Anyone familiar with these bows. I have one I bought used in the early 80's. Just curious.

Which one do you have? Phil made several of his own, and also made for other companies. They had very small pivot points which lent to very accurate shooting. Phil designed the Golden Eagle that Root/Shakespeare sold under their brand. He also designed the first QT Takedown for Shakespeare which was a great little bow...I've owned severl. Owen Jefferey made the Shakespeare takedowns as well, after Phil left them as designer. Here is one of Phil's designed Shakespeare Q.T....meaning quick takedown. No tools and shoots wonderfully.

By the way, Larry Bamford, Bowhunter Magazines first Hunting Editor, used a Grable designed bow.

George, It's a take-down with aluminum riser.68# and 66"

I'll post a pic later. Vince

I would love to see it. Phil had several different types of limb attachment.

Here are some pics. I may be mistaken on length.64" possibly.

My bad

Another

11' 1" Sept. '08

Watch out - that gator's about to eat your bow! Nice kill.

Yep....there's that little pivot area. The holes in the riser window was another thing Phil did to allow for sight pins for those who wanted that option. There's enough holes to match just about any distance. Phil was quite a designer/builder. A very nice, traditional, metal risered recurve.

Good shooting bow;I just had to get away from the elevated rest.Works as a fishing bow though.

I had a mid to late 80's grable sst , needed a wheel barrow to haul it around , but it shot pretty good

At the Michigan Bowhunters Association annual summer rendezvous back in the mid-1990's, I noticed a Grable recurve hanging from a treelimb in front of a campsite. In the early 80's I had briefly owned a Grable metal risered takedown bow that was sold under the Proline label. Up the road a bit I saw Phil Grable walking toward me and took the liberty of introducing myself and telling him that I had shot one of his bows. He invited me to his campsite to check out his bow and shoot the breeze for a little while. The buddy who was with me at the time had absolutely no idea the rare treat we were enjoying.

I wish I had a camera for a photo because Phil was the consumate gentleman that afternoon and made a special memory for me. In addition, the very first Bowhunter Magazine edition I purchased back in 1975 or 76 had a bowhunting adventure about Larry Bamford and Phil Grable hunting for mountain lions with a couple of Phil's takedowns. How cool is that.......

TL

I shot Grables bow for 4 yrs, took many deer and one antelope. Magnesium riser, low wrist...pretty smooth bow at that time and fairly quick. I later sold the bow to a guy in Texas....

Most of the Grable bows I shot were no more heavy than a Bear Takedown or Black Widow. I've owned the Golden Eagle Hunter model and the Shakespeare by Grable. Both of those bows were great hunting bows and no problem to carry all day if necessary.

Lol George, the SST Phil made in the 80's had a cast aluminum riser and a huge limb butt, it outweighed bears magnesium td by close to double. They didn't sell well I think for that reason.

borrowed this pic from an earlier thread,sst

HAD ONE BACK IN THE 70'S. vERY STABLE AND FUN TO SHOOT. hOWEVER, i CALLED IT "OLD SLOW". gUESS YOU CAN FIGURE OUT WHY. Damn, just looked up and saw the cap loc was on. Sorry!

GLF, heavy indeed, and probably one of the reasons it wasn't more widespread. One can get to appreciate that mass though when looking for dead, in-hand accuracy. I had a Golden Eagle hunter model that Bill Krenz talked me out of years ago. I loved that bow and didn't mind toting it in the woods. Larry Bamford used one like shown above...SST-2000 I think.

Yep, Larry Bamford shot a Grable at about 80#. Back in the 70s, I considered him to be largely responsible for the anti-girlie bow sentiment. He and his cronies all shot heavy and we kids, with our 45 pounders, thought we needed a lot more weight to kill anything.

Joe

blackhawk hornet,similar limb pockets as the pic george posted maybe the same designer?

That bow, bowfitz, is a QT Takedown made by Owen Jeffery. If it is labeled Black Hawk, then he made some for Cravotta Brothers in the later 1970's. He made Shakespeare's takedown before taking them over for his own company.

I had no idea it was a jeffery thanks,bty george when you say pivot pts in your first post what are you refering to?

Boy guys, Grable Bows, that's a blast from the past. A friend of mine had one and it was a fine bow. I remember one of the issues of Bowhunter Magazine with Larry Bamford holding one in a tree stand if my memory serves me right. Great thread!

I had one of the SST it was a good bow killed several deer and antelope with it. I do recall it being heavy in the hand which I liked at the time. Unfortunately it was stolen in a break in, would like to have another. A good bow that worked well for me.

