For example, a serial number of 6Z3884 would be a 1966 bow. Prior to 1965, the serial numbers for all Bear bows were started over every month, making these bows almost impossible to date by serial number alone. The “K” series of serial numbers (for example KZ9399) were started in 1970.

1. Bear Archery Serial Number Lookup United States Postal Service
2. Bear Archery Serial Number Lookup 2327976

Bear Archery was founded by Fred Bear and Charles Piper in Detroit Michigan in 1933 as the Bear Products Company. The initial focus was on silk-screening and advertising support work for automotive companies. In 1938 Bear hired Nels Grumley, a woodworker and bowyer, and the company expanded to offer hand-made bows. Nels was a fantastic craftsman, and his skills were reflected in the quality of the bows he made. Early on each and every bow which Nels made was either stamped or signed with his name, along with the words 'Bear Products by Grumley' or 'Bear Archery by Grumley'.
Fred Bear sold the advertising side of the Bear Products Company in 1940 to focus on archery. The archery business was renamed Bear Archery. In 1947 the company moved to a new facility in Grayling, Michigan. The Grayling plant focused on making and marketing recurve bows and longbows. After observing Ben Pearson’s successful efforts to machine make bows, Bear changed from hand-made bows to mass produced bows using fiberglass and other modern materials.
Automation did not sit well with Grumley, Bear’s principal old-school bowyer. Grumley knew that mass producing bows by machines instead of individually crafting every bow by hand was not what he wanted, and despite Bear’s attempt at retaining him, Grumley left Bear in 1948. Nels started his own bow making business. However, his private venture lasted only two years before he took a job as a model maker for an appliance manufacturer. Not all Bear bows made in these early years were made by Nels. There were dozens of other bowyers who made Bear wooden bows, mostly the lower line lemonwood models such as the Ranger. These bows were simply marked 'Bear Archery' in a written form. After Grumley’s departure, Bear began using the famous “Running Bear” decal.
Upon Nels departure, Fred moved another employee by the name of Bob Meeker over to supervise the manufacturing of the new bow lines. Even though bows were then largely the result of machine work, Bob came to be considered a fine bowyer in his own right.
The first new bow model which was introduced in 1949 after Nels’ departure was the Grizzly. The Polar and Kodiak were introduced in the following year, 1950.
Fred had been tinkering with take-apart and take-down bows of different styles for 30 years when in the mid-1960’s he began working on a new design that would require no tools for assembling/disassembling the limb and riser sections. Finally, in August 1969 the Bear Take-Down recurve went into production, appearing for the first time in the 1970 catalog. Unfortunately, the TD did not sell well and the line was discontinued after just 2 years.
Fred was an avid hunter and promoter. By traveling the world and producing films about bow hunting, Bear’s name and face became famous among archers and hunters. Bear was hands on with design, development and manufacturing processes at his company. Archery equipment was carefully examined and tested by men who had expertise in bow making, and many years of experience in the industry. Bear obtained a patent for something called “Glass Power” which was Fiberglas strands bonded together and running full length on every bow. Skilled workmanship, top quality material and precision machines resulted in a high demand for these well-crafted bows. Bear’s various models of the Kodiak bow became best sellers, and are still highly valued today.
Fred Bear sold the company to Victor Comptometer in 1968, but remained president. From 1968 to today, Bear has changed ownership a half-dozen times.
Bear wrote or played a major role in three books during his lifetime. The first was The Archer’s Bible in 1968. Many thousands of copies of this book were sold for many years after it's introduction. The next book was 'Fred Bear’s Field Notes', first published in 1976. It details many of Fred’s remarking hunting adventures. The third book was 'Fred Bear’s World of Archery', published in 1979. This was a comprehensive book about archery and Fred’s involvement with it. red Bear was also the first president of Michigan's oldest archery club, Detroit Archers.

1. Bear Archery was founded by Fred Bear and Charles Piper in Detroit Michigan in 1933 as the Bear Products Company. The initial focus was on silk-screening and advertising support work for automotive companies.
2. Use this form to search PSE bow serial numbers. Enter your serial number in the space provided and click the Search button. Thank you for purchasing PSE!
3. In the 1950's and early 60's, the serial numbers were started over every month every model. This makes these years very difficult to identify by serial numbers. From 1965 to 1969 the first single digit is the year of the bow (Example: 8Z1254 = 1968) The 'K' serial numbers started in 1970 KZ, KU, KT, etc. The sec ond letter was the model.
4. Serial numbers were placed on the limbs of most Bear bows, along with the weight and length of the bow. The first number stood for the year of manufacturing. So, a '5' at the beginning meant it was made in 1965, a '6' was made in 1966, a '7' in 1967, an '8' in 1968 and '9' at the beginning meant it was made in 1969.

