I'm in sort of a predicament where I am. I have a Bowtech dealer about 15 miles from the house. I have bought my last 4 bows from them. However, I wouldn't let them work on a wheel barrow. Thankfully I have another outstanding shop within 15 miles as well. I buy everything but the bow from these guys. But, I have my own press and do all work with the exception of warranty work myself.
I use Archer's Advantage in Little Rock, Arkansas. I bought my bow and accessories from the back in March for this season. Excellent customer service and set up on the bow. I give them my business whenever I can.
I use to go to this shop right down the street from me. They only sell Hoyt, Bowtech, and some other non-major brands. I went in with my Mathews bow and got treated like I was some scum bag. I never got help on my bow because I shot a Mathews bow. The guys insulted me multiple of times and just talked ****. I ended up leaving. Needless to say i'll never go their again. Honestly, I wanted to take a bat to their faces that day. One guy was so full of himself that he was telling me that he ran 70 trail cameras on his land and that is his life and all he does. Major ****** bag. This shop didn't even use a bow holder where you can level the bow to center rest and all that fun stuff. He said he is one of the best at eye balling things so they don't need to do that. All they cared about was selling the bow and then doing a half *** job setting it up. I now go to a newer shop that is a Mathews dealer that opened up not too long ago here that are 10x better.
I didn't like driving for 45 minutes to the nearest shop so I learned pretty much what I need to do it at home, set up my own little area in the basement! This is an old pic, its set up better now
I bought my Hoyt from Lancaster Archery at the 2007 Harrisburg Outdoor Show. They set it up beautifully, such that I didn't need a single adjustment afterwards. The only problem is their store (which is BIG) is an hour twenty minutes away from me. I've only had to go there once to have new strings put on, but this place is worth seeing! Shooting lanes and anything else you can think of archery/bowhunting related. Their techs are ALL top notch!
You should check out Decker's Bows and More in Dalton. its about an hour and a half north and west of the allentown shop. Which is quite a bit closer to bradford. Jerry Decker is an extremely knowledgeable man and I trust him completely. You should give this guy a try. Just make sure to call and get his hours first. You wouldn't want to drive down and find out he is closed.
My closest shop is good and does good work, if you can catch him there. He doesn't keep regular hours especially in the off season because he also does other stuff to make a living. I'm also 45 minutes drive away from what has to be one best shops in the entire country. In August they ran a free before-season bow inspection clinic. They found a break in my bow string that I had missed. I had them put on a new string and they were happy to work on my bow even though I didn't buy it from them. Blue River Archery is an amazing place to do business. There is a good chance that my next bow will come from there.
Tell me about it! The mech in old shop when asked said, hoyt bows are garbage..(they sell hoyt bows too) .. winners choice are garbage (shop doesn't sell those strings) .. Easton arrows... garbage (the shop pushes easton alot) In other words, if he doesn't use them - everything else is trash..his way or it's the "wrong" way mentality...I overheard other customer complaining about setup's he put together when they purchased...The tech on his day off tried to cover for him and said "those things can just happen".. Not if the part was installed correctly! Duh!
Way to far a drive for me to make... thought about it, wish I lived only an hour an 20 away, I woulda have definitely went there..
Seems like 2/3's find a good shop at some point after some searching, and 1/3 lost hope or rather not be bothered and work on their own stuff..
Bucks and Jakes? That's the only one in the area that i've been to. Your setup looks bigger than what they have at the shop on the west side. They helped me get my bow setup and offered some pointers. I've also had them cut some arrows for me. They are a little pricey on a lot of things though.
Don't ya just love shops that "eyeball" everything... like using the proper tools is beneath them and they're to pro to have a tool measure anything for them... Funny thing is, they only do that for customers..On their own bows you bet your *** they do it properly..Was just having this convo the other day with a buddy.
I have a few shops quite local to me, but I drive almost 2 hours to LL Cote's in Errol NH because they are the best around by far. Their knowledge, and customer service is miles above any of the shops near me! I did buy a bow press this summer so I'm starting to get into doing my own things if I ever need to.
One thing about shops I have learned over the years is two different people can have totally opposite opinions of a place. There is a shop about 30 minutes from me that I have always had a bad experience with but a friend of mine loves the place. I do all my own work except make strings. I enjoy it and it adds to the experience for me.
I mainly use Strictly Archery in Shorewood Il. and have always had good success with them. Even had them repair and tune my son's Hoyt when the string jumped (which they are not a dealer). He said it shoots better than it ever has. I recently found Select Archery in Bloomington now that I am working down there and they have been pretty good also. I havent had them do any work, but I 've been in a few times and seen the setup and bought a few things. They let me install and tune my HHA crossbow scope mount with there tools and gave me as much range time as I needed to get sighted in.
I posted on this thread already with my experience but over the past 2 years I've learned so much that i'm slowly learning to do things on my own. I just don't have all the tools. The only thing I wish I had was a vertical bow vise, level, bow square and some of the main tools like that. I could just have it and go to my dads house to use the basement since I live in an apartment. Good thing is that their are a ton of youtube videos that I could follow for setting up each thing etc.
