Did Rothhaar ever make any bows ? I see some posted online just curious. I know he designed broadheads seems fitting that he made bows as well.

Thanks

Don't know if he did or not. I read once that he was an adviser to a well known Ohio Bowyer in designing a take down bow.

Not sure if he made any, but he was involved with Don Assenheimer's bow design. Roger was related to Alan Rothhaar from Michigan that made bows. I grew up just a few miles from Alan's shop and remember spending some time over there with my Dad.

I just read in TBM that he had something to do with the Habu design.

Bowmania

The first article I read from Roger, he was using a Cliff Coe bow. That was a while ago when he first wrote in Bowhunter just after it came out in 1971. I know Don Assenheimer made bows for him after that. His nephew Alan made recurves and one of his is on Ebay right now. Alan(sp) I believe posts here now and then but I can't remember his handle.

Definitely shot Habu later on....

Once you get 'famous', and start writing books and getting published, you will find bowyers more interested in you as well. Roger liked Don Assenheimer's bows, and preferred the longer recurves. I though I saw where he used a Black Widow, but it could have been a Habu....they look pretty much the same.

By the way, he was a very humble, down to earth guy. I met him and his wife back in the mid 70's at Bowhunter's Warehouse in Wellsville, Pa.

In Dan Bertalans 1992 book Bowhunting's Whitetail Masters Roger Rothhaarr shot a 64" Black Widow and a 66" Assenheimer in the 60 pound range. I'm sure he shot other bows through the years like the Habu. I talked to him on the phone back in 1995 when I ordered his books. He autographed the books for me which was nice. I wrote to him two other times ( once in 1996 and 2000 ) and he wrote me back both times. In 1996 when I wrote him I told him how much I enjoyed his books. He sent me this picture, which now hangs on my game room wall.

I told his son Ron I was going to write his Dad again but sadly he passed away. Roger Rothhaar was a great guy, and a true gentleman.

One of my favorite bowhunting mentors... Master Whitetail bowhunter.........I suggest his book Whitetail Magic... exellent read..

I remember seeing adds for his bows in early editions of TBM

I talked to Roger quite a bit for a couple years and spent a week with him and his older son, Ron, in bear camp. He was shooting a Black Widow then but had made bows himself over the years but not many. He alluded that the design used in Assenheimers, was based on his design actually if I understood him correctly. Also that his cousin was building bows using input from Roger as well...I think after building broadheads and working full time he did not want to get back into that role and just wanted to hunt. I was looking for a new bow at the time and asked him what he would shoot if he could shoot any bow in the world and was not getting free bows from Assenheimer or Black Widow....he told me a Habu. He told me he thought Chris Cox was making the finest bow out there at the time...

Roger said he had very particular likes for risers and limbs though on bows he shot...so once he got one that met his desires he tended to stick with it.

This was straight from Roger's mouth around 1997 at Walters Wilderness Camp...there were four of us in camp that week. Roger, Ron, my friend Phil...and myself...other than the guides Walter and Roman.

keep em sharp,

ron herman

Thanks Guys

As mentioned above, I have the Rothhaar recurve listed for sale on e-bay, but really know very little about it, except it belongs to the widow of a friend of mine. Good looking bow.

I was fortunate enough to whitetail hunt three seasons with him plus several bear hunts and caribou. He used BLACKWIDOW then but switched to Habou around 94

I bowhunted Bear with Roger in '86 and he was shooting a Widow. Roger said he shot Assenheimer bows for quite some time. In Dan Bertalan's book about Bowyers, there was a chapter on a Rothaar who built bows, not sure who he was.

I have that book. The book was called Traditional Bowyers of America, by Dan Bertalan. There is a chapter ( 8 ) on Alan Rothhaar.

Roger designed the first takedown bows that later would be called Assenheimer's. Donnie was a woodworker and Roger a tool and dye maker. roger broke his favorite bow, a Jack Howard Gamemaster Jet. So Roger made a form from the limbs of the Gamemaster Jet and built the first takedown limbs that were actually mounted on the Jack Howard Gamemaster Jet handle of Roger's broken bow.(Ryan still has that handle and some of the first limbs Roger made for it. He will be hunting moose in Alaska this fall with the bow.)

Roger shot Assenheimer's for many years but then went to Black Widows when Donnie decided to change the limb design and handle shape to make the bows faster. The newer Assenheimer's were never the same as the original old ones. After and during Black Widow MA-III, Habu's came along but when the shot was needed to kill a certain buck the Black Widow came off the shelf.

Finally, after aging and dropping down in weight he used a Black Widow(actually a set of limbs I owned and sold to him, 48# @ 30") which he later cut down to 45# at his still 29.5" draw. Most of his last deer were shot with this bow.

To say that Roger was a bowmaker is very true. He just didn't want to make a business out of it. I know he built a couple bows for his son Ronald and a very close friend. His favorite grip was the Jack Howard Gamemaster Jet grip and for awhile one could order that grip on Black Widows if one desired. The Assenheimers were 66" bows as was the Jack Howard. The Black Widows and Habu's were 64", always recurves.

The Rothhaar recurve for sale on eBay was made by Roger's nephew Alan Rothhaar, who also made the Flite Rite Spine testors. These recurves had a similar limb geometry to the Assenheimers but different limb angles.

I ain't swearing to this but at the first Muzzy Stump shoot I swear he(Rothaarr) was there with a bow of his own making and showing it around. That is where I got the bug for Schutlz made bows. A fella there had a beater of a Trophy Hunter at 66" and kind of heavy but that thing shot so freakin good I spent a couple of days hounding the fella while there trying to get it. Nope didn't get it, but did own a couple of Assenheimers' over the years that looked to me as I remember pretty much a spitin image of the bow Rothaarr had there. But that was many years ago so I could be wrong or right or somewhere in between. thanks

What Kelly said.I spent two days with him when he still lived in Ohio and everything Kelly said above was true at the time I was there.He also taught me how to sharpen 3 blade broadheads. A very special man.

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