to run it through the mill yet again. Anyone else feel free to contribute too. There is a bookful of good collecting info in this thread.

DDave