Wow what an amazing, vividly portrayed traditional dream hunt!!! Please give us more!!! Im going to have my daughters who are traditional bow hunters read this tomorrow! Great detail of a amazing adventure! This needs to be archived and shared. One final thought..maybe its just me but tales in print form with just photographs grab me more than a video.. Thank you so much for sharing this.

MOAB is an awesome bow, have a 62# @27", draw 27 3/4".  Shots just fine and fast as a wink.

Darn tootin. I'm aging and balding 

Good looking kiddo! It's nice to see the tradition being handed down

Great story! Sounds like a really awesome adventure! I would love to get to do this at some point!

Pictures always a help. If it's where the shelf and window meet then could be not radiused etc. Could be bad wood stress over time etc. I have fixed a few with water thin CA no accelerator and let it wick in. Don't always work tho.

What causes a riser to crack at the arrow shelf? A takedown I made for myself has developed a crack at the belly side of the arrow shelf and I'd like to know how to prevent it in the future.
Thanks! Mike

My first "attempt" at traditional archery for hunting (I shot a 30# Howatt Catalina for target in college)  was a Bear Kodiak at 55 lbs.  I returned it for a Bear Kodiak Hunter at 45 lbs when I realized a 70 lb Martin Cougar II ment s#it for any real muscle development.  Still have that Bear and it is the cornerstone of my go-to bowfishing rig.

We love this book.....

I'm with you 100% on this one Terry. I think i'd recommend going to some large event bow shoots and trying different products, and have the experienced archers at those events help you figure out your draw length and draw weight that best suits you. Another option is to check out a local archery club, or an archery shop that sells Traditional  bows to get the basics down with help from experienced archers.

When getting started in archery it's real easy to form bad habits being self taught without instruction and recommendations  from experienced archers. Especially developing your alignment.  Those habits are harder to break than you might think. When i switched from a compound to a traditional bow i struggled a lot with it until i started shooting with experienced trad archers. And i was an excellent archer with a compound bow too.
It's a different ball game in many respects.

my .02 cents     Kirk

Quote from: Friend on January 23, 2026, 08:06:35 PMTiller for three-under to better allow you to significantly enhance vertical stability ranges from even tiller to approximately negative 1/4" tiller. The positive tiller has you pushing towards the bottom limb. One quarter inch negative tiller is typically reserved for string walkers. I am not a string walker and 1/8-3/16" negative tiller is best for me.

I've got a customer of mine right now that is a string walker, and he swears by negative tiller too.  To me it makes no sense.... If you are sliding your fingers lower on the string, you are putting more pressure on the lower limb. Seems to me you would prefer a positive tiller in that condition to balance the way the limbs are bending. Most guys wanting 3 under tillering request a positive 1/8".

I shoot both 3 under and split finger, and have always tillered my limbs even. i shoot off the shelf, and have no issues getting my arrows tuned properly. but i don't waste a lot of time bare shaft tunning ether. i spend more time matching the arrow spine as close as possible with a spine tester.

I also am not an EFOC fan at all. i prefer a 12-15% FOC and put a good helical on my 3"  LP feathers. I could see where guys using too much weight up front driving themselves crazy trying to bare shaft tune all their arrows.