Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Tiller off...

One of my hunting bows is a 1956 Bear Cub #47... Easy forgiving bow, that doesn't seem to stack up, on my 32" draw. The top limb when strung flexes slightly more than bottom. No mic, just eyeying it. At 73, I'm not going to do anything about it..can't.. Does anyone else shoot a bow like this? No accuracy problems, shooting cheap Walmart arrows off of a Bear Weather rest. The bow otherwise appears in great shape....

Us older guys do seem to like older gear. A bow from 1956 is got some serious cool factor.

Seems that if one limb flexes more than the other, the nock would move up/down during the release instead of just straight forward??? But if it's shooting well then who cares???

Measure from the point in the riser where the taper fades into the limb straight horizontal to the string. The top limb distance is typically 1/8 to about 3/8 inch longer. That is normal split finger tiller.

Correct, and to add to that - the low point on the grip where your hand contacts the bow is generally the physical center of the bow (on a recurve, but not necessarily true on a longbow). Where your fingers contact the string to draw the bow is not the center (mid-point) of the string. This requires one limb to bend more than the other and generally the upper limb is made slightly weaker accordingly. The only thing that matters is that when you release the string, ideally both limbs should recover such that they arrive back to the undrawn position at exactly the same time. As R H Clark mentioned, tiller is typically measured from the string to the belly side of the limb at the fadeout which is where the riser fades into the limb. For my bows and me shooting split finger, 3/16" positive tiller is about right, meaning the dimension from string to limb is 3/16" greater on the upper limb than the lower limb at the fadeout. The actual tiller measurement is not as critical as the limbs recovering to a stop at the same time.

As mentioned, if the bow shoots good for you then you are good to go and nothing else matters!

...and, if the tiller is actually off for your style of shooting you will notice it through excessive shock or vibration in the limbs at the shot due to one limb recovering to a stop before the other. If the bow is 'dead in the hand' at the shot, the bow is tillered correctly for you. Those that build bows use tiller measurement as a starting point, but often will refine that by 'timing' the limbs to come to a stop at the same time.

Thanks guys, good advice.... The bow is a