Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Parker bows closing its doors today

They are gone

Wow.
That’s a surprise to me.
When they first came out I bought my wife a youth single cam bow.
Was light and shot really well.
I guess it’s a tough market these days.

Don’t think they ever were very popular. Don’t recall ever seeing one, and I get into quite a few archery shops

I own a few parker bows was a good bow for a good price.

I live 25 min from the factory and have friends that have lost jobs today. They sold a pile of bows locally because of a good warranty. The owner died 2 years ago and it gone down hill every sense.

I was driving back home from Roanoke yesterday and thinking of that brand and how they managed to stay in business. It is a shame for sure.

Have used a Parker Buck Buster x-bow for the last 7 or 8 years. Quality bow, never an issue....

First new bow I ever purchased was a Parker Hunter Mag......It sure was a step up from the Bear whitetail I started on.....

I never owned a Parker bow, and I only recall seeing them in one archery shop, and I've been to quite a few throughout the US. I hate to see them close down though. The Archery business has seen a lot bow manufacturers come to market in the last 12-15 years. It's a wonder more of them are not going out of business.

they were good bows. local shop used to sell them. wow. i left compounds a decade ago and went with a recurve... had i bought another compound it was going to be a Parker.

Small Market with two very large players and a few Big players. Hard to compete when you can't make the quantities the Big Boys can. Add to the equation that the big boys can afford market saturation of advertising. Then there is last to contend with Podium finishing that for the most part Hoyt and Mathews have locked down. Although Hoyt I hear has come off the contingency money somewhat.

Too bad, lots of competition in a limited market. Parker joins a long list. Timberline, York, Parker ........

I have never heard of a Parker bow

I've owned two Parker compounds a Buckhunter and a UL35. Both bows were good shooters and I harvested several deer with each and never had any problems what so ever with them. They were in almost every shop around here for a while when they first hit the market. Sad to see another archery company close the doors. I remember the ones mentioned along with Mountaineer ( who had the first 80% let off bow) as well as the original Diamond line who Bowtech picked up same as Ross. There was another line of bows that I use to see at tournaments called Merlin that also went away. I'm sure they'll eventually be others.

Maybe stuff is regional.
Every other shop it seems carried Parker (Indiana).
Hardly anybody carried Martin.

PSE, Hoyt, Bowtech and Mathews the big 4.

High Country, Darton......surprised they still around.

Local pro shop said 50% of sales now X bow.

as a archery and firearms dealer ,yes Parker closed the doors but sent me a e-mail for half priced xbows last week with no warranty. no i did not buy any xbows either. Parker did make excellent compound bows. now days i sell and buy a few Barnsdale bows from Dave Barnsdale, the big bow companies get frustrated with Dave Barnsdale he himself has won Vegas 3 times 3 different years himself in the pro division with his own bows he built himself,thats kinda painful for the big bow companies when Dave wins !

They don't care about Dave. That is less contingency money they have to pay. 3 times is nothing for a company like Hoyt. Add to the fact that he doesn't even scratch the surface of bow sales. Dave means nothing to them.

think about it ? it hurts bow sales when these top bow manufactures don`t win,that`s why right now Matthews just paid and got more top Pro archers . Hoyt makes great bows and Hoyt has some good pro archer`s too, Hoyt was lucky to get a Montana Pro " Kris Schaff" who did shoot for Elite and right now he is shooting very well for Hoyt. i will always cheer for the underdog or unknown and Dave Barnsdale was and still is a great person and a dang good shot too at 65. Dave also still makes some of the very best bow limbs in the world,Dave is very great person on the phone to deal with and in person too. try calling Hoyt ,Elite,Mayhews or any other big company they put you on hold and could give a crap about you or me,but Dave is always nice and helpful when you call,so i continue to cheer for him and other underdogs.
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Hoyt is stacked with great archers. Sorry but Dave is not issue to their sales or Mathews, Bowtech, PSE, etc.... Hoyt and Mathews have more podiums in history then all the other company's combined. The only somewhat competition Hoyt has would be in Olympic Recurves with Win & Win.

I never said Dave wasn't a hell of an archer or a not a good guy.

As far as having to call Hoyt that is not an issue for me. The bow shop I use takes care of anything and everything I need. Like when I fell on some rocks and chipped my limb. Took off my limb, took off a limb from a new bow. They called Hoyt said they have a chipped limb that needs replacing. Hoyt had the new limb for their bow in days. That day I was out hunting again. That is something you get from a good quality shop, that you won't get from the box stores.

Anyways did you happen to watch the Lancaster? Was a really good tourney this year.

yes i watched Lancaster, Elite Archery was top pro division bow this year,those pro`s do shoot well.