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12 Crossbow Lines For 2006ArrowTrade’s dramatic cover illustration for this issuethat focuses on crossbows was provided by courtesy ofTenPoint Crossbow Technologies, which used it for thecover of the Ohio firm’s 2006 catalog (right).

Read the entire article for a good overview of the latestcrossbow manufacturers have to offer, or turn to specificbrands at the pages below:

Barnett International 12Great Lakes Crossbows 13Parker Crossbows 13Fred Bear Crossbows 16Horton Crossbows 18TenPoint Crossbow Technologies 20Excalibur Crossbows 21Hickory Creek’s Draw-Loc 22

6 From The Publisher Are you gaining or losing when a customer buys a crossbow from you?

8 Product Showcase

24 Industry NewsA NASP tournament report, the Whisker Biscuit inventors sell to Escalade Sports and PSE unveils a huge plant expansion at the Tucson headquarters.

36 Summit Marks a MilestoneBusiness Editor John Kasun visits the Decatur,Alabama home of Summit Treestands to find out how this family operated firm has stayed on the leading edge of treestand manufacturing formost of its 25-year history.

July 2006 Volume 10 Number 4

A Magazine For Retailers, Distributors and Manufacturers Of Bowhunting Equipment & Clothing

This early prototype held by John Woller seemscrude by today’s standards, but it offered a light-weight, portable alternative to the risky woodenstands hunters were building in trees a quartercentury ago.

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45 Business BasicsAttorney David Williams has advice for growing firms about “Staying on the Right Side of Employment Law.”

49 ATA News & ViewsATA’s Media Director helps you be able to counter any ban on backyard archery practice, a growing threat as cities lump bows and arrows in with the firearms that concern themmost. By Pat Durkin

52 Traditional Focus: Small Game HeadsDale Karch and Todd Smith detail small game points that arejust as deadly when they’re launched from a compound.

56 Inside Today’s Scent Control GarmentsPat Meitin spoke to the designers and manufacturers of today’sexpanding universe of scent control garments for this feature.

64 Selling a Broader Line of Scents While buck lure may still be what brings a customer into a store,savvy retailers can help that person walk out with a complete system of attractants, dispensers and scent control agents.

72 Kinsey’s Archery Dealer Show CoverageWe conclude our coverage of this distributor show that some dealers see as an addition to the ATA Show, others an alternative.

80 Controlling Dynamic Arrow SpineLarry Wise shows you the multiple ways to adjust dynamic spine on arrows forbetter flight.

83 Directory to Product Coverage & Ads

87 Digger Deeper into Hunting BootsWhether you’re selling bootsnow, plan to or just want to buy the best pair for the way you hunt, Bill Winke’s primer has informationthat will benefit you.

94 Bow Report:Rytera BulletXOne of two new models in a new premium bow line from the designers at MartinArchery, the BulletX deliversa smooth draw and the balance of a top-end target bow. By Jon E. Silks

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While interviewing thecrossbow manufacturersfor the coverage on the

2006 lines that leads off this issue, itoccurred me to ask those that makeboth “horizontal” and “vertical”bows how they view a new cross-bow customer. When that personwalks out the door with a newcrossbow, have they lost the oppor-tunity to sell them a compoundbow and all the accessories that goalong with it? That’s a view we’veheard before and you’ll hear itexpressed again by some retailerswhen we resume our “Dealer toDealer” column in the Septemberissue.Scott Alread, the Product Manager

for Fred Bear Archery, told me hespent a great deal of time last falland again this spring at retailer’scounters. From the comments hewas hearing from crossbow cus-tomers, they were firearms hunterswho wanted more time in the field,and/or they looked at the crossbowas a bridge toward the archery gearthat can seem more complicatedthan it needs to. Both reasonswould seem to be positive for exist-ing archery retailers.

