Pearson

There is an old saying in the south. Good People.
Yes that is the entire saying. And to really be southern about it you have to say it "Ole Joe, he is good people."
It's not a plural thing.
I have known some of the folks at Ben Pearson Archery for awhile from being around competitive archery. So when I made a trip down to Brewton, Ala. in mid December it cemented the thoughts I already had floating around in my head, the folks at Pearson, they are good people.
I rode down with Pearson staff shooter Blake Burger of Fortson, Ga. who wanted to check out what was new for 2011 and to tweak a little on his Pearson Advantage bow.

When we arrived we woke up Pearson President Jeremy Blackmon. Well we didn't really wake him up but we jogged his memory that we were coming when he saw us walk through the door.
We sat down in Blackmon's office, talked a bit and met twelve year Pearson employee Caroline Settle who currently handles Pearson's sales and customer service.
One of the first things you notice about Pearson is the history that is displayed throughout the offices and all through the buildings. Pearson was established in 1927 and incorporated in 1938 and has been in its current location since 1997.
There are posters and photographs throughout the shop of older bows and of advertising from days gone by. There are old bows around and even old machinery that has been here for years, some still in use and some not.

The entire 2011 line up for Pearson will include the new Stealth 2, the Advantage, the Legend (32 ¾", 7 ¼", 332 IBO), the Predator (30", 7 ¼", 303 IBO) which is a package bow that comes completely outfitted and retails for about $500.00. Pearson also has a (26.5" 6 1/8", 272 IBO) youth bow, the Cadet that goes from 17 to 27" and available with 20, 29 or 40 pound peak weights.
Pearson has also gone back to its roots in a way.
"This is our first year back with a traditional bow, an all hand made take down," Blackmon says of the 62" Bushmaster. "It's a $999.00 suggested retail bow built to compete with upper end recurves."
"Another thing we are working on that we would like to have is we are trying to address the ladies that are 23.5, 24 inches," Blackmon says. "But that is something that is probably a mid year thing we don't have it right now but I do have somebody working on it."
Blackmon was very familiar with Pearson before his group got together to buy Pearson on April 20, 2009. He had previously worked at Pearson for 7 years.
The one thing Blackmon and Pearson have worked on since the take over was streamlining operations. The company is now run with a smaller crew than in years past.
Bow assembly and warranty are handled by Blackmon's partner Chris Stokes. Stokes wife Dena handles shipping. Her mom Darlene Matchett handles book keeping. So Pearson is a family run company.
Blackmon is proud to note that for the first time since Ben Pearson died in 1970 or early 71 that the owners have been active in the day to day operations of the company.
"Our goals are not to be the biggest company out there," Blackmon said. "That was never our aspirations coming in here. Our number one goal at the top is to glorify God. That is how this whole thing came about. We were on a mission trip when this deal came up. So that is our foundation with everything. As a business our goal is through that we look at everything and ask ourselves "does what we are doing, do the questions that we are asking ourselves glorify God." We are really looking for slow steady growth. We are really looking to build a great product, be innovative in it. We want to keep it as a slow and steady growth and keep it more of a family operation rather than some big corporation."
That is Blackmon's goal for Pearson, but what is his goal for his bows?
"Me personally, having been a competitive archer I've got personal goals," Blackmon said. "I would love to see our bows out there winning the open pro class."
So try the new Pearson Stealth 2 at a dealer near you and remember that not only are the bows quality equipment but the owners of the company are just plain old Good People.

The one bow we drove to Pearson to play with was the 2011 Stealth 2 which will be officially debuted at the 2011 ATA show in Indianapolis, Ind.
The Stealth 2 is a beyond parallel, split limb bow with a 32" axle to axle length, a shade over 6" brace height and an IBO rating of 340 plus fps. Pearson is still ironing out the draw lengths but Blackmon thinks the bow will be available in 25.5 to 30.5" draw lengths and should be in shops by mid-February.
"New to us is the roller guard and the limb pockets the way they lock the limb in," Blackmon said. "The cam design is new to us too. It is engineered to have a lot better draw force than it has had in the past." The Pearson engineers have also played with the balance of the bow with the design of the cutouts in the riser.
"If you will look at the riser, basically anything forward of where your hand is we've tried to make the cutouts large forward from the hand," Blackmon says. "Typically when you pick up a reflex bow it wants to really tip forward hard, a lot of front weight in the bow and you basically can't get enough back weight on it. So we tried to make the cut outs forward of that really big so you reduce the weight in front of it so you can balance the bow fairly easy which is also going to help the way it aims."

Another balance aspect that Pearson plays with is where the actual center point of the bow is located.
"There are generally two trains of thought where people will kind of argue at, some guys want the center to be at the grip and some guys want the center to be at the arrow rest," Jeremy says. "Most of our bows are centered at the shelf, half way between the two. I have never been able to prove that either one is more accurate than the other."
Pearson's competition offering is the Advantage, a 37 1/2"axle to axle bow with a brace height of 7 5/8" and an IBO Speed of 327-318 fps and offered in draw lengths from 26" to 31.5". The Advantage is seeing only minor changes for the 2011 season.
"The support brace is the only thing we have changed on it," Blackmon said. "Everything else, limbs cams, everything will stay the same for this year. Moving the brace to the rear of the riser, the main reason we did it was for thumb room. We had several guys with big hands saying there wasn't enough thumb room in there. But an advantage of it was that it wound up shooting a little smoother. It actually made the riser stiffer."
Pearson had an Advantage prototype in their trailer way back at the ASA Metropolis, Ill. Pro/Am in June, 2009 so it has officially been out for a full competitive archery season.
"Response really was tremendous," Blackmon said of the Advantage. "It's a bow that's really built specifically for the sport that we do so much of, 3D. It's balanced in a manner that you can take your stabilizers without having to add a ton of weight to it and get the balance you are looking for. That is why it got so much attention right away. It's ended up that we've got, in Europe we've got quite a few people shooting FITA with it and doing well. It's ended up in a market that we weren't aiming at when we built it but it is performing well there."
Pearson does not currently have any professional shooters competing in the US with the Advantage but Blackmon thinks there will be quiet a few in places like Vegas and Louisville for the indoor NFAA shoots.
"We've got a hand full of shooters that will probably be (in Vegas)," Blackmon said. "If you look at our face book page you will see some of the guys that have been posting some of the scores they have been shooting, some of their score cards and targets and such. We've got some guys pretty consistently shooting 300 with 24, 25 X's pretty high X-count for a Vegas round."