I have a chance to buy a few Shikari blanks from a friend. Never heard of them before. Does anyone know the history of this company?
Thanks Don,

Shikari was a pretty good blank manufacturer and made blanks for a lot of name brand rods.
I would buy em in a minute.

Make sure they are not seconds. Once they closed the doors the market was FLOODED with seconds….. with that being said if they are legit first runs blanks I wouldn’t hesitate one bit, especially if there are any SHX in the mix.

Posted February 12, 2012

"Shakari closed it's doors around 2002, The company was started by Don Mook around `92 as Tridon Graphite. The mandrals were mostly designed by Mook. The SW line are heavy walled but are very close to the Pacbay SC, Batson SW lines."



Don Mook. He was the man who built rod blank factories across America from Texas to Oklahoma to northwest. Don Mook was involved with Gary Loomis in his first two companies LCI and GLoomis. Don Mook also was hired by AllStar rods to build factory in Houston for them. I think Shikari was made in one of the factories Don Mook built for others to run.

Made in USA. Shikari are highly prized rods especially since they are no longer made.


" #13 · Aug 5, 2015
I built a ton of rods on Shikari blanks years ago. I'd say at least a few hundred. I started out building lots of rods on GLoomis blanks and when they started jerking the rodbuilders around I switched to Shikari and St. Croix.

I remember buying three different grades of Shikari blanks. The highest end blank was like a matte graphite color. Looked similar to a Loomis IMX/GLX in finish. I also remember a gloss blank that was a deep red, I think that was their mid-range blank. From there my memory goes fuzzy on what the low end blank looked like. Seems like I use to sell the SHX blanks for like $100-125. Seems like the red colored blanks were in the $80 range and then the lower end blanks were like $50 blanks. That was around '99-'03 if I remember right. Blanks have gone waaaay up since then.

In my opinion the SHX was as good as the high end Loomis blanks. At least as good as the IMX and maybe better. I never had any issue with breakage on them either. I hated to see Shikari go away, I liked their blanks. I think I probably still have a doz or so blanks squirreled away to build on for myself.

As far as where they were built they were billed as made in the USA in Oklahoma. That is where my blanks shipped from. I heard from several sources back then that they were the blank supplier for Falcon rods but I don't know that for sure. I do know that in their early years American Rodsmiths used their blanks, back before they started sourcing their rods from China. I'm sure some other manufacturers used them too."


"Here's what I remember about Shikari: They built some awesome blanks in Kellyville, OK...they weren't inexpensive. Seems like their SHX trout/red blanks were around $100, and that was maybe 10 yrs ago. When they closed down they sold a big lot of junk blanks to a salvage co., by the lb. Somehow, these ended up back on the rodbuilding market, touted as seconds, which they weren't even. There were several folks that bought up the last of their 1st quality blanks, as well as their seconds...maybe this rod is part of that. ATC (Advanced Tubular Composites) took over from Shikari, moved the operation to Washington state, but didn't buy the mandrels and blank making equipment. ATC sourced their blanks from Asia. I've always wondered what ever happened to the mandrels/equipment that Shikari had. This is how I remember it...if anyone else remembers different, speak up, my feelings won't be hurt.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2022 08:57PM by Tom Kirkman.

I've built at least 30 of their seconds. Never had a problem, although I hand picked those!
Some of the best rods I've fished.

TJB

I have two of the original P7000 and they make excellent crappie rods.

Thank you Kent for the great report. I have a bad habit of wanting to know the history of any rod I build for someone and I appreciate your efforts. Thank you, and thank you all for your help. Don

I too have some Shikari blanks left, one being a PP7000 which was the SHX line. Two letters in part number were SH II, an "I" in the part number an IM blank, a "P" the SHX series. I have no real proof, but a lot of the Shikari blanks fished and handled like G Loomis blanks of the time, and G Loomis also has a zero-power popping rod that is close enough to identical, I wouldn't want to bet my life on the difference. The PR 8400 S.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2022 11:58AM by Spencer Phipps.

I still fish a PMB 703 and PMB 704 casting rod. I broke my PSB 702 (I think, need to find it and see what it was exactly) spinning rod. I built that one with a smidge too long of a handle, but was my second favorite spinning rod I have ever used.

Wade Cunningham's contributions to this and other blank enterprises is being overlooked here.

............

Don, I worked for Shikari designing blanks. If I can help you ID what you are looking at let me know. Wade Cunningham... others are correct there were a lot of second or blem grade blanks sold. Not all were bad, but some had broken tips and other defects. Check them over carefully.

Mr Cunningham, you designed some wonderful products! The p7000 were the absolute best drop shot drops, not to mention the 764 flipping blanks!!( my all time favorite), your 0 power spinning rods are also some of my favorites as well and of course the PM 703 and 704 were awesome!

I used falcon rods back in the day and as mentioned I was also under the impression they were shikari. I loved those falcon expert rods and the cara line. Wish I never sold those rods

Jason Gofron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I used falcon rods back in the day and as
> mentioned I was also under the impression they
> were shikari. I loved those falcon expert rods and
> the cara line. Wish I never sold those rods


Castaway used Shikari too.

In past years, I built a lot of rods with Shikari blanks and never had an issue with my own rods or for the ones that I built for clients.

I still own several rod built on these blanks and use them regularly. In a word, these rods have put many many fish into the boat used by many different folks.

Excellent blanks.