“There are very few firearmshunters that would not like to beable to hunt during the archery sea-son,” said Johnny Grace, from theVirginia plant where ParkerCompound Bows and ParkerCrossbows are assembled.

So what’s stopping them? “As anindustry we’ve done a pretty goodjob of making archery and bowhunt-ing look complicated,” Grace sug-gested. “You read any bowhuntingmagazine and you can find storiesabout broadhead tuning and the 45different rests you can choose fromand whether adjustable sights arebetter than fixed or electronic sights.It’s good for those of us who are sell-ing to bowhunters, it’s what keeps usgoing to offer all these choices inaccessories. But the guy outsidelooking in at archery says, ‘GoodLord, how am I ever going to decidewhat to put on a bow, and how am Iever going to pick a bow in the firstplace?’ We’ve got 12 to 14 million gunhunters who are not shooting a bowyet. They are not coming over intoarchery. ““Now you put a crossbow in front of

them,” Grace continued. “And they’llsay, ‘I recognize that. I know how tohold it to my shoulder, I can cock it

How are crossbow sales

affecting your future?

Editor & PublisherTIM DEHN

Art DirectorVICKIE DEHN

Circulation ManagerKARIN DEHN

Bow TestingJON E. SILKS

Tuning & CoachingLARRY WISE

Business EditorJOHN KASUN

Equipment FocusPAT MEITINBILL WINKE

Advertising Sales DirectorMATT GRANGER

Phone (888) 796-2084or (406) 677-3996

FAX (866) 677-3998

Editorial & Production3479 409th Ave NWBraham, MN 55006

Phone (320) 396-3473FAX (320) 396-3206

arrowtrade@northlc.com

Subscription InformationSubscriptions are available free of charge toqualified members of the archery industry,including retailers, wholesalers, manufacturersand sales representatives. Use the card boundinto this issue. For overseas airmail delivery,include $35 per year in U.S. funds. To changean address, send the old and new address, andthe date of change, to our Braham office.

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40842571.RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO

EXPRESS MESSENGER INTERNATIONAL P.O. BOX 25058LONDON BRC, ONTARIO, CANADA N6C 6A8

ArrowTrade is pub-lished bi-monthly by ArrowTrade Publishing Corp.,3479 409th Ave NW, Braham, MN 55006© Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.ArrowTrade is a registered trademark ofArrowTrade Publishing Corporation

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and shoot it.” That recognition factoris strong for another reason: Mostcrossbows are being sold with RedDot or Multiplex scopes, which againare familiar to the gun hunter.

The first two years Georgiaallowed crossbow use in the archeryseason, Grace said the state soldabout 35,000 additional early seasontags. Polling done from among thosehunters the second year showedabout half were still using a cross-bow, Grace said, which means theother half were enjoying archery sea-son with a vertical bow. Maybe theybought a new one, maybe they gotan old one out of the closet, but atleast crossbows had played a part ingetting them shooting a bow again.

Parker sells a lot more com-pound bows than it does crossbows,and it’s hard to believe the firmwould be expanding its crossbowofferings if that had serious potentialto hurt its compound bow sales. “InAlabama the first year the seasonwas opened up to crossbow use, ourvertical bow sales were up 40 per-cent,” Grace said.

I’d argued in an earlier editorialthat the industry would benefit froma nationwide move to allow youthand senior citizens to hunt inarchery seasons with crossbows. RexDarlington at Darton Archery feelsthere’s enough good youth bows onthe market to help youngsters get agood start in archery, without havingthem try to handle a 150-pounddraw weight crossbow. But theshoulder problems he’s dealt withthe past few years have him thinkingseniors should be given the cross-bow opportunity. If they’re gunhunters now, there is little likelihoodthey’ll take up a vertical bow, he said,while a crossbow is a much easierstep for them to take. And if they’rearchers now, “then we want to keepthem hunting with a broadhead.They’re at the age where they’ve gotmore time to bowhunt, so why don’twe offer them the opportunity?”Darlington asked.

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