# Bear Kodiak Hunter - Any good?



## rattus58 (Jul 9, 2007)

Beamen123 said:


> I recently did a walk through with a neighboring property owner in a townhouse she rented out. The previous tenants completely trashed it. They were finally evicted last week and they left the house in ruins. Bags upon bags of trash and clothes and everything imaginable. She asked me to look at a few things for her since I'm pretty handy around the house. She took me upstairs to show me the bedrooms and I noticed a recurve bow in the closet with some ruddy arrows beside it. She told me she was trashing EVERYTHING. She had asked me if I could replace the locks to the front door and I was happy to oblige. She saw me take notice to the bow and told me I was free to take it. I had my 9 month old with me so she even walked it to my house for me.
> 
> With that said, can anyone tell me about the Kodiak Hunter? Is it any good? Positives and negatives? It's in very nice shape, surprisingly. I have no idea how or why they had it because they were not the hunting type. They were actually dealing drugs out of the townhouse. There were a bunch of Hispanic folks living in there dealing. It was a shame.
> 
> ...


Gone through several myself... a little short for me, but a quick shooter....


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## Long Rifle (Dec 8, 2011)

Hard to find anything with Bear on it that isn't a good shooting bow. I have a Kodiak Magnum, at 52" it's considerably shorter, but I have no problem pulling it to my 29+" draw length. Should be great for blinds and brush, even at 60".


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## Logos (Jul 29, 2012)

Sounds like you had a serendipitous day.

Congrats.


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## Viper1 (Aug 21, 2003)

Randy -

The KH was the #2 bow in Bear's one piece, full size hunting bow line-up from the late 60's to the mid 70's. It went through a few color changes, but remained structurally the same for it's life span. It had the same limb design as most of the Bear hunting bows, as was a dependable (and somewhat over built) shooter, as most of the Bear's were. The KH did have a larger grip than the Super Kodiak, Bear's flagship hunting bow, and some people liked that a little better, some didn't. Personal call. Bear did try to make it a little slower than the more expensive SK by using different color surface glass, but the effect was minimal. 

The riser color was a good indication of the year made, but there are some folks here that can give you a more exact date from the serial number.

Viper1 out.


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## Attack (Oct 25, 2011)

It's crap... you should just send it to me... I'll pay the shipping to help you get rid of it... :wink:


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## King (Dec 8, 2002)

The serial number shows - 8T7977.

AMO - 60"

48#


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## King (Dec 8, 2002)

Appears to be a 1968 Kodiak Hunter reading a thread on TradGang showing the serials starting with "8T" was made in 1968.


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## reddogge (Jul 21, 2009)

I own one made in 1971 and it's still wood color. I killed a huge doe with it several years ago so it works fine. My take, they are good solid stable shooters although mine was not particularly fast. Some guys bristle at that but that's the unvarnished truth it was a bit of a dog in the speed dept. I'm keeping it around as a grandkid's bow when they grow into it. For some reason most people like the greenies but I hated them.


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## northern boy (Aug 25, 2010)

I had one for a short while I,m more of a longbow person. But the hunter is a nice shooter I put modern strings on all of my older bows. The hunter with b-50 a so-so bow with modern string is a great shooter handle is a little big so some people. any bow shooting b-50 will seem slow an have more hand shock. Lot,s of people having good results using modern strings on older bows. It,s well worth it. My 2 cents. Value about 150.00 -225.00 is very good shape


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## 4nolz (Aug 17, 2011)

1968 was the first year they were 60",brass coin,shedua riser


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## Bowjack (Mar 28, 2007)

Copied from another site. This is a good guide for identifying Kodiak Hunter years.

From Jim Raine
DATING BEAR KODIAK HUNTERS

Year - AMO - Riser wood(s) - Glass color - Tip/Overlay color - Serial prefix

‘67 ½- 58”- Shedua- Forest Green- White/ White- 7T

’68- 60”- Shedua- Forest Green- White/White- 8T

’69- 60”- Tiger wood- Arctic Gray- Black/Black- 9T

’70- 60”- Pau Ferro/African Bubinga- Arctic Gray- White/White- KT


’71-72- 60”- Shedua/African Bubinga Arctic Gray- White/White- KT


(’71 is the first year the stabilizer insert was standard and not optional)

’73-75- 60”- Green Futurewood- Forest Green- Green/White- KT

’76- 60”- Green Futurewood- Forest Green- Futurewood- KT

’77- 60”- Green Futurewood- Random Dark Glass- Futurewood- KH


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## King (Dec 8, 2002)

Thanks for the info gentlemen. Not sure if I'm going to keep it or sell it yet.


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