Fred Bear's Polar Bow

The Bear Polar 1950-56 Dual Shelf bow

by Larry Vienneau

In the early 1950 Bear made several models with dual shelves. The Dual Shelf Models were the Lower priced Panda, Cub and Polar as well as the middle and upper end Alaskan, Kodiak and Grizzly bows. At this time most of these bows were actually long bows, the recurves made an appearance in the late 1950s. As Fred Bear tweaked his designs his bow started to evolve, first long bows, then semi-recurves and finally fully functional recurves. The lower end models are usually more plain maple while the upper end bows has more expensive woods used. The bows were essentially very similar.  

1956 Polar

1951 Polar

The Polar was introduced in 1950 as a 62" simple reflexed longbow with the woven glass and the aluminum lam, maple riser with wedged leather shelf with a leather grip. It was marketed as a target bow but it was also a favorite hunting weapon.
1951 - A 62" longbow with woven blond glass and the aluminum lam. The aluminum proved to be a structural problem and stopped mid-year like the rest of the Bear line-up. Same maple riser wedged leather shelf and leather grip.
1952 – A longbow with length increased to 64" with blond parallel fiberglass front and back. Same maple riser with wedged shelf and leather grip. Though the catalogs states the use of aluminum, it was actually stopped halfway through the previous year (catalog are produced ahead of time and the change didn’t make it into the catalog) Draw weights- 25lbs to 75lbs
*1953 – A 64"Longbow with red glass, this was a *single shelf model with a leather grip. Maple riser. Weights 25 lbs to 75 lbs. Special order special weights or left hand
1954 – A 64" and 68" Longbow with Red glass, and maple riser dual shelves on leather grip. This is the last year the Polar was a simple reflexed longbow.  Draw weights - 35lbs. to 75lbs standard and up to 100lbs as special orders.
1955 A 64" Semi-recurve with brick red glass and maple riser dual shelves, leather grip. Draw weights - 35lbs. to 75lbs
1956 – A 64" Semi-recurve with the same brick red glass and maple riser dual shelves. For most of the year, there were single white tip overlays. Draw weights - 35lbs. to 75lbs. This was the last year a dual shelf Polar was produced.

My 1956 Bear Archery Polar Bow 40lbs.

I own the 1956 Model with brick Red glass and white tip overlays. Mine also has darker wood accents which did not appear in the catalog. In 1956 the darker wood accents were used in the Kodiak. My bow is in excellent condition with the original leather; however the rests were gone so I added a fur arrow rest with snakeskin strike plate. It is a 40lb. bow and is a very fine target bow. 

These dual shelf bows take a little practice to get used to, they do shoot differently than modern center shot bows. Tuning any dual shelf bow is tougher than a single shelf bow; I needed to try several arrow spines until I got the right one. The dual shelf is not a true center shot so the arrow does have to travel around the rest, though not as drastically as a medieval longbow which had not cut shelf and was shot off the knuckle.  The arrow speed isn’t about to break the sound barrier, it pushed a 410 gr. Arrow at 157.07 FPS. But i t is a consistent shooter  and I got some impressive groups from this bow. Overall it is in excellent shape and performs well for being close to 60 years old, something few of us old geezers can boast!!

Here is a great forum post which I found very helpful

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=003321

© Copyright, Larry Vienneau Jr.

All rights reserved.

SHAKESPEARE ARCHERY Dual Shelf Models

Shakespeare's three ambidextrous 
dual shelf Longbows. 
by Larry Vienneau
*Please see the sister blog pots: http://shakespearearchery.blogspot.com/2013/01/early-wonderbows.html

http://shakespearearchery.blogspot.com/2013/08/early-shakespeare-bows-model-100-model.html

Shakespeare has been producing fishing equipment since the late 1800's. In 1959 Shakespeare acquired Parabow Archery Inc. and began the Shakespeare line of archery equipment. They first produced solid fiberglass longbow and recurves. The style of these bow were simple and they were often the first bow of a youngster. In 1960, along with the Parabow line, Shakespeare introduced the 100 through 600 series of recurves. Around this time Ernie Root began designing and building the bows for Shakespeare. These were beautifully crafted laminated wood and fiberglass. They had leather wrapped grips, and if right handed, had the name of RH-100, 200, 300, etc. If left handed, they of course were LH-100 and so on. The Model 100 and 200 were the top for the line, the Model 300-400 mid-price range and Model 500-600 lower price range  In 1961, the leather grip was dropped, so was the RH 100..LH100.. designations which were replaced with the X Models and the bows took on a more sleek design, showing the Ernie Root influence.

1960 Model 600

1960 Model 500

The RH and LH 100-600 bows were the first composite wood and fiberglass bows made by Shakespeare archery. These bows have been described as hybrid bows. Of course that is a recent term. They are semi-recurve; fully working recurves but has traits of recurve as well as long bows. The riser is not more vertical than modern recurves, showing less reflex. They resembled 21^st century Longbows.

1961 Model X20-58

From 1961-64 many of Shakespeare bows were re-designated with “X” plus a number. The Model X20 in 1961 was a 58 inch entry level bow with bright red fiberglass. The X20 looked very similar to the 1959-60 Model 600 which also had ambidextrous arrow rests, had an identical profile and was just two inches longer. The 1961 X20 was also the last Shakespeare laminated model with a leather wrapped handle. The 1962 X20 was no longer an ambidextrous bow, it was offered as either a RH  or LH option and the leather wrap was dropped. 

The real interesting thing is that all three of these bows were NOT recurves but were the only longbows made by Shakespeare Archery.

Shakespeare 1960 Model 500 & 600

• Contoured handle with spiral leather grip
• Model 500 – 60” AMO, Model 500- 56” AMO
• Draw weights: Model 500- 30 lbs. to 60 lbs. Model 600 25 lbs. to 50
• Riser: maple
• Limbs: Parallel Glass, 1 ½ inch. Model 600  face is red back and white belly, Model 500 red back and white belly
• Semi-recurve
• Brace height:  7 ½
• Model 500-600 were ambidextrous models

   Shakespeare 1961-62 Model X20-58

• Contoured handle with spiral leather grip
• AMO: 58”
• Draw Weights: 25 lbs. – 40 lbs.
• Riser: Maple
• Limbs: Woven fiberglass- Maroon, 1 ¼ inch
• Semi-recurve
• Brace height:  7 ½
• Ambidextrous 

© Copyright, Larry Vienneau Jr.

All rights reserved.

VINTAGE ZEUS FIBERGLASS BOWS

Zeus and Shawnee Fiberglass bows
by Larry Vienneau

I have read in many traditional forums that fiberglass bows are worthless, that it doesn't make sense to attempt to restore them. That might be true if you are planning to resell the bows but for me it isn't about the money. I love to restore any bow. Most of these fiberglass bows are beaters, dinged up, painted, scratched, and needing TLC. They are usually inexpensive and I love the challenge.

Ironically solid fiberglass bows are a great place to start restoring vintage bows. You don't need to worry about laminations separating or the glues failing. You do need to remember that these bows are fiberglass and to always scrap with a piece of plastic from the riser to the to the nock and not nock to riser because you run the risk of lifting strands of the glass. 

my Zeus 50 lb. number 402 in Translucent Light Green Glass

 I have not been able to find anything on the Zeus Archery Company. I am sure there is some information buried in a stack of 1950s outdoor magazines, but for now I will just describe the bow and the rest will happen in time. This bow was a $35 eBay item. When it arrive it was in decent shape but the finish was pretty bad and the leather grip was falling off. I prefer to keep any original labels or logos intact so I used Frisket Masks. This is a transparent film used in airbrushing or watercolor. It works well because it is easy to remove and won't damage a delicate decal. Once it is covered I used Citrus stripper because it easy and is a water clean up. The Zeus only needed two applications of remover. I had the entire bow stripped and ready to finish in an hour. I tied a piece of heavy fishing line to the top nock, hung it from a tree and sprayed it with a couple coats of urethane. Then I wrapped a new leather grip and added Velcro as an arrow rest. Total time for refinish- two hours!

my Shawnee 50 lb. number #149R in Translucent Light Green Glass

I try to buy these bows in weights of 50-60 lbs. The cast is slower then a laminated bow so the higher weight help push the arrow. These bows are incredibly durable and are excellent shooters. That is one of the advantages over laminated recurves. Another huge advantage is you can use Fast Flight string with these bows, it isn't a good idea to use Fast Flight string with other vintage bows. 

Around the same time I picked up the Zeus I also won a Shawnee fiberglass bow. The photo of the bow was dark and I thought the bow was dark green. I was very happy to discover that these bows were very similar, both had Jade like Translucent Light Green Glass, the same grips, same yellow decorative tape,  and the nocks were identical. Most likely the same company produce both bows. The refinishing for this bow took even less time. Two bows for under $70 and a few hours of work. What is the real advantage to these old time bows is the ambidextrous riser. I can share the shooting experiences with my son and my friends. 

I shot these two bows with my chronograph, using 410 gr arrows, shot 12 arrows and averaged the results. These bow with fast Flight Strings shot better that my expensive Bear bows:  

 Zeus 50 lb. number 402 Fiberglass-------     169.88 FPS

Shawnee 50 lb. number 149R Fiberglass---  167.90 FBS

© Copyright, Larry Vienneau Jr.

All rights reserved.