It is True, Bass Pro bought them out and now the stands are made in China, you can see a difference in the make and notice the drop in the price from the cheap labor.
i bought an extreme bowhunter this weekend and it is made a little differently than my other API i've had for four years. it's going to have to grow on me some.
the first thing i did when i took it out of the box was take the huge, honking "made in china" sticker off of it. i can see it now--there's some chinaman climbed up a bambo shoot sitting in a knock-off version he got for pennies on the dollar hunting panda bears!
i also took off all the warning stickers that were in FRENCH. what's up with that? i'm sure they market to canadians but that's ridiculous. maybe i should get john kerry to translate it for me!
anyway, after climbing it i'm satisfied. the seat is similar to the seat on the summit viper i used to have. the bottom section has platform rails that are wider than my older summit and it has raised edges for traction instead of the sandpaper like traction strips. i like the strips better myself. for $179 on sale, i'm not complaining too much.
The API Bass Pro deal actually took place before the 2003 season. If you bought one last year you probably got a Chinaman made stand unless you were one of the lucky ones that got a USA made that was still in stock.
Back in late July I was in an outdoor shop in Valdosta and saw one in the box with the made-in-China sticker on it. Now I understand.
Maybe it's just me, but I like the idea of my tree stands being made in the U.S. I saw a segment on Sixty Minutes some months back about how the Chinese make counterfit US goods and I found it disturbing since they could care less about safety when it comes to making a bogus product. That's another reason why I alway wear a safety belt (that's also American made.)