The Journey to the Jewel

In my previous blogs I have expressed that my local archery shop has been the source of my frustration since getting into bow hunting. Things such as not having anything in stock, treating women and kids negatively, over charging for products, having bad customer service and providing bad advice are not what a bow shop should be about, but mine is.

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I was looking to purchase the new Mathews Jewel but wanted to shoot it first. Not surprisingly my local shop didn’t have one for me to shoot or any other women’s bows. As I was venting my frustration on twitter, one of my awesome followers mentioned a contact with Mathews I should talk to. After speaking with the Texas dealer rep about my frustrations, he said: tell me the draw weight, length, color, specs etc of what you want and I’ll ship it to another bow shop close to you and if you like it you can get it rigged up and walk out with it.

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I was thrilled! I was going to have to drive 1.5 hours one way to get to the shop but was advised how awesome & helpful they would be. A week or so later my bow was at the shop and my husband and I made the long trip to check it out. Immediately I was excited to be in a shop with such friendly people, with product on the shelves, and feeling comfortable & welcomed. They had a Jewel already set up for me to shoot first and then I watched with joy as MY Jewel was pulled from its brand new box!

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They had heard all the stories of the nearby shop so many times before and how so many people make the drive over to their shop because it really is that bad. As I browsed and picked out my accessories I was nervous to have someone helping me and providing knowledge! In the past it was always on my own or with just the knowledge of me and my hubby.

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The staff set up my bow with all my accessories and I started shooting. One of the owners is an older lady who is full of knowledge who was watching me shoot. She started questioning some of my habits, some were wrong, and she began helping me and guiding me with so much advice and genuine love and interest. I was overwhelmed so much by the help I could barely concentrate. I had tears welling up in my eyes.

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There was so much emotion in me from the years of bad advice and having to overcompensate for the wrong way of doing certain things and the overwhelming amount of support and help I was receiving. Everything started to make sense finally!! I had been able to harvest many animals with my way of shooting but was never as consistent as I had wanted to be. Her adjustments to my anchor point, release length and other minor things made such a difference right away.

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I have already taken those tips and changed parts of the way I was shooting and seen a big difference. I am completely gracious for finally experiencing a real archery shop and for my awesome hunting family on twitter for getting me to the right people. I am head over heels in love with my new Jewel and the amazing help I received from a truly genuine archery shop!