I have two of the SSST's. They are a little heavy but that probably why it was my best shooting bow.

bowfitz, the pivot point is where the bows center is. If made well it will be in the belly of the grip where it can freely pivot in the hand.

ok george thanks for the info

As a student back in Colorado mid-70's, I looked up Larry Bamford when I was interning with the Forest Service near Buena Vista where Larry lived. Besides writing for Bowhunter, he taught industrial design at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville. All that aside, I remember him as a real gentleman, gracious, and very meticulous. He left us too young and too soon--due to some rare illness, as I recall.

While Larry undoubtedly had other bows, the only one he showed me was his Grable. I don't recall the poundage of that bow but he was a big man, so it could easily have been an 80 pounder.

Somewhere in an old scrapbook I have a newspaper clipping photograph of Larry and a mountain goat he shot on Mt. Evans around 1975. I'd bet he took it with his Grable.

I wonder if anyone has a Bowhunter magazine from that era describing that hunt?

I have most of the 70s Bowhunter magazines and will look for the mountain goat article. I think I have it.

Joe

I've owned a few Grable designed Golden Eagles target models and one of the Grable T/Ds in hunting weight.

Frisky, Larry shot "heavy" bows , but not ALL of his friends did. Denny Ballard, a good friend of Larry's and mine, (and a big wig in P&Y still today), shot 55#. I knew Larry and although I wouldn't consider him a friend, more of an aquaintence (university of Iowa 1958-62 ?) and at that time,I shot 45-50# I don't remember Larry shooting more then 60 back then.

I don't think a trad bow of 50 #, even today is a "girly bow". Only macho heavy bow shooters think like that. 50# will kill anything in the US,perhaps world wide except perhaps elephant and rhino.(maybe even then...?

Gotta agree. For most North American hunting, 50# is about the perfect weight.

The people I refer to as shooting heavy were Larry's fellow writers in the magazines back then. Steve Gorr shot heavy bows. Tink shot heavy but didn't tout heavy bows the way Larry did. Admittedly, the writers advised to shoot as heavy as one could handle and work up. That's probably still good advice. Unfortunately, many people think they can handle heavy bows but are over-bowed.

Joe

Frisky, did you ever find that article in Bowhunter magazine-- the one about Larry Bamford and his Mt. Evans mtn goat?

1981 Speed Goat with my 57# Grable...

The hunt I have was on Mt. Princeton.

Joe

Even better! There are goats in both places, but Mt. Princeton is closer to where Larry lived.

Thanks for finding that article.

I'm going to scan it later today and PM you for your email.

Joe

Stealth2-Joe, that is a dandy pronghorn! What else can you tell us about that hunt and your Grable bow?

Phil made sst's in the 80's. Good shooting bow but that cast aluminum was sure heavy,lol. better hang onto that, you don't see a lot of SST's any more.

geesh, sorry I thought this was a new thread

GLF you right not many about and I keep looking to add to my colllection. Right now if I remember correct I have 8 risers and 12 pr limbs for that ST a2000 Love that Bow.

I first met Phil in 1959, we belonged to the same archery club. We lived not too far apart so we shot together a lot. We did a lot of stump shooting with another friend and it was always competitive. The one who hit the mark or came closest got a point...points were .10 each.

The three of us went on a bear hunt in the U P in 1965, I think we did more stump shooting than we did bear hunting 8>)

When Phil teamed up with Erni Root and they made the Golden Eagle bow, it was quite an innovation. Phil made the risers in his machine shop and Erni made the limbs. If I recall the G.E. bow shot the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd perfect indoor 300 scores.

I have a bow that Phil gave me in 1966 when I shot a high score at the International Indoor Open at Cobo Hall in Detroit. It was a prototype at the time. It had a knuckle on the end of the riser so you could adjust the limbs in three different angles. I still have that bow.

I still see Phil about once or twice a year at different archery events,I think he's over 80 years old now.

Thanks for the interesting side note, Ron. It is stories like that make this trad community seem all the more connected to one another.

Backcountry...took that Antelope near Casper from a water hole. 18 yd shot...on the next to last day of my hunt. When I said this bow was fairly quick...I chronographed this bow with my hunting set up. 2117's, 135 grain heads, total arrow weight 535 grains. At 57#, this bow never shot any faster than 176 fps.

I bought this bow from Kittredge Bow Hut on a strong recommendation from the late Bill Krenz. Bill was testing out some new recurves of similar weight and stated this bow was the quickest of the bunch. There was also a 3rd investor...Fred Grube out of Livingston Texas. Fred was bowhunting with Bamford in Colorado, liked the bow and became a partner.

I spent a week with Fred in Texas bowhunting back in '84. I took a small doe with the SST on that hunt. To my knowledge, I believe Fred still has a couple SST's hanging on the wall. I sold the bow in '86 because I wanted to return to wood riser T/D's. Here is another pic of the bow...with a Montana Grizzly that attacked us in 1985. Notice the broken jaw and radio collar.

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here