Heartland brings bow and arrows to Madera
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Bryan Landreth, owner of Heartland Archery, demonstrates his aim with one of the bows he has for sale in his shop.
Since the third week in July, Bryan Landreth has opened his Heartland
Archery (16506 Road 26, Suite C) to cater to the Madera County bowhunters and competition archers.
“I wanted to get away from the shops in Fresno,” Landreth said. “I have a lot of customers that come from Modesto, Merced and Madera. There is not a shop in Madera. There’s a lot of bowhunters in Madera.”
Landreth has a career in archery. He managed a shop for six years, but got out of archery for a while before getting back into it.
“I was doing some other stuff, but still working with some of my other customers’ bows,” he said. “They kept wanting me to work on their stuff. Then, I thought I would open a small place in Fresno and was open for a year.”
Landreth got his place up and running in Fresno and opened last year when California was going to re-open.
“I got a place and got open real quick,” he said.
However, the state shut down two weeks later and that, basically, ended Landreth’s business in Fresno.
“The day before I was going to have my grand opening, the state shut down,” he said. “It was a small little office building. Everyone next to me were CPAs, tax preparers and massage therapists. It was strictly a store front where I could get stuff from my vendors and could have a place to sell stuff. I was able to have my equipment to fix bows.”
After getting shut down, Landreth began to think what would work best. He has property for a range on Avenue 18 and State Route 99. After driving from his range to Fresno each day, he thought it would be easier to have a shop in Madera.
“I would get the range open, operate there, then close it and drive to Fresno,” he said. “I thought this is too much back and forth. I looked around for places and lot of people didn’t seem too helpful. The people that owned this building were nice. It is only five minutes from my range. If I’m at my range helping someone and they need something, I can just drive over here to get it.”
Although some people who watched the Olympics think of that kind of archery, Landreth’s expertise is more in 3-D target shooting and bowhunting.
“There’s less interest in the Olympic archery than target shooting or bowhunting,” he said. “When you get into that type of archery, it’s a little more user specific as to what equipment people are using. Olympic shooting is a different animal. I do all hunting stuff, but I will do target archery with 3-D targets. A lot of my customers will do target shooting.”
At his shop on Road 26, Landreth can help anyone who is interested in archery, including the expert who has all of the equipment.
“We do full-on customizing,” he said. “A guy will come in to buy a bow and it will be 100 percent customized to him. He can have a twin brother that is exactly the same, but their set up will not be the same.”
In addition to having a customizing shop and a repair facility, Landreth has any supplies one would need in archery.
“We have supplies for the archers — arrows, plastic veins that go on the arrows, different feathers, releases, arrow rests, sights, stabilizers, quivers, golf towels and other stuff,” he said.
Eventually, Landreth would like to have a building and a pro shop on his property so he can be all-inclusive in one place. He can help beginners all the way to expert level archers. He is also working on having his indoor range completed by the end of the year.
“If someone that has never shot before comes in, I will give them lessons and teach them how to shoot. If I have someone that comes in that is somewhat new, I will work with him. I also help those who have been shooting for a long time.”
Until then, Landreth can be found behind the blue door on 16505 Road 26.
“I had someone stop in and say they didn’t know there was a shop here. I told them, I’ve literally been here for three days,” he said.
