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To Our Customers:

This year was a good one for me and for TenPoint Crossbow Technologies.

Personally, on September 21, I got to see my father, Bill Bednar, inducted into the National Archery Hall of Fame in Springfield, MO. It was a great honor for him and for our family. Nearly as momentous, this fall my dad and I took my two sons on their first hunt. The hunt was a long-time coming but worth the wait. We now plan to make this multi-generation hunt an annual event.

Professionally, thanks to our valued customers,TenPoint enjoyed another year of healthy growth. Each year the feedback we receive tells us that the perception of our company as a manufacturer of highquality, precision-performance crossbows grows stronger. Each year we re-dedicate ourselves to improving our products and to forging a position of technological superiority within the crossbow industry.

While 2007 was great for me and TenPoint, I have concerns about the future of hunting - and bowhunting in particular.

This year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service reported that the number of hunters over age 16 declined 10-percent between 1996 and 2006 - from 14 million to 12.5 million. Experts attribute the decline to many things: increased recreational options for youngsters, loss of hunting land to urban encroachment, farmers’ concerns for safety and liability and of course, television.

On the upside, however, the decline has slowed in recent years and a number of states with progressive wildlife agencies are seeing increases in the number of hunting permits issued. TenPoint’s home state, Ohio, is an example of where hunting is alive and well. Deer license sales bottomed out in 1980 at 216,100 but have more than doubled since then to 440,000.

Among other things, the state has strongly emphasized youth recruitment and it has paid off. Since 1996, youth hunting licenses have doubled to 66,600. In addition, Ohio has initiated an Apprentice License Program, which temporarily waives the hunter education course requirement so that residents and non-residents can “try out” hunting if accompanied by a licensed hunter over age 21. Interestingly, the greatest percentage of growth has come in archery season where the lack of crossbow restrictions has helped boost license sales. The deer herd has never been larger, archery season never longer and the chances of success never greater.

It is clear that there are many things we can do to turn the tide nationally. Sadly, however, there are those within our own ranks who contribute to the problem rather than the solution. Most notable are the leaders of the state bowhunting organizations and the Pope and Young Club’s creation, the North American Bowhunting Coalition. They continue to organize against any intrusion of crossbows into what they call “their season.” Their mantra is, “The crossbow is the single greatest threat to bowhunting as we know it.” Their rationale is, “The crossbow is not a bow.” They ignore state wildlife agency studies, data from states which permit crossbow hunting, and the simple logic that proves how wrong they are.

They do not want youngsters, women, or others who cannot draw and hold a compound bow to use a crossbow in “their” season. They do not want elderly archers to be able to convert to crossbows. They would rather allow bowhunters who have no business shooting a conventional bow to continue doing so rather than allowing them to hunt ethically with a crossbow.

What they fail to realize is that their exclusionary position – not the crossbow – is actually the greatest threat to bownhunting as we know it. To quote an old Pogo comic strip, “I have seen the enemy and he is us.” It is time to unite, not fight. Fighting among ourselves only serves those trying to take away all of our hunting rights.

Good hunting,
Richard L. Bednar - Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of TenPoint Crossbows
Richard L. Bednar - CEO

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