Vintage Archery Co. - Manufacturing Innovative Archery Products.

Joe Furlong, founder of the Vintage Archery LLC., has been hunting with traditional equipment for over 30 years. Joe formed Vintage Archery™ in early 1990 as a manufacturer of custom traditional bows. The company operated as a custom bow maker for several years producing longbows, recurves, flatbows and self bows until it developed the Black Rhino™ line of youth longbows.

Black Rhino™ Longbows (www.bows.net) was highly successful and became  the premier traditional youth bow in the country. Vintage Archery™ was able to provide youth all over the world with excellent quality laminated longbows. The expressions on young faces when looking over the bows at our booth, will always be remembered. It is great to see some of these kids, now as adults, still pursuing traditional archery. Much personal satisfaction was derived from this business. In 2005 the Black Rhino™ line was sold to Chuck and Pat Jones, operators of Okaw Valley Bow Company. Chuck and Pat continue to grow the business by expanding their bow line and adding additional youth accessories.

In 2006, on a moose hunting trip to Yukon, Canada, when climbing to higher elevations to scan surrounding areas, between slipping and stumbling, Joe Furlong concluded that it would be a lot easier if both hands were free for climbing. After that hunting trip he experimented with several methods for carrying his bow until developing a prototype hands free sling for traditional bows he called Bowtote™. The following year on a return trip to the Yukon the Bowtote™ was field tested not only while climbing but also while hunting on horseback. The Bowtote proved to be invaluable in both cases. The more time you spend in the field, the more the need for a traditional bow sling becomes evident, if for no other reason than to be able to carry your bow and put your hands in your pocket to keep them warm. Convenience while hunting is what the Bowtote™ provides! In 2008 the Bowtote™ was brought to market. The Bowtote™ is manufactured in the U.S.A. and marketed on its own web site http://www.bowtote.com.

After the results of Dr. Ed Ashby experimentation with different broadheads on African game animals came to their attention, Vintage Archery™ started to consider different broadhead designs. Eventually a design blending many ideas, including Dr. Ashby’s evolved into a finished product. Moving from the design phase to manufacturing was not simple or easy. Consideration was given to many manufacturing processes such as casting, machining steel, and laminating using die formed laminations. It was concluded that in order to incorporate the desired features into one broadhead the use of dies to produce laminations would be the most advantageous. Joe Furlong worked with Bob Mayo of Ace Archery Tackle Inc.  to develop the dies for the new broadhead  It is our belief that the Tuffhead™ is ”the first” and only stainless steel laminated broadhead on the market. Tuffhead™ is solely owned by the Vintage Archery Co™. Some of the manufacturing process of our broadhead is farmed out to specialty companies. The majority of the work is performed in our shop at Charleston, Il. Like the Bowtote™, the Tuffhead™ is proudly made in the U.S.A.

Joe Furlong has been hunting with traditional equipment for over 30 years. He has killed his share of large game with many different broadheads. While they all do their job under normal conditions; few have the features of the TuffHead™ to perform under duress when metal hits an unintended target such as bone.

During his hunting career Joe Furlong has been actively involved with many archery organizations. He is a senior member of the Pope and Young Club, associate member of the Professional Bowhunters Society (PBS), life member of the United Bow Hunters of Illinois (UBI) , and a life member of Compton Traditional Bowhunters. Joe considers support of our archery organizations important in order to protect and propagate our sport.

TuffHead ™- The Heavyweight of Broadheads™-            &            BowTote ™- A Hands Free Sling for Traditional Bows