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Wade Nolan's Writers Camp And Whitetail Bowhunt!

Marvin Carlston - There's Gold In Them Arches

Marvin arrived on Monday afternoon and checked his sights and made sure he was still hitting well. Everything was right on the money. He saw several bucks 

The next morning Marvin wanted to hunt for javelina and wild hogs. He didn't see any but saw over 50 deer. 

He said, "The best experience was when a buck chased the other bucks around and somehow stepped into the ground blind with me. I didn't move and the buck stood and watched me for a few moments and acted like he didn't see me. Then he walked off." 

That afternoon Marvin spotted and stalked javelina and snuck up on a group of them. When he got 20 yards from them he shot one. It ran into thick cactus and brush and the thorns and cactus needles made the trail slow going.

Marvin brought his General Manager Tom Donat down to huint. This is Tom's first deer hunt. 

Marvin has bowhunted sice he was "big enought to pick up a bow." By the time he was in Junior High shool he was building his own recurve bows and cedar arrows. He got interested in compound bows in the late 80's. He had problems getting good broadhead flight and decided to try to make his own broadhead. 

His broadhead flew right and in 1989 he started his own broadhead company named Gold Tip. His first head was the Gold Tip 80; a 2 blade expandable, 1 3/4" cut broadhead. Broadheads got Marvin into the archery industry. 

In 1992 he experimented with building carbon arrows. They were difficult to make so Marvin invented a way to mass produce the shafts. It became his Trade Secret when he introduced Gold Tip graphite arrows at the ATA Show in January, 1997. 

Marvin told me, "The dealers swarmed on us. If I could have built 5 million arrows we could have sold them all." 

He had one arrow in three weights and at the show comparisons where every type of carbon arrow were tested side by side. The tests were witnessed by a large crowd of dealers. The Gold Tip shot consistantly 9 to 10 feet per second faster than arrows of the exact same weight.

It was a great launch. Marvin had a full time job but in a month he had to quit his job and concentrate on Gold Tip.

Last year Marvin's business had a phenominal increase in business and these days Gold Tip is in the top two of the carbon arrow market with over 16 million dollars in sales. And Marvin is living his bowhunting dream. He has bowhunted all over North America and Africa.

One of Marvin's main projects his enthuiasic supporter of the Archery In Shools program and has has developed a line of arrows for the kids.