By Staff Shooter
Bob Peck

What is a Copper John?

We've asked this question around the ranks of BowCountry.com and some of the answers given by our team range from the absurd to the baffling. There are allot of creative imaginations here at BowCountry.com! Some of you may already know what/who Copper John is, some may not so read on for an interesting story about innovation in the archery industry.

First let's understand the name. When Doug Springer and his brother Eric were searching for a name for their archery equipment manufacturing company the nearby Auburn Correctional Facility across the street provided the inspiration. There atop one of the main buildings was a figure of a man affectionately called Copper John by the locals who was a memorial dedicated the many correctional officers who had served the facility. To the brothers Springer this name fit nicely with their characteristic "different drummer" approach to life and business. Thus Copper John, the archery company had an identity.

BowCountry.com recently paid a visit to this unusually talented group of innovators to understand their business and products.

Doug and Eric worked for their father Lew's electronics business for years learning the ropes of a manufacturer. As Doug says, "Like most kids working for their parents we always believed we had better ideas and that we could run things better than our Dad. " Fact is, as Doug would later admit, college mellowed the brothers somewhat and there was a lot to be learned from their Dad, Lew. To make a many year story short, Lew eventually sold the business and the brothers Springer were in search of new opportunities. Eric the degreed engineer and Doug the business saavy counterpart took their love of archery and decided Copper John should see the light of day. On October 6, 1999 Copper John was "born" with an eye on two specific products, the A.N.T.S (Always Normal Target Sight) sight and the Dead Nuts Hunting sight.

As in most innovations, neither product happened over night and after several prototypes, feedback from professionals and field testing, the finished products became available to you and I.

BowCountry.com is currently testing the Dead Nuts hunting sight and will provide a featured article after our BowCountry.com team shooters have put the product through some testing. What we can say is the construction of this all metal sight is excellent and for a retail cost of $59.95 the value is exceptional.

For more information please visit the Copper John website at http://www.copperjohn.com

For those of you into competitive archery, you absolutely must check out the A.N.T.S sight. When you combine an engineer's head with an avid archer and they both sit on the same shoulders, the end result is bound to be something special. Eric Springer has absolutely come up with a sighting system that has revolutionized the sport of competitive archery. A.N.T.S (Always Normal Target Sight) may have just put an end to tuning and retuning sights during competition.

We were truly impressed with the extremely close tolerances and machining that went into this product. If you didn't know it was a bow sight you'd swear it was a NASA part off the space shuttle!

"Always Normal Technology" ensures a crisp, clear, perfectly round dot by keeping the axis of the scope lined up with the archer's line of sight. At just over 7oz, it is the lightest target sight on the market. What we liked about the integrated 3rd axis leveling system was the ability to quickly disconnect the scope carrier and switch out scopes. Where else can you find a product feature like this that doesn't require endless "fiddling around" ? The advantages to this particularly unique feature alone make the A.N.T.S system worth taking a look at. Check it out at http://www.copperjohn.com/ants.html

All in all this modest two (2) product offering from Copper John represents significant attention to detail and in particular, designed by bow enthusiasts for bow enthusiasts. This is not some machine shop cranking out archery parts. These guys are serious archers making well made products for you and I.

BowCountry.com felt it important to note Copper John corporate philosophy is to buy raw materials locally, contribute to the community you work in and purchase American made machinery to build innovative products. You haven't seen the last of Copper John because Eric and Doug tell us the ultimate goal is to be a manufacturer of a complete line of archery products from release aids to bows. Rock on!