# rudderbows



## shawn dooley (May 1, 2010)

anyone ever use them for kits to build a bow


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## longbowdave1 (May 1, 2010)

hey shawn,
the first self bow i built years ago was a bow that was glued up by rudder archery, i believe his name was jim.
 i was glued up and i just had to finish tillering it. it shot real well and i had no idea what i was doing back then.(not much has changed). it was reasonably priced. and well made. it would be a good place to get a kit in my opinion.

dave


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## Apex Predator (May 2, 2010)

They changed hands fairly recently when the owner deployed to Iraq.  The new owners tarnished the companies reputation fast.  Lots of customer service issues.  The old owner who had a hard earned reputation for great customer service is back in the states again with a new company named GI Bows.  I recommend the latter.

http://www.gibow.com/shop/


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## longbowdave1 (May 2, 2010)

marty, thanks for the update. too bad about rudder archery. they had a good thing going for years.


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## CallMaker (May 2, 2010)

His name is Jim Boswell. The web site still lists him as the owner. Might want to call and see what's going on about ownership.......

Ed


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## Apex Predator (May 3, 2010)

Maybe I got some bad info.  Justin used to own Rudder Bows, before selling it, before deploying to Iraq.  He now owns GIBows.  His father is Jim Boswell, and according to the website, the man in charge now at Rudder.


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## NCHillbilly (May 3, 2010)

Marty, Jim has always owned Rudderbows as far as I know. Justin's company was called Bowstick Archery. They were affiliated with Rudderbows pretty closely, as Justin is Jim's adopted son.


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## Apex Predator (May 3, 2010)

That makes more sense!  Thanks for the clarification.


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## Just BB (May 23, 2010)

Anyone have a say as to whether these Hickory bows are good shooters. Sounds like a fun thing to do, I could get two bows, one for me and one for my daughter for 99.00.


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## NCHillbilly (May 23, 2010)

Most people are happy with them with the occasional bad apple story. They're inexpensive mostly-tillered blanks cut from hickory boards. Not high-performance bows, but not bad for the money and and easy way to get your first shooter that will be good enough to shoot 3D or put an arrow through a deer. Making one of those may lead to a lifetime addiction of making your own wooden bows, though.  Also, my buddy David Knight at primalneedarchery.com makes some great bamboo-backed ipe blanks for a step up the ladder if you want to spend just a little bit more and get a real screamer.


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## olmossy64 (Jun 15, 2010)

Rudders bows is alive and well and prying Jim is still the owner. Just spoke with him yesterday. olmossy


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## bushrod (Aug 9, 2011)

Jim is still the owner, but not sure how closely he monitors customer service any more. They have expanded a lot . A few years ago you You always got that mom and pop run feeling great service. My last experience was a terrible. A cheap bow stringer. The leather tore like cheap paper the first time I used it. You could not have strung a youth bow let alone a adult long bow. When I tryed to contact Rudderbows all my  emails were ignored. They must have been getting a flood of emails from unhappy customers about that product. It was taken off the the web site fast. After a week with no email replies, I tryed  phone calls during  normal business hours for most companies  mid week mid afternoon all I got was answering machine.  A simple yes acknowledgement that they were aware of defective stringer would have been nice, even better a refund offer. A total ignore of unhappy customers can not be good for a business.  Not sure if Jim was on vacation or what was going on with his company. From the forum post ,  rudderbows seems to have had a up and down reputation in the past great service/terrible service. I guess that trend is still in effect. All I can say is good luck doing business with them.


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