Oneida Eagle H250 Restoration of a Lever Hunting/Fishing Bow Ca. 1984 + History

A long, long time ago - when I was a bit younger - it was still acceptable for children to play Cowboys and Indians. Karl May’s stories about the heroes Winnetou and Old Shatterhand were still quite well received and I loved to see myself in the role of an indigenous inhabitant defending the oppressed against a technologically superior evil invader.

At the time it was also still normal and fairly safe for children to play outside, even without continuous surveillance, in the fields and woods.

Actually, we simply loved to play out in the woods, building shelters and spears and bows with actual real hunting knives….

Many years later, I came across an “old” ca. 1976 Bear Take Down Recurve Bow while cleaning out a storage shack for the local college and was allowed to keep it and two of its cheap ‘76er Bear brethren - „It‘s junk. Throw it away!“

So I got some straw bales and another bow, a decent one (Hoyt), and later a ProLine Compound bow for hunting, and had a cool hobby for a couple of years.

The Oneida Eagle Lever Hunting/Fishing Bow was a really cool sort of compound bow, newly on the market then and endorsed by none other than Ted Nugent (!), that was also way too costly for me though….

The fascinating thing that sets the Oneida bows apart from „normal“ compound bows is the lever limb setup. The transfer of power from the string to the power limbs is achieved via the lever system and the cable-cam assembly. Due to the use of an Outboard Limb attached via hinge to the Power Limb, the bow handles very similarly to a normal recurve bow. I.e. the string can be removed and replaced in case of damage similarly to a recurve. That is possible, because with the lever system, there is hardly any bend, i.e. strain, on the power limbs until the bow is drawn. This is in contrast to the normal compound bow, where the limbs are always under high strain, requiring a bow press for any work on the bow. Because the cam system is placed inside the system and attached to the riser, it is very well protected, making the whole setup quite robust. The riser has a clever design with pylons, i.e. the „shark fins“, on which you can set the bow down, so that none of the sensible parts, i.e. string-limbs-cams, end up getting dirty.

Until recently, my old bows spent about 40 years in the basement. The old Bear Bow still shoots fine with the new arrows I got and I‘m the only one I have met who uses an old relic and has the audacity to actually win a local tournament. But why not use an old bow, if it works?

By chance, I stumbled onto an add on Ebay.com for a possibly ancient Oneida Eagle that actually looked rusted and dirty and crappy, but seemingly intact, for only 150$! H/Well, why not! Restoring an old compound bow might be interesting and fun too!

Buying it was not so difficult, but getting it from the US to Germany turned tedious and cost about again as much as the bow, but buying a new one for currently around 2000 € was seriously not an option….

A couple of months later - things from China take only about a week - I got the bow and it was rusted and dirty and crappy, but whole. On closer inspection, the bow turned out to be in theoretically mint condition!

Well, what do you need to clean up an old Compound bow?

1. Soap (dish washing detergent) and water, alcohol (ethanol, or such)
2. Sponge, dishrag
3. Allen wrenches (imperial), screwdrivers (flathead, Phillips)
4. Steel wool
5. Fine sandpaper
6. Cola
7. Vinegar (25%)
8. Acetone
9. Small glass jars
10. Cold Browning Liquid (eg. Ballistol 13,99€)
11. Axle grease, oil

So, let‘s go online and ask Oneida at oneidaeaglebows.com for some information: „Sorry, since the last takeover we have no documentation on older products.“

Hmm, ok, YouTube then. There are a couple of streams on old Oneida bows, but not enough to really work with and hardly anything on the bow I bought.

The Internet then. There used to be a site www.oneidabows.net, that collected EVERYTHING on Oneida bows - All the manuals, charts and general information, with lots of videos and how-to‘s, BUT, it closed down a while back around 2010 - long before my time. The links are still there, but no content.

The Green Arrow used an Oneida Kestrel in the DC Comics TV series!

Scraping the Net for Oneida Eagle Lever Hunting/Fishing Bow Manuals, Charts, Specifications and such, yielded very limited information - some even in French - which I will try to completely post in this Instructable.

