In late 1972 the coin was raised above the covering of the bow and came in both gold and chrome covered plastic and are still used in Bear bows today.ħ. Below are the approx date ranges for the type of coin used.Īll coins were flush with the wood until 1972. The Coin Medallion: starting in 1959 all Bear bows had a coin medallion of one type of metal or another. In 1959, the Kodiak special removed the leather grip and in 1961 the Kodiak did the same, as well as the Grizzly in 1964.Ħ. The Leather Grip: All Bear bows had leather grips until 1959. Also wooden bows with a small 'Running Bear' decal can be dated to 1948ĥ.If it is stamped 'Bear Archery' it would have been made After the early-mid 40's and Before 1949.If the All wood bow has a stamp that reads 'Bear Products' in some form it would have been made before the early to mid 40's.All Wood vs Laminate: If your bow is All wood (no laminations of any kind) then your bow had to be made before the mass productions starting in 1949.

By 1956 the silk-screening appeared on all bows.Ĥ. The large Standing Bear decal was used until 1955 when it was substituted with silk-screening the identification on the bows. The large Standing Bear decal also has the words 'Glass Powered Bow' under the Standing Bear. Decals & Silkscreening: In 1948 the small Running Bear decal was first and then was substituted by the large Standing Bear decal in mid-1953. This date that is printed on all bows made in the middle of 19 is naturally the date of the patent for a working recurve limb and has nothing to do with the actual model year.ģ. Patent Mark: Most of the Bear Bows we have sold have the logo and the Us Patents printed on it along with the date of Canada 1953. The 'K' series of serial numbers (for example Kz9672) were started in 1970.Ģ. Prior to 1965, the serial numbers for all Bear bows were started over every month, manufacture these bows approximately impossible to date by serial amount alone. This serial amount works very well for dating Bear Bows from 1965-1969 when the first digit of the serial amount is the year of manufacture.įor example, a serial amount of 5L212 would be a 1965 Bow. The Serial Number: These bows ordinarily have, what appears to be a hand inscription on one of the limbs that gives a serial amount along with the distance and pull weight of the bow. There are some features and changes that were made to the bear bows over the years that will help narrow the age of your bow or your potential investment.ġ. The results of the auctions are listed at the end of this article. We decided to break this up into 3 dissimilar auctions and started all three at. Based on a light embossed marking on this smaller, leather quiver that we pulled out we were able to date it to the late 1940's. After we got the bow to our store we noticed that inside the big quiver was a smaller particular quiver.

Compound bow serial number lookup