A Little History Please

[cestria]

Hi All,

I wonder if anyone knows of the history of Browning and Petron.

I have seen several posts which mention a link between the two companies.

[tel]

I don't believe there is a link as such. Browning originally made the S3 riser which they discontinued. This was reborn as the Petron S3 - I don't know about the manufacturer because I think Petron are solely a distribution company.
The Petron S3 is also now discontinued. I have one that Chiltern archery sold on ebay early last year along with the rest of their S3 stock. But it seems it wont lie down. Check out Chilterns own, 'brand new' riser, the Phoenix - very apt name.....

[Thunk]

The tooling for the Browning risers was bought by an engineering company under the same ownership as Chiltern Archery - hence the fact that Chiltern were the 'distributors' (I think for 'distributors' you have to read 'sole sales outlet'.

The Petron 'Phoenix' does indeed bear a remarkable resemblance to the S3...

[Grumpy]

The S3 riser was made in Hemel Hempstead I believe - dont know about the limb pockets as is the Phoenix. Martin Saunders was referring to it as the S4 riser up until a few weeks ago:-)

Possibly was a period where they may have become effectively mixed as I have a 2nd hand S3 Petron Riser with Browning limbs. Dont know who made petron s3 limbs.

[Rik]

AFAIK...
Petron are a brand name of Chiltern Archery.
Chiltern originally produced the S3 under the 'Browning' name, licenced from the US firm. This arrangment was terminated when Browning (the archery part at least) was bought out (by PSE?). So you then had 'Petron S3' appearing. Prior to the S3 Chiltern produced the Browning Olympian...
In spite of the name, the S3 was always a British bow, with no real connection to the US firm.

Browning/Petron limbs have been made by various firms, I believe, including Marksman (before they closed down). The Marksman made S3 limbs had a very good reputation. Who made them after that? I have no idea...