Fred struggled with chronic emphysema later on in life, and suffered a heart attack while living in Florida and was admitted to a hospital in Gainesville. He remained in the hospital for a month, and died after another heart attack on April 27, 1988. His body was cremated, and his ashes spread near the AuSable River in Northern Michigan, where he liked to flyfish.

Nothing has grown so fast and furious in the hobby of Archery Collecting anywhere near the growth that collecting Bear Archery memorabilia has. It doesn't seem to matter what the item is, be it broadhead, bow, catalog, or even LP record albums of Fred telling hunting stories, if it says Bear Archery on it, someone wants it bad!

In this article, I will present an overview of Bear Archery, and give you just a taste of the different items which you should be looking for. Then in later columns, we can get into the details of particular items. But for now, sit back and enjoy our time capsule of the most famous archery company of all time.

A Brief History of the Bear Archery Company

Begun in 1933 in a small shop in Detroit, the company was first known by the name Bear Products Company. Archery consumed only a small corner of this new business whose main line was silk-screening and other advertising work for the major automotive makers. Although Fred made bows for himself and friends, it wasn't until 1938 when Fred hired a very skilled woodworker from Detroit by the name of Nels Grumley that the Bear Products Company line expanded to include bows.

By 1940 the archery line had grown to the point where Fred decided to sell out his part of the advertising business to his partner and continue to pursue his hobby/business as the Bear Archery Company. Times were tough, but Fred was a very good business man, and the business continued to grow until the move from Detroit to a brand new plant which Fred had completed in Grayling in 1947.

Fred sold the company in 1968 to Victor Comptometer so that he could raise the needed capitol to grow the company even more. Even though he was not the owner any longer, Fred stayed on as President of Bear Archery Company under Victor. The Bear Archery Company thrived in Grayling until 1978 when a strike at the plant forced the owners to move operations to Gainesville, Florida where the company remains today. Fred stayed active with the company that bears his name until his death in 1988 at the age of 86.

Now that we know a little about the Companies roots, let's take a look at some of the more popular products which have been produced by Bear over the last 65 years.

The Bows of Bear Archery

Bear Archery Serial Number Lookup United States Postal Service

Without a doubt, Bear Archery Company has produced more traditional bows than all the other traditional bow companies combined. In fact, in one year alone (1975), Bear Archery made over 360,000 bows. Why then, if there are so many Bear bows out there, are they so valuable? Wouldn't it make sense that other bow companies who made fewer bows would be rarer, and thus command more value? Well, remember that we are talking about bowhunters here, ever worse than that we are talking about bowhunters who collect. Enough said?

Seriously, Bear bows were the best marketed bows in the world for over 50 years. Most all of us who grew up in the days before compounds saw Bear ads and promotions everywhere we turned. And as a result, many of us grew up with Bear bows in our hands for a good part of our lives.

Bear Archery Serial Number Lookup 2327976

The Pre-Grayling Era Bows of Bear Archery

Fred’s first bowyer back in 1938 when the fledgling Bear Products Company first began commercially producing bows was a remarkable man by the name of Nels Grumley. Nels was a fantastic craftsman, and his skills show in each and every one of his bows. The pride in his craftsmanship is demonstrated in that each and every bow which Nels made is either stamped or signed with his name, along with the words 'Bear Products by Grumley' or 'Bear Archery by Grumley'.

Beginning in 1938, Grumley bows bore the stamped mark of the maker, sometime in the early 1940’s, the stamp was broken and all bows after that date bore the written mark of their famous maker.

Why the different means of signing the bows? Well, when Nels first began making bows for Fred in 1938, he used a sort of branding iron to stamp into the wood his mark 'Bear Products by Grumley'. Then somewhere in the early 1940’s, the brand was dropped and broken and instead of buying a new one Nels simply began writing his name on the bows.

Note: Remember that the company was known as Bear Products until 1940, so the 'Bear Products by Grumley' bows were obviously made before those marked 'Bear Archery by Grumley'.

Nels left Bear in 1948 when Fred made the decision to begin mass production of bows at the new factory in Grayling. Nels felt strongly that bows should be individually crafted, and not made by machine. So Nels left, even though Fred tried to convince him to stay with some handsome financial offers, and struck out on his own to make bows. However, his private venture into the bow making business lasted only two years before he took a job in an appliance manufacturer as a model maker. These 'Grumley by Grumley' bows are marked with a simple stamped signature 'Grumley' either on the limb or on the riser, and are very scarce and excellent collector items.

Not all Bear bows made in these early years were made by Nels. There were dozens of other bowyers who made Bear wooden bows, mostly the lower line lemonwood models such as the Ranger. These bows were simply marked 'Bear Archery' in a written form. However, in late 1948 Bear began using what later became known as the small 'Running Bear' decal, and thus some bows built beginning in 1948 may have this decal instead of the written brand.

Models of Grumley bows

Nels made 4 basic styles of bows: