There may be no aspect of the outdoors that has witnessed more change over the past half-century than archery. Straight bows to recurves, compounds and the controversial crossbow. Wooden arrows to sleek carbon shafts, and instinctive aim evolved into self-compensating sights specially made for shooting from tree stands.

Behind a modest green storefront near the railroad trestle in McKees Rocks, bowhunters can get that ultra-modern gear if they want it, but they can also find hand-made, custom archery gear in the informal neighborhood setting that characterized outdoor retail when sport bowhunting was young.

Phil and Emma Durr still craft hunting and target arrows by hand in their cozy 50-foot by 40-foot shop at Phil's Archery Supplies at 713 Chartiers, where they've been serving bowhunters and competitive shooters as an equipment connection and a social destination since 1964.

"There's not many of us left doing this anymore," said Phil Durr.

He said custom arrows are assembled at shops near Butler and Greensburg.

Durr credits his wife for most of the fine skill work, explaining how she runs a bead of glue down the shaft, painstakingly beds a plastic or natural feather vane into the adhesive, then clamps the missiles into the same arrow jigs, which hold the vanes in place for drying, that the couple used when they opened their shop 45 years ago.

Durr ventured that there is no huge advantage to using hand-fletched arrows over mass-produced factory-fletched shafts. Rather, he observed, for most of his customers it's a matter of aesthetics.

"Instead of accepting whatever the factory happened to make, you can get the colors and style you want in the fletching and the crest," he said. "Some shooters like a higher fletching, some like it more narrow, and some like to come in here because we can make their arrows with the fletching 'right-twist' or 'left-twist,' to make the arrow spin clockwise or counter-clockwise. But that may not be an advantage as long as your gear is matched up otherwise to the way you shoot."

Long-time customer Keith McElrath of Coraopolis disputes Durr's modesty.

"Phil and Emma make sure your arrows are right for you," said McElrath, president of the Coraopolis Sportsmen's Association. "You don't get just any arrows in there, you get the right ones. And if you tell them a problem you're having with how your arrows are flying, they'll fix it for you. They've been in it a long time and they'll get the arrows tuned for your bow and the way you shoot."

Durr relents a little in the light of his customer's and friend's praise.

"The natural feather fletchings that we do are more forgiving for the shooter than plastic," Durr said. "Natural feather recovers faster from the shock after release. If you pluck the string a bit instead of making a smooth release, the feather fletching will recover more quickly than plastic. But feather-fletched arrows are very hard to find unless you come to a shop like this, because nobody stocks them anymore."

Many of the Durrs' customers are "traditional archers" who eschew the technological advances of recent years in favor of simple "stick-and-string" tackle. Phil's helps them achieve a look that matches their minimalist approach to archery.

"Some shooters really like the look of natural barred turkey wing fletchings," Phil said. "Those are hard to get commercially because few poultry operations raise barred turkeys anymore. Nearly all commercial turkeys are white, but we can still get the barred feathers for those who like the traditional look.

"Once [a shooter] decides to go with feather fletching, the barred is far superior to white," Durr continued. "The barred feathers have a higher 'oil line,' which makes them resist compression and weather better than white feathers."

Durr also explained that the commercial poultry industry is responsible for the fact that nearly all commercially made arrows -- feather or plastic -- are fletched "right-twist."

"For a long time they clipped the left wing off the turkeys at the farm, so only the right wing was available. The right wing feathers, because of their natural curve, must be placed on the arrow for a right-twist. [Factory producers] started making arrows that way and they just continued, for no other good reason. But we carry left and right wing feathers and can do it either way."

The Durrs are not about tradition only. They're as grateful for an economic opportunity as anyone and geared up to accommodate the crossbow customer.

"We make crossbow bolts too," Durr said. "We buy the bare shafts and build everything else here. We saw a jump in business for [crossbow] bolts, but we did not sell as many crossbows this year as we thought we would."

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.