Success Stories

Rob Balser from Rough and Ready CA

"We packed into western Wyoming about 6 miles with our horses for the opening of archery deer season. I spotted this buck about a mile away and saw he was a wide 5 point. After I stalked to within 80 yards I saw he had a double main beam on the one side. After waiting about a half hour for him and the other bucks to feed around below me I was able to get a tough 50 yard shot through the crouch of a fir tree. He is 34″wide and before I shot him his velvet was in perfect shape.

Randy Long of the El Dorado Hills Bowmen in California

"I was hunting in Nevada from a Double Bull blind over a spring. I had scouted the area on 3 weekends a few weeks before the season was to open. After great deliberation I decided where I wanted to hunt. I built a temporary blind about 3 weeks before the season opener and then stayed away. I got there the day before my hunt was to start, took the temporary blind down and popped up my Double Bull blind. The antelope never noticed the DB blind or even looked at it. The first day I saw 5 antelope, 2 small bucks and a doe with twin fawns. On the second day the same 5 came with this beautiful buck following. Thank the archery gods, for they gave me a good shot and I took it."

Stan Heffner

Pat,

I got my 1973 Jennings bow back a few days ago. I want to thank you for offering the replacement cables and parts for these old bows so we can continue to enjoy them. I could not be happier with the results of your work. The old warhorse shoots great and I can even feel a bit of let off now.

Thanks

Sven from The Netherlands

I bought the Vista Tech-4 belt and Pat Norris was the only one who was able to let me pay with paypal, ordered the belt in Black and shipped
to The Netherlands. I never found another online store which could or would do the same things for me. So the thing I want to say is, THANK YOU Pat. And for the belt itself, it really is a must have for people who are in the field or at 3D-animal rounds a lot. You don’t need to carry a bag anymore, because the belt has enough space to store equipment or other little stuff.

Jamie Beauxis

Some bucks I got with that Enticer Target bow I bought from you. It sure is a sweet shooting bow. I camoflaged the beautiful red riser and limbs.


The 11pt was chasing does around and went down the creek. 10 min later they came back my way, I got near the deer trail and got a 10 yard shot. He measured 153″, 6″ bases, 20″ inside.I rattled in the 8pt and a 6pt together, they were about 200yds off when I rattled.The 15pt had been fighting all morning with 2 other bucks. He bedded down, then some pheasant hunters jumped him up and he came right to me. He’d go about 175″ if the broken tines were same as other side.

Terry Boyer - Sequim, WA

Hi Pat
I took my Savannah long bow with me to the Damon Howatt plant as a model of the size of the grip I wanted on my new 2010 custom Viper long bow. I was lucky enough to get a tour of the Damon Howatt plant. They explained the process and function of the individual stations/machines and work each person did in production. Each machine was designed by the folks in the shop to meet/satisfy a specific need or process. The bowyers and personnel are outstanding. I got to spend some time with your friend Larry Hatfield. If I had any doubts about the quality of the Martin trad bows, Larry and his staff dispelled them by the time I left the plant. Each bow is truly a custom made bow manufactured one at a time by experts. I can’t believe that anyone, anywhere, custom – one at a time – bowyer, or company production type operation, can do a better job than Larry and his folks.

Thank you for your good service getting my bow customized for me and for helping me to spend an enjoyable day at the Martin —  Damon Howatt – recurve / long bow plant.

Tonia from Arizona shooting her X-200 Recurve

“I am now in training to become the best archer I can be. I love my new X-200 recurve and hopefully my X-200 loves me. I sure hope to see and meet lots of archers at tournaments and archery events. Thanks Pat for the great equipment.”

Mance

Pat,
Here is a picture of my son, Mancell, receiving his archery trophy. Your help over the internet has greatly aided my son’s development.
I cannot thank you enough.

Chuck Rosario and his daughter Crystal with their awards at the 3-D Nationals in South Dakota.

Dave Anderson with Grandson Manuel shooting his Cartel Mini compound

A Message from Pat

Not too long ago when I shot a tournament, a couple of groups in front of us had two cub archers. These “kids” where about 6 or 7 years old. One was shooting a recurve and one was shooting a compound. They seemed to be having fun early in the day but towards the end of the day they were getting tired. They slowed down a little and didn’t laugh as much. They lost a couple of arrows and spent some time behind the bales looking for arrows. Parents and other adults kept saying “hurry up, hurry up” to these young archers. I heard five or more adults complain about those darn kids slowing us down and how we have to wait for them to go up to the cub stakes and shoot and then to find their arrows. I was shocked by those complaining adults and started thinking about when my kids shot every tournament with me. If they did not shoot with me they shot with my life-long friends (now deceased) Faye and Smitty.

I started my children when they were ages 3 and 4. My wife and I had a daughter and four and one half years later a set of twins. All three enjoyed archery for many years. All three of them learned to shoot and could run a line of shooters safely almost before they could talk in full sentences. They have been shooting for more than thirty years now. They do not shoot every week or even every month. But if they are visiting and I say let’s go to the archery range, they lead the way to the car.

Years ago one of my good friends wanted to shoot a money tournament I was promoting but had not registered because his 4 year old was shooting with him. The pros at that tournament accepted my ruling that the 4 year old could shoot along with us. Over thirty years later that 4 year old is one of the best archers in California and the nation. He is highly respected and I am proud to consider him a close friend. He and his wife are raising a new family and I expect to see his boys at tournaments in the next two or three years.

Kids are the future of our sport. The manufacturers spend most of their advertising money (wasted I might add) trying to get an established bowhunter to switch companies. Some of the major manufacturers have curtailed their shooters programs. Can you guess what has happened ? That’s right, the companies that maintained and even enlarged their staff of dedicated archers have grown to be the current industry leaders. Most of the serious “sponsored” archers try to give something back to the sport. The smart ones help with youth programs.

We want and need more kids in archery. In my opinion too many youngsters sit at home watching TV and playing video games. If every archery club had a good youth program (which takes a lot of work and volunteers) we would see a continuous flow of interested individual archers. Some of our kids would become field and target shooters, some would become 3-D archers, some would become bowhunters and a few would set goals towards competing in the Olympics.

The result would be more archers in the future. If the sport of archery had more archers, the sport would have a stronger voice and gain stature with park districts, cities, counties and even states.

I personally love to hear an excited kid yell something like “Wow, I hit it !” or “Hey Dude, I beat you on that target !”. Some of my fondest memories of archery tournaments were watching my kids place at the tournament. My son used to come home with a trophy almost every tournament. He would give me a bad time by telling me how he beat me because he had a trophy and I had not won a trophy. He did not consider the fact that I may have outscored him by 400 points…. It didn’t matter – he was and is to this day a winner.

Start a kid with the correct archery equipment. Then fit it to them. Don’t shortchange them in the equipment selection process. Teach them safety and how to compete fairly. Teach them the rules and how to follow the scoring and classifying rules. Learn to enjoy their game of archery. Take them often to the club, indoor range, tournaments, hunting trips, camping trips and more. A laughing kid in my group is just as pleasing and enjoyable as a top score.

The future of archery depends on today’s kids for they will be tomorrow’s leaders, voters, teachers, and politicians. Teach your kids and the neighbors’ kids the lifetime sport of archery now.