You will find the information in several documentation „Steps“ farther down this Instructable.

In case you might have information, or documents on the old Oneida Eagle Bows that you would like to share with others, please feel free to drop me a note and I will also add it.

Also: Please feel free to correct me, if I got something wrong!

I will update those sections, if I find further material….

When I get around to it, I’ll try to add a short history of the Oneida Eagle Story.

I also found some info on John J. Islas, the genius inventor of the Oneida and its awesome predecessor the „Mohawk Laser“, that I will also post down below, soon….

If you end up the lucky owner of a vintage Oneida bow, I hope all this stuff may be useful to you….

And who knows, you might actually become a fan of these bows?!

Anyway:

The remains of the type-sticker on the bow and the serial number engraved on the grip of the riser gave me the following information:

Weight Range 45-65

Serial No. H2 7682

String Length 50 ½

Draw Length 33-34

I found a chart with explanations to the serial numbers system that Oneida used. The serial number on the old bows was engraved on the handle by hand - in this case H27682. From the document I found, H2 tells me that the bow is an old H250 type produced from ‘84 to ‚‘89, with a serial of 7682, that is low enough that the bow might actually have been produced in 1984 - so cool!

The weight range is fine for me, but my normal draw length is about two inches shorter. It was not recognizable on the photos of the advertisement, but I‘ll be able to live with it. Oneida at the time sold their bows with three different limb assemblies for the different draw length ranges short/medium/long and this would be a „long“.

The string that came with the bow has the - for me - strange length of about 49‘‘ and is black with red loops. Assuming that it may be an original string, the chart I found would imply that it is actually an original string by Oneida with B50 Dacron and red/black = 49 ½ inch. So I would postulate that the original owner put it on the bow, for whatever reason, possibly to change the length of the bow, or the draw length?

So, lets start restoring it….

Now that you are holding the bow in your hand, check if anything is broken. 

Well, ideally you would check if something is broken before you buy it. 

Take pictures of everything!

If the limbs of a bow have any cracks or deeper scratches and dents, you should go look for something else. In the case of the Oneida lever action type bows, there is currently a Chinese manufacturer whose limbs (surprisingly) fit, so you could use them as replacements. With my bow, they look fine.

Next are the cables. Cables might rust, or some wires may break, so they may need to be replaced. Luckily, the Oneida cables have standard lengths and new ones can be bought online.

My cables show a decent amount of surface oxidation of the Zinc, but I only found one tiny broken wire - by impaling my finger on it. After cleanup, they should still hold for a while.

Ok, the string is the piece of the bow that gets the most wear and that is the easiest to replace, so who cares? Well, I do….

The riser is the most sturdy part of a bow that you could probably ride a car across and still use, but we check it for any scratches and deformations, of course - it‘s fine.

Compound bows per definition have a few other smaller parts that may get damaged, the cam system is the most visible, but you usually really need to take things apart to get all the details.

So….

Take Pictures!

I tend to be a tiny bit forgetful. Also, I‘m always worried that I might be clumsy and break something, because I’m not careful enough with things. Also, after the age of physical film materials, it doesn‘t cost you anything to take a photo with your cell‘s camera, so why not?

What you also get from taking pictures, is that you look at things automatically in more detail and so learn a lot about how things actually work. Additionally, I personally like to take a piece of paper and draw diagrams and take notes….

First I removed the sights - they are not further described here, but treated in a similar fashion as all the rest of the bow pieces.

After removing the rust, I painted the steel wires white. The plastic „wingnut“ piece for the arresting bolt is actually the only piece on the whole bow that I did not fix and reuse, because who actually needs/uses it?

Here, some pictures of the sights before and after anyway….

A „normal“ compound bow is a bit of a tedious thing, because the complete setup is always under tension. In case the string should break, you have instant catastrophe. If you want to replace the string on a regular compound bow, you need to put strain on the limbs with a bow press.

An Oneida lever bow is a different kind of animal. It was designed to be robust and serviceable under field conditions. The new bows are a bit more finnikey, but with the old ones, you can simply release the tension on the limbs to take everything apart.

