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Andy Simo, the founder of New Archery Products, was born in a country that no longer exists. “Only about 400 people lived in our little village in Czechoslovakia. It lay in a broad valley surrounded by tall mountains,” he recalls. “A river ran through it and my family owned a small house, just two rooms, but we were comfortable.” Then in the late ‘40s the family fled from the Communist sweep across Eastern Europe and moved to Chicago.
To compound the amazing puzzle that is New Archery Products (NAP), Andy Simo was educated for a profession he has not essentially practiced for 40 years, aeronautical (and structural) engineering. In the ‘60s he worked for Boeing and Lockheed on projects for NASA and the U.S. Air Force.
None of Andy Simo’s journey has been direct in the conventional manner. As a kid in the ‘50s he was fascinated when men showed off the deer they had taken with a bow and he wanted to “do that,” too. So when his engineering division was laid off from Lockheed in 1971, he launched a new career and a new company in the sport he had come to love, archery. That very year he “hired a few high school kids to help solder Flipper Rests in the evenings.” Although he has since tweaked its design, the essential shoot-around Flipper Rest with Teflon-sleeved armature and built-in cushion plunger is still in the NAP line-up as the Centerrest Flipper ($27).
The gear in Andy Simo’s New Archery Products lines has earned a reputation for diversity, versatility and performance. After all, he has been building bowhunting gear for an incredible four decades. For instance, his new, all-metal, micro-adjustable Apache Micro ($80) full-capture drop-away arrow rest (available right-hand only) uses tool-less knobs for easy set-up and adjustment. This rest isn’t just a smaller version of the Apache as its name may imply—it’s undoubtedly better, too.
The Apache Micro includes several key features that make shooting easier and allows an archer to perform at his or her peak—everything Apache except feathers and buckskin. For instance, it has laser-indexed horizontal and vertical scales for fine-tuning and repeatable shooting and these take some of the guesswork and hence, some of the human error, out of launching an arrow.
This rest is also a quiet shooter, which is just right in the anything-that-can go wrong environments of the treestand and ground blind. Arrows don’t contact metal. The full-containment bracket is lined with sound-dampening material and the self-centering V-shaped yoke/launcher is felt-lined. (Simo calls his new rest “bomb-proof.”) The cord serves easily to a bow’s down buss cable and an included spacer for proper mounting to the bow riser is included.
It may be unusual for one company to occupy the high end of multiple product categories, and with original designs as well, but NAP does that. Remember that its founder and CEO is an engineer. Thus, Simo’s new Thunderhead Razor broadhead is not only styled to kill, but it is styled to kill efficiently.
Like the scallop-blade Thunderhead Edge, the 3-blade 100-grain Razor (3-pack, $35) comes fully assembled and ready to shoot. The fixed blades of this head are held in a distinctive micro-grooved ferrule by two tiny screws and set at an angle (offset) in the ferrule, an angle that aligns with the edges of the hardened steel Trophy Tip and gives a 1 1/8-inch cutting diameter. These micro-grooved ferrules channel air over the ferrule for better flight. More importantly, they slide through the body cavity and penetrate bone better that standard ferrules.
Simo hasn’t been shy about applying his engineering to mechanical heads, either. His new F.O.C. (which stands for “Freakin’ Outrageous Cut”) is the first broadhead designed specifically to be used with today’s fastest 400 fps crossbows.
The F.O.C. delivers a monstrous 3-inch cut in the open position and its low profile 11/16-inch width in the closed position means wind-planing will never be a problem. The .039-inch blades for this head are hair-shaving sharp and advanced geometry means there’s no deflection on higher angle shots. Packages include practice points.
The F.O.C. weighs a hefty 170 grains but this brings the weight forward balance to an ideal 15-20 percent without using expensive crossbow bolts that have brass inserts. Consequently, the F.O.C. delivers laser-like accuracy and deeper penetration to drop game fast.
NAP has also developed innovative stabilizers and silencers. In fact, its new Apache Stabilizer offers both solid construction and stealth qualities. It uses what NAP calls “proprietary dampening materials” to snuff out vibration and silence the bow. This Apache comes in either 5- or 8-inch lengths with either Realtree APG camo accents or in solid black. The 8-inch stabilizer comes with a removable 3-inch, 2-ounce carbon fiber accessory bar to help balance the bow.
It is unusual that a single company can develop so many unique and successful products in so many different market segments, says National Sales Manager Brady Arview, but perhaps it was only a matter of time before Andy Simo’s aeronautical engineering expertise was put to use helping arrows fly more smoothly.
Developments such as the QuikSpin vane optimize arrow spin, thus maximizing accuracy and producing tighter arrow groups. According to NAP QuikSpin vanes rotate arrows up to 300 percent faster than conventional plastic vanes and 100 percent faster than feathers. Vanes are made from durable toughened plastic that adheres to fletching glue in seconds. Patented micro-grooves molded on one side of each vane channel air over the vane for a flatter trajectory compared to conventional vanes.
For more info check out www.newarchery.com. You can also keep up with NAP on Twitter or Facebook.
New Archery Products is located at 7500 Industrial Drive, Forest Park, IL 60130, phone (800) 323-1279, fax (708) 488-2515 or e-mail inforequest@newarchery.com.
