You’ve invented a better mousetrap. It’s going to make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.
10 Years of Red Tape
At 73, Steve Murphy is an old-school mechanic, known around the small town of Brewton, Alabama, as a guy who can fix anything and uses common sense first. Recently, a regular customer at his garage complained that his truck was pulling to the right and asked Murphy whether it needed an alignment. Murphy pointed at the right front tire, which was almost flat.“That might be your problem,” he said.
Common sense like that went into his invention.
His invention is called the Murphy pyramid sight, and it makes so much sense to every hunter who’s tried it that you’re going to wonder why he’s not wealthy. Even if you’ve never gone hunting, it will make sense.
His inspiration came to him by chance in 2015. The monofilament pin in the lens of his bow hunting sight fell out. He tried to repair it in the field, but he couldn’t get it to stay put. Then he realized that he could see his target better without the pin in the way. Basically, he was looking through the sight rather than using a pin to block the target.
A year after getting the idea and creating a prototype, he spent $17,000 to hire a patent attorney to create the application, which requires professional drawings of the product.
“It’s sort of like a blueprint,” he said.
He was told one reason his application was approved quickly.
“The patent was granted in 11 months because the guy doing the paperwork at the patent office liked the product,” he said.
Getting a patent is one thing. Selling the product is something else. He spent 10 frustrating years pitching it to everyone he could think of. One major sight company considered it for a year, but passed.
“They said they were scared it was going to destroy their sight company,” he said.
In other words, it would make the company’s current stock obsolete by producing a better product. In the ultimate irony, Murphy was a victim of his own brilliance.
He pitched the military on it since it could also be attached to a rifle and because the sight is fluorescent, which would help in nighttime battles.
“But before the military would consider anything, you have to have something already in production,” he said.
So that was the next stop. He searched for manufacturers to produce the sight, but finances were an obstacle.
“A 5,000-unit order was what they wanted, or they would not commit,“ he said. ”And they wanted $10,000 to hire an engineer to draw up the plans to build it.”
Murphy couldn’t remotely afford to buy 5,000 pyramid sights out of his own pocket.
“It seems that everywhere I went, the people that built sights were in the way,“ he said. ”They were controlling the ball.”
He even tried contacting the reality show for inventors, “Shark Tank,” and was told that there was a waiting list and that he needed 5,000 units ready to sell.
“You want a chance to win the Florida lottery?“ he said. ”You’ve got as much chance there.”
So, 11 years after inventing a hunting device that has gotten rave reviews, Alabama car mechanic Murphy has hit enough roadblocks. Enough with approaching companies, enough with venture capitalists, enough with manufacturing factories. Even enough with reality television.
So he’s making it himself.
The 3D-printed Turnaround
Although he couldn’t find a company to produce his invention, he found someone local with a better solution: a 3D printer. Now he has the parts made that way and puts the pyramid sights together himself. No minimum order required. Made and assembled (by the inventor’s hand!) in the United States.His slogan is as simple as the device: “Try it once ... you’ll understand.” Of the nearly 200 hunters who have bought the sight, there have been zero complaints or returns. But lots of compliments. Hunters say the pyramid sight is superior to the standard pin sights.
Robert Wood and his son, T.J. Wood, found out how effective the sight was during a hunting trip to Canada. The two men have a construction business and have been going on hunting trips together for years. T.J. Wood, in particular, had been frustrated by his lack of success with a traditional bow sight.
“I missed the deer 21 times in a row before I ever hit a deer with a pin sight,” he said.
The men decided to try the Murphy pyramid sight. His first shot on the trip found the mark on a bear 25 yards away.
“It makes a big difference in accuracy,“ he said. ”You can shoot a golf ball with it from 30 or 40 yards.”
Dad Robert Wood has been bow hunting for more than 40 years and said the pin sights have always been a problem for him.
“When you focus on your sight pin, your target is blurry,“ he said. ”Or if you focus on your target, your sight pin is blurry. So the pyramid has taken away that blurry problem. That’s the beauty of it. It’s a game changer. You can actually see your target rather than have something covering it up.”
He said he has a simple piece of advice for hunters who are willing to consider something new: “Just give it a try. Gotta shoot the pyramid.”
He’s still willing to listen if some deep-pocketed investor is interested in backing his invention. In the meantime, he has advice for anyone with one of those better mousetraps: “Unless you’ve got the money to back it, you need to really think it through. Because it’s a gamble.”