The timing system is the most complex and tedious part of the bow, so make sure to look at it in detail before taking it apart. It is a simple mechanism, but getting it back together as it was may prove more difficult than you‘d expect.

The synchronization of the cam system is achieved using a so called Timing Cable, which forms a loop that runs around each Timing Wheel and via a set of Idler Wheels on each end of the riser and through a groove along the middle of the latter, that is normally partially covered by the (then glued on plastic) handle. Notice that the cables don‘t run parallel through the groove, but are crossed there to achieve the synched movement of the wheels - i.e. both turn either toward the inside or outside of the bow at the same time.

Since the cable is thinner than the power cables, you don‘t want to put much tension on it. Also, the large plastic timing wheels are not meant to take much strain, so it’s another good reason that you want to check the timing cable while you are releasing (or adding) tension. But, Oneida once stated that for the older bows it was not necessary to release the tension of the timing cable when adjusting the poundage of the bows. I tried it and had no problems - best to release the tension anyway.

So, simply unscrew the large tension bolts until you can remove the string, or do it the right way….

A - Tension Adjustment:

Thus, the first step, after documenting everything, is to loosen the small socket head screw (5/16“), situated in the rim of the upper limb timing cam, to release the timing tensioning hub where the cable is wound for tension adjustments.

Though the cable forms a loop, it consists of two equal lengths that are held together by clips at the ends. These are each held in place by a hole in the rim of the timing wheel of the lower limb and by the bore in the tensioning hub on the timing wheel of the upper limb. After releasing the tension, the cable can be plied from both and then fiddled out of the system. You can also wait until further disassembly.

B - Idler Wheels:

Toward each end of the riser is a steel shaft on which sit two plastic Idler Wheels that have no further attachment, because the cables hold them on the pins anyway.

In my case both rods were well corroded, so that it was difficult to remove the wheels. After removal, the pins were cleaned with steel wool and de-rusted as described in Step 7. During reassembly they were oiled and greased like the other relevant parts.

Document, or remember the way the cables run across them and are crossed through the groove of the riser, so you‘ll have an easier time during reassembly.

After releasing the timing cable it is time to release the overall tension on the bow by turning the large limb bolts on the ends of the riser in a counter-clockwise manner. It‘s best to do this alternated on each limb and no more than a whole turn at a time to keep things balanced. 

When you have released the tension, you can simply remove the string and the bow‘s arms and cables will be slack - No more danger!

Oneida used to have directions in their handbooks on how to take their bows apart with removing power and yoke cables in a certain order. Since my bow was dirty and gummed up I decided to remove the limb and cable assembly en bloc from the riser before further disassembly.

The riser has four „Shark Fins“ attached by three bolts each that each hold needle bearings with axles holding the power assembly. After removing the two retaining clips from each axle, the axles can be slid from the KN040705 KAYDON - Y45 needle roller bearings. Be very careful to catch all the needles! In my case, the bearings were completely dry and the needles are always motivated to drop out quickly, trying to bounce away to places unknown. I collected all needles with a magnet for each bearing.

By further unbolting the weight bolts (bolt, metal washer, plastic washer) you can fully remove the power limbs from the riser, or just pull the limbs with the connected plastic rockers out from the riser.

Next, I removed the saddle screws and the plastic saddles from the ends of the outboard limbs, in turn releasing the yoke cables.

Once the outboard limb is free, the two bolts with the nut bar attaching the limb to the hinge can be removed.

This lets you open the hinge wide enough to remove the two bolts on the inside of the hinge through the power limb to the clevis connecting it to the power cable.

The outboard limbs and the power limb with the plastic rockers can be set aside for cleaning.

After removing the two retaining clips, the axle can be pulled from each clevis, freeing the loop of the power cable. The other end of the power cable can be carefully pulled from the cam after removing the bolt locking it in the cam.

Each yoke cable is simply set into a groove on the side of each cam and can be wiggled free to remove it. It has a plastic cable spreader consisting of two plates, held together with four nuts and corresponding bolts. It might make sense to mark the cables to remember the correct placement.

