A Modern Twist: Alpine Archery
Chuck Holloway

Alpine Archery is a well established business whose goal in life is to take the old, in the form of bows, arrows, quivers, and the other apparatus of archery, and give it a modern, updated look and feel. Their focus is on compound bows; their materials are modern to the core. Their equipment is often showy, with bright colors and polished metals.

No one who had ever used a bow from Alpine Archery could say that they were purely show; they perform as well as their website claims, and certainly stand out at archery competitions and tourneys. But for all that, they lose something; the sleek, modern look of the bows produced by Alpine Archery has a hollow, mechanical feel to it. True, this could be in part because they manufacture compound bows; unlike the unreliable longbow or the graceful recurve bow, the compound bow is an efficient and modern piece of machinery. And, in my opinion, it loses something because of that.

True, you can shoot better with the bows from Alpine Archery than with many an other bow, but you never forget when you're holding it that it is a modern bow, and you live in a modern world. It doesn't offer you a window to another world, a world of the past, as other bows do. And the bright metals and colors can be more than a little gaudy.

For all that, however, there is no denying that bows from Alpine Archery are precision-engineered pieces of equipment. And, on the target range or in an archery tournament, that precision is the most important aspect of the bow. Additionally, their range of children's bows especially are well-designed and attractive to their intended age group.

Somehow, though, I can't help preferring the feel of a good recurve bow, the polished wood, the stylish curves, to all the shiny modern compounds in the world. They're good bows, no doubt about it. But they'll never be the perfect bow for me.

Chuck Holloway is and avid archery fanatic with 18 years of hunting experience. He is a lifetime member of the North American Hunting Club and an active member of the NRA. Chuck has a strong passion for the outdoors and enjoys capturing the details of the hunt in his journals.