With archery season right around the corner, lots of people want to get in to see "The Bow Doctor," also known as Tony Peres.
His official business name is "TheBowDr."
“People just realized that they have been fishing, water skiing, and playing and goofing off all summer. It’s like, crap, I need to get my box fixed,” Peres said.
In fact, Peres is swamped, taking phone call after phone call.
“This is the busiest month for 90% of all archery shops. This is where some shops say they make 30% of the money for the year because of the influx and the hurry of hunting season starting in a week, two weeks, a month, depending on the season,” Peres said.
Antelope archery season begins on Thursday. Peres says for the past month, he’s taken between five and ten bows a day. From simple fixes to complete rebuilds, Peres does it all.
“The biggest thing is just getting your bow out of the case and looking at it and going over it to see if there’s anything that you noticed something wrong with it. Maybe it's frayed string, maybe it’s something in your limbs that’s bad. You got a broken pin on your site. It’s just checking over your equipment and making sure everything is right,” Peres said.
Peres says it may be obvious, but it is important to get your fix checked out before hitting up the back country.
“When you get out and you’re hunting, you put all that time and effort in bow hunting, you put all that time and effort into identifying the animal, the game that you are going after, you progress and get to all the steps to get there and you draw your bow back to shoot the animal and something does not work or something breaks, in that moment all of that’s wasted,” Peres said.
But even after getting your bow fixed, it is important to practice.
“Close enough is not good enough. You need to be dedicated to your craft. You owe it to the animals that you are going to shoot at. Things need to be right. My biggest recommendation to people secondary to knowing their equipment, is going over it. Get outside and shoot ten or twenty arrows three to four nights a week,” Peres said.
Peres jokes that it is almost like getting back into the gym.
“That’s all it takes. If they start doing that even in July and maintain that all the way through August that’s two months of shooting. It will usually progress into more arrows because as they do that, they get more comfortable,” Peres said.
Peres says although he is keeping busy, the love for the sport keeps him going.
“Initially when I got into archery, I wanted to start hunting more. I wanted to extend my rifle season into archery season. It progressed into target archery and then some tournament archery. It just became an addiction. It got out of hand,” Peres said. “I love being outside. I love to shoot bows. I love to help people.”
