You know what really makes my blood boil? The fact that a decent deer rifle with scope — one that’ll drop a buck clean at 150 yards — these days costs me maybe four to six hundred bucks. You don’t need a custom rig built do that. It’s steel, wood or synthetic, glass, a barrel. Simple, rugged, dependable. Meanwhile, try assembling a bow setup that’s actually good enough to hunt, and suddenly you’re in six, seven, eight hundred dollar territory — before you even bother with premium arrows or a decent sight.
Why the hell is that? Because bow manufacturers and outfitters have turned “performance” into a marketing shell game. The base bow looks sleek, the cam’s whisper-smooth, the limbs are “super laminated,” but when you peel back all that fancy talk, you’re paying for design mystique and markup — not just a tool that shoots arrows. And then there are the add-ons: sights, rests, peep, stabilizers — suddenly you’re bleeding money like a deer with buckshot. All so you can launch a stick straight enough to actually hit something.
And here’s where it gets uglier: there are lawsuits now accusing the bow industry of collusion. These suits allege that manufacturers, retailers, and the archery trade association are enforcing minimum pricing (or cracking down on discounts) so no one can undercut the “accepted” price floor. In other words: if someone wants to sell a bow cheaper, some big players will come down on them like an owl on a rabbit. That’s not competition. That’s a squeeze.
So we, the working guys, get stuck paying inflated prices because the insiders created a racket. While rifle guys see real competition and capitalism pushing prices down or holding them in check, us bowhunters get handed a bill justified by “innovation” or “precision engineering” pricing and told to smile.
I’m done smiling. I want gear I can afford, not gear that feels like it was taxed by the same commission that sells moon rockets. If the courts find the bow folks guilty? Good. Maybe then we’ll stop getting screwed — and start getting gear that works without robbing us blind.
If you enjoyed this article, then please REPOST or SHARE with others; encourage them to follow AFNN. If you’d like to become a citizen contributor for AFNN, contact us at managingeditor@afnn.us Help keep us ad-free by donating here.
Substack: American Free News Network Substack
Truth Social: @AFNN_USA
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/afnnusa
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/2_-GAzcXmIRjODNh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfnnUsa
GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/AFNN_USA
CloutHub: @AFNN_USA