Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Martin archery being liquidated

Auction site

Auction Nov. 4th.

They've had issues for a while and apparently can't pay the bills. One article said they were $4million in debt and the port of Walla Walla, WA was trying to buy their building and lease it back to reduce their debt.

I live just down the road from Martin. My very first successful hunting with a Bow in my life was with a Martin.

I have since owned about 5 of them as the evolution of the products improved over 20 plus years.

It's sad to think they will be gone!

I guess they are holding onto their name but without a building and equipment I'm not sure what they will do. Founder of the company died this summer as well.

They used to make some awesome bows but quality slipped recently. I bought my last Martin in 2008 and it had to go back 3 times.

I knew Gail, we pheasant hunted the same farm every year.

Sad deal - Good people but very tough competition.

Back in the 70 the Bow I want really bad was the Martin Cougar Magnum , never could come up with the cash to get it, so hunted with my Jennings Shooting Star.

I have two Martin recurves. One of them is strung by my office door and is the bow I have been practicing with every day.

Sad to hear about the troubles.

Ex

Bummer.

My first bow, other than a fiberglass recurve when I was a kid, was a Martin SpeedFire. It was a dealer rep's demo bow that the shop was selling for way cheaper than retail. I killed my first archery buck 6 months after getting it, with an Easton Game Getter 2216 and an NAP Thunderhead. Killed a deer a year with it for 3 years, then went back to rifles for a few. Man that bow shot nice and was accurate, but it was in fact my first piece of tail, so I had nothing to compare it to... of course it seemed awesome. Still have it, hanging in the rack.

Seemed as a company they had been losing their way in the market for few years or so... along with the slip in QC, sadly it really was a matter of time.

same here, had a Couger and a Oscelot and they were good bows, I now have a 2006 Switchback XT and perfectly happy with it.

That's hysterical, I also shoot all my big game since 2006 with a SBXT

Ive looked at other bows ( Elite,Hoyt) but can't kind anything that is better than my XT

I guess this will be the last season for my 2006 Pantera. It's heavy, but has been a damn good bow. Solid, accurate, and easy to tune.

My second bow was a Martin. What I found strange is the guy who restrung it a few years ago never heard of Martin bows, but commented on how nice a bow it was. I figured he lived in a box.

When they started making bows with a 3 piece riser I pretty much figured the end was near at some point. It was nothing more than a cost cutting issue and they were buying CNC machinary that couldn't machine a full riser, only in 1/3rds.

hopefully the Howatt division will survive!

The CNC machines they have are 500k each! They are the very good. They can machine a whole riser no problem if they chose to. The same machines do all the one piece risers they build too.

The three piece riser was designed to eliminate the scrap from a block to make only one piece. using this three piece design they used about twice as much from each block rather then 1/3 riser, 2/3's back to the recycle bin. They could use about 70% of the block and only 30% in the recycle bin. This was an enormous cost savings for them. It was the pinned together pieces that freak people out. Myself included. My Firecat is built this way. It's as solid as a one piece riser so far. The pressure they assemble these together with is massive. I don't think it would ever break or come apart in that spot.

I've never head of a three Piece riser failing either.

I was in thePlant right after this design came out. It was a very big concern of mine as well when I saw this. I think it will be the future for others to follow.

What a shame. I used to shoot skeet with Gail every weekend. He was a great guy. I took him coyote calling once. He wanted to take a coyote with his bow. We never got one in close enough for a bow shot. I worked for him for a couple years when Martin's owned Drumheller Sports. Gail was as nice a man as you'd ever meet.

Mart

I can remember when the Martin Cougar line was "the" bow to watch for the release of the new model each year...and was in the same financial boat.

Had to shoot a Golden Eagle Falcon with the solid maple limbs and full length at 32 inch aluminum culverts in XX75 and a radical helical twist.

No doubt!

Will they still be putting out the posters and calendars???