The wheel assembly differs on top and bottom.

In both cases, the axle goes through both timing wheel and cam, also both cams are attached with a bolt to their respective wheels.

For a right-handed bow, on the bottom limb, that‘s it - for a left-handed bow, the setup is switched around top to bottom.

On the top limb, the timing wheel contains the timing cable take up spool and its locking bolt. Here, the cam also has a locking bolt, but with an additional star-shaped washer and it has a slot instead of a simple hole, so that it can be slightly adjusted on the timing wheel. Somewhere I read that this is to adjust the draw weight, but it‘s probably more to be able to balance the tiller setting.

The plastic wheels and cam parts are mainly deformed by cable pressure, but the grooves are intact.

The shark fins that hold the wheel assembly can be removed from the riser with three bolts each. The idler wheels can be removed from their pins as mentioned above.

There is a socket on the front of the riser where additional stabilizers can be attached, that was pretty rusted on my bow.

Since the grip was missing on my bow, I only needed to remove the remaining glue.

Yes, there are scratches on the shark fins and lots on the riser!

I decided to leave them be, because it‘s an old bow that really does not need to be repainted to act like it‘s young. I take showers, but don‘t dye my hair either.

Now that you have a nice puzzle with a whole lot of rusted nuts and bolts and dirty plastic bits….

The riser was simply washed with soap, the handle glue removed and the rusted parts treated as described below.

The wooden outer limbs were treated like dirty furniture, the fiber power limbs simply washed.

Some of the plastic pieces can be replaced with still available original parts, or newer aluminum alternatives. If they are just dirty and largely undamaged and still functional - as in my case - I decided to stick with the originals and just thoroughly clean them.

The original hinges of the bow are made from aluminum with a steel shaft and two retaining clips to keep the latter in place.

The same is the case with the two clevis connectors for the power cables.

The aluminum parts were cleaned with soap and water, the steel parts and the nuts and bolts additionally as described below.

Strangely, the aluminum limb hinges were really tight in their original state, as well as after cleaning, so that is was impossibly hard to open and close them at all. During the reassembly it was therefore decided to use a small jeweler's file to remove some material to make them work easily.

As the Oneida bows are produced in the US, everything uses Imperial metrics. If you want to replace bolts, etc, this can prove tedious if you live in a country that believes in SI units. 

Since all bits are standard, however, splurge if you want to…. 

Rust was not a threat to function in my case, so I opted on treatment and preservation.

To remove the coarse rust, I employed steel wool and a piece of sand paper. Then I degreased things with soap and water and, after drying, with acetone. 

After that, I used a glass of Coke. The idea here is that the iron will react to form iron phosphate to preserve the surface from further oxidation. I tried it and was not exactly happy with the ruddy result.

So after cleaning things again, I put them in strong vinegar, where the rust is reduced to black iron, that can then be washed away. This worked fine. But, after cleaning things and during drying, everything immediately became a rusty orange again! Hey!

I decided that black bolts would look much better than rusty red ones on an otherwise black bow and quickly ordered a little bottle of Cold-Browning liquid online. You could, of course, brown things yourself, but it is cheap and easy to use the ready product and it produced great looking results. I got it two days later and got perfectly black metal pieces. 

I‘m not going into the different methods of browning iron rich materials here. They are interesting, but would require a couple of additional Instructables….

Yes, a new bow string is cheap and/or easily made and, yes, why risk catastrophic failures by using an old string? Because you can!

As you can see on the photos, the original string was not looking too well. After removing the unraveled pieces of the serving thread from the tendons of the old string, I discovered that only one of the 16 strands of Dacron was seriously damaged and the whole string therefore easily strong enough for the full weight of the bow. Therefore, I decided to simply wrap the original with new serving string. 

The original way the string was constructed, was to have a partial double wrapping to toughen the sting loop, which I attempted to replicate, of course.

Since I don‘t have the official tools and only needed to redo one end, I repurposed a metal frame to anchor the string and then applied the new serving as you normally would when building a new string, extending it a bit towards the center to cover/protect further slightly frayed parts.

With a bit of wax the original bow string looks and feels like new.

I also tried a new 50 inch string to see if I get a noticeable difference when shooting the bow, but decided that the bow handles fine with the original string - as long as it may last….for now….

Putting things back together again actually went quicker than taking the bow apart. This is probably mostly due to the large amount of pictures and illegible notes….

Like in an ifixit: Just follow the instructions in reverse order….

And it‘s true - sort-of….

All moving and metal parts were oiled, and/or greased appropriately.

LockTite - actually a similar product - was used on all screws to make sure that things don‘t tend to shake lose and fly apart again after a few shots.

Reassemble the wheel assembly and attach the cables - remember how they pass through each other. 

Attach the whole to the limbs with clevises and hinges.

As mentioned in the beginning, the timing cable is a bit tedious if you don‘t remember and didn‘t sketch, or took pictures, and it‘s a bit of a pain how all the cables tend to do anything but stay in their intended place.

Patience, is all it takes though.

I decided to put the string on the bow without any tension fairly early, simply to help things stay in place, even before a final tightening of all screws….

Finally, came the time to adjust the bow.

Limb Alignment:

The limb alignment had turned out fine, so no adjustments needed there.

Draw Weight:

First I decided to put some wight on the bow by successively tightening the weight bolts, always one turn at a time to keep it even on both sides. At the same time, I kept an eye on the tension of the timing cable, which - like Oneida had written many years ago - didn‘t change at all in the process. I first tightened the bolts down all the way and then reduced the weight - again one turn at a time - to around 40 lbs, for starters.

Tiller:

Then I looked at the tiller, by first adjusting the cam on the upper timing wheel a bit to get it roughly even. The exact setting was done by slightly adjusting one of the weight bolts just a little bit.

Brace Height:

Since I couldn‘t find the chart, I have no idea what the correct brace height for my bow is, so I couldn‘t do much adjusting there. I suppose, using a different string, or adding a few twists to it would do, but it seems ok the way it is.

As written in the String-Step, I tried using a 50‘‘. Since it is an Oneida, it is extremely easy to switch strings. Instead of removing weight, unstringing, restringing and adding weight, I hooked the new string in addition to the other string onto the bottom limb. Then I put this end and the riser on the ground and pulled the top outboard limb back far enough back to remove the old sting and hook on the new - like it can be done with a recurve. Then I released the limb again and removed the other end of the old string from the bottom limb. No readjustments were needed!

After some shooting, I decided that I liked the old shorter string better and switched it back in the same manner within a minute - at most.

Arrow Rest:

The bow didn‘t have an arrow rest when I got it, but I simply don‘t like shooting via shelf, so I bought the cheapest and simplest bolt-on rest (HOYT Quiet Track, 2,5€) I could find on short notice. I had to remove the inner bevel from it, because at first it would not sit flush with the riser when screwed into it, but it shoudn‘t be weakened too much, but now it’s centered and it works fine, so far.

The String:

As I wrote in the section above, the bow is made for a 50 inch string, but came with a 49 inch string. The previous owner probably used the shorter string to reduce the draw length of the bow.

Of course, I got a 50 in string and adjusted the bow accordingly and tried it for a while and was happy with it. But, since I like the feel better with the shorter string, I switched them again - real quick.

Nocking Points:

Finally, after shooting some test arrows, I added nocking points. I like the brass ones and prefer two of them, but to each her/his own. There are more than enough videos on YouTube that explain how it‘s done….

The Man who startet it all….

The father of the Oneida - one absolutely cool bow - an awesome construction.

I want one!

Maybe I will build one myself, reverse engineered from the photos….

If you build one, please give me one too!

Here is the transcript of a video from 22.06.2007 on YouTube by OneidaBow (whoever….). An Interview with Claude Pollington who tells everyone some history and how great shooting the bows feels.

TV show MIchigan Out Of Doors visits Oneida Bow to learn how the company was moved to Michigan.

https://youtu.be/2bXJ4Zh1xh0?si=tMvEUkd8pi73puok

Transcript:

Well, the Pollington name has always been associated here in Michigan with archery and last week Gabe van Warmer headed up to Marion, Michigan, to sit down and talk with one of our archery Legends.

When it comes to bow hunting in the state of Michigan, few places have as much history in their past as Buck pole archery in Marion and its owner Claude Pollington. Claude has been bow hunting for many decades and has many fine white tails under his belt and lots of great stories to tell. He's been featured in many articles and has met some interesting people along the way but just last year he entered a new arena of outdoor pursuits and purchased the Oneida Bow company and moved it to Michigan. Oneida had been building their unique style of bows in New York since 1982 and developed a cult following among the growing sport of archery.

„Well I think, I think the reason you know that was, there was round wheels back in those days and the people started getting into the cams. And Bear had built what they called the Delta. And that was, the cams were mounted on the risers and the bow did shoot very good. It was terrible noisy but I like that bow. They were trying to get the recurve look, I guess and it's a very good shooting bow.

„It got from 82 when they started to 89. It kept building. I think they sold like 30,000 a year, oh, and they kept making it better. I bought it in order to, I had so many customers, you know, that I didn't want to let them down. So I said, well, would give it a try. I got lots of kids and grandkids to help do it and we're, we're straightening it up. We're making them better, trying to get them quieter. The basic design is still there. We are working on new things too.“

Since the company was moved to Michigan, Claude has supervised a complete overhaul of the Onida Bow. Much of the design and testing is now done with computers and the whole bow has seen changes that benefit the Archer. The bow now incorporates a machined aluminum riser and limb pockets to lighten the bow while decreasing the number of Parts. The idea behind it is, the simpler, the better. So the riser mounted cams, that make the bow so unique have also been upgraded and refinded to decrease the number of moving parts on the bow. But Oneida still operates on the same general Principle as before. If you've never shot one of these bows, they may look a little strange. But the smooth draw is a welcome change for some of the hard cams on the market today.

„Some of the differences are pretty obvious to begin with. I mean, the bow really looks a whole lot different than a conventional wheel bow where the wheels are mounted out on the ends of the limbs, where they have a one piece limb and the the energy is generated out here on the ends of the limbs. And then the bow is tried to be timed with a set of bus cables, that run the distance between the limb tip tips and the limb tips, with a cable guard pulling those out of the way to to create some clearance for the string. That does a couple of things, when you build a bow that has to have a cable guard on it. Here pulling those cables sideways, it actually builds torque into the bow.

„A couple of the advantages to building a bow this way is obviously, the bow was built on center line all the way down from tip to tip. The Oneida bow, because of the way it's designed, has a very generous valley, in that it's a very smooth, smooth drawing bow. Conversely, because we do store our energy in this geometry here as opposed to out on the end ends of the limbs, all of the harmonics are driven basically down the middle of the riser and they cancel each other out, making a very, very forgiving and very recoil free bow.“

„It's it's pretty interesting to see people pick up this bow for the first time and complete the draw cycle in that, because of the dynamics and the dimensions of the cam and the dynamics of the bow itself, the force draw curve is extremely smooth. That means that if we were to graph the forces of the draw curve, you'll notice, that it climbs very gradually and lets off very gradually, creating an extremely smooth draw curve and a very smooth feeling as opposed to a a very harsh draw curve that is going to come up drastically and draw weight immediately and then stay high all the way to the back of the draw curve. And then when you're just at the end of your draw stroke you hit a very short valley and all of your let off is accomplished in that last half or 3/4 of an inch.“

With all the speed bows and hard cams nowadays, it's hard to find a good smooth drawing bow with little or no hand shock. But I think Claude might just have the recipe. He's put a lot of hard work into the bow and based the improvements on his many years of experience bow hunting. For the loyal Oneida owners, these new bows have just about everything that they had wanted changed for years. These bows are now lighter, faster, stronger and quieter than they've ever been and there are more improvements to come.

Please Note:

This is a transcript of the video by Dustin Apple on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/bAMNWJCeh8E?si=tUfitYy1kvGpIT9n

The video was recorded in 2007. This transcript is a cleaned up version of the one provided on YouTube - using ChatGPT (26.03.2025) - because the original is not really well legible.

I, Nils Sappok, will make no money with this transcript and solely provide it for everyone‘s information.

All credit is due to Dustin Apple!

(Since he is the author, I can also take no responsibility for the veracity of the content, but I‘m certain that he thoroughly researched it and have read several posts that corroborate his findings.)

The original transcript from YouTube is in the attached file.

ChatGPT:

Here’s a cleaned-up version of your transcript. I’ve removed filler words, corrected punctuation, and structured it for better readability while maintaining the speaker’s natural tone. Let me know if you’d like any further refinements!

The History of Oneida Eagle Bows

By Dustin Apple | Bloodline Bowfishing

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Bloodline Bowfishing!

My name is Dustin Apple, and today, just like every day at my house, we’re going to be talking about Oneida Eagle bows. I absolutely love these bows, and if you’re here for information, you’ve come to the right place.

We’re diving into the history of Oneida Eagle bows—where they came from, who the inventor was, and how they evolved over time. We’ll go year by year, covering different models and technological developments. You’re going to love this story!

Acknowledgments

Before we begin, I want to give credit where it’s due. I’ve been doing research, making phone calls, and exchanging emails to gather as much information as possible.

A special thank you to Matt Pollington—I’ll mention that name again shortly—for sharing valuable stories. I truly appreciate the openness in sharing this family history.

I’d also like to thank Skippy Mansion. If you’re part of the bowfishing world, you probably know Skippy. He’s a great resource for Oneida owners, especially those with vintage models. If you need parts, chances are Skippy either has them or can get them. I’ll include links to helpful resources in the description.

A huge thanks as well to Joe Sampa, who owns oneidabows.net and American Eagle Bows. Joe’s passion for lever bows is evident, and his website has the most extensive collection of Oneida history I could find.

The Origins of Oneida Eagle Bows

The inventor of the Oneida Eagle bow was John Islas. John was from the Syracuse, New York, area and was an archery innovator in the 1970s. He was trying to develop his own compound bow to compete in the growing archery market.

One of his early prototypes was the Mohawk Laser, a unique design that functioned well but wasn’t widely accepted by the industry. However, around 1980, John refined his concept, leading to the creation of the Oneida Eagle bow.

The first models, such as the H500, weren’t officially marked with model names—they were simply known as Oneida Eagles. If you come across an early Oneida with a distinctive riser shape and metal or nylon cams, you’re looking at one of the first-generation bows.

From 1982 to 1999, Oneida produced the H-Riser bows, including the Tomcat 3X8 and the H250, which was the model that rock legend Ted Nugent popularized in the 1980s.

Ted Nugent and Oneida’s Rise to Fame

Ted Nugent played a major role in putting Oneida Eagle bows on the map. In 1981, while visiting Buckpole Archery and Deer Ranch in Michigan, he was introduced to Oneida bows. After testing one, he immediately bought an H250 and brought it back to his friend Claude Pollington.

Ted told Claude, “You’re going to love this. It feels like a recurve, but it’s a compound!” That moment marked the beginning of Oneida’s growing reputation.

Claude Pollington and John Islas later partnered to expand Oneida, opening a second branch of Oneida Labs in Marion, Michigan. This move helped further establish the brand in the archery industry.

Technological Advancements

Oneida continued refining its designs over the years, introducing innovations such as:

• 1987: The Screaming Eagle – Featured new magnesium cams instead of nylon, improving durability.

• 1990: The Strike Eagle & Arrow Force – Introduced the IAM cam, boosting arrow speeds to 230 FPS.

• 1992: The K Cam & Arrow Force – The K cam was Oneida’s most revolutionary development, increasing speed and efficiency. It’s still used in modern bows today.

• 1995: The MR80 (Machined Riser 80%) – Oneida’s first CNC-machined riser, reducing weight while increasing strength.

• 1998: The Stealth Eagle – The first Oneida with a dual-cam system for enhanced performance.

Ownership Changes & Financial Struggles

In 1996, Oneida faced financial difficulties, and Roger Lumis purchased the company. Under his leadership, Oneida introduced models like the Tomcat 3 and Light Force, but rapid technological changes and limited research & development led to setbacks.

By 1999, Oneida was struggling. That year, Lumis filed for bankruptcy. Everything came to a halt—until Claude Pollington stepped in.

Oneida’s Revival Under Claude Pollington

On December 7, 2000, Claude Pollington purchased Oneida Eagle Bows from bankruptcy, bringing the company full circle. With Claude at the helm, Oneida saw a resurgence, reintroducing the Black Eagle and refining its bow designs.

Notable models during this period included:

• 2004: The Osprey – The ultimate bowfishing bow, still widely used today.

• 2006: The Oneida Extreme – A rare magnesium-riser bow, with only 250 ever made.

• 2010: The Kestrel – A compact, high-performance hunting bow.

Oneida’s Modern Era

In 2016, John Paul Morris (son of Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris) purchased Oneida Eagle Bows. One of his first priorities was improving the end caps, which had been problematic in previous models.

Oneida then introduced:

• 2017: The Phoenix – Featuring a lighter riser, cutouts for weight reduction, and a new suppression system.

The Legacy of Oneida Eagle Bows

Oneida bows have remained at the cutting edge of archery innovation for over four decades. Even today, bows like the Osprey and Phoenix continue to dominate the market.

If you’re an Oneida owner, take pride in your bow. The history behind these bows is one of passion, ingenuity, and dedication.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for joining me on this deep dive into Oneida Eagle bows! If you enjoyed this, don’t forget to like and share.

For more information, visit BloodlineBowfishing.com. Also, if you’re a bowfisherman, join the Bowfishing Association of America—membership is free, and your support helps defend our rights.

Stay safe, shoot straight, and keep the tradition alive!

ChatGPT:

I’ve kept the essence of the original transcript while making it more structured and easier to follow. Let me know if you’d like any additional edits!

There doesn‘t seem to be much information on the web these days on Oneida Bows.

The new Oneida site has no information on old bows.

The main site for all information on Oneida bows https://www.oneidabows.net is no longer active:

Dustin AppleDustin Apple used to have a great site www.bloodlinebowfishing.com with some videos about the bows. The site is no longer aktive, but a couple of his videos are still found on YouTube, e.g.:

https://youtu.be/bAMNWJCeh8E

There, you also find some quite useful videos by Lonsdale Archery supplies in Australia: https://youtube.com/@archerysupplieslonsdale?si=Y_sUfQdl8MNHMQZs

In the next couple of sections, you‘ll find the manuals and catalogs that I found.

I can‘t do anything about missing pages!

To save you some time searching, I‘m posting images of the documents I found in the next couple of sections.

I really hope this may prove useful to you….

….somehow, it doesn‘t let me put them in order, so please use the PDF….

And that‘s it! You now have a brand new ancient Oneida Eagle!

And, of course, I lost a screw from the sights, because I forgot to use the glue to lock it down enough and it shook loose really, really quickly….

I love the bow and shooting it, so the time - and relatively small amount of money - was definitely worth it! And anyway, it‘s really fun shooting an ancient bow that everybody thinks is brand new….

Because of the orientation of the lever system I find that it shoots far smoother than normal compounds.

I really hope you might find the information you need in this write-up useful.

I‘m sure I forgot something crucial….

I repeat this from Step 1 above:

„In case you might have information, or documents on the old Oneida Eagle Bows that you would like to share with others, please feel free to drop me a note and I will also add it.

Also: Please feel free to correct me, if I got something wrong!

I will update those sections, if I find further material….

When I get around to it, I’ll try to add a short history of the Oneida Eagle Story.

I also found some info on John J. Islas, the inventor of the Oneida and its awesome predecessor the „Mohawk Laser“, that I will also post down below, soon….

My next step will be to buy a new handle, or maybe make my own….

And always: Stay fascinated….

PS: Ok, while writing this up, I made my own handle from a scrap piece of birch plywood

Addendum 27.02.2025: I meanwhile added the info on John Islas and his Mohawk Laser, as well as Archery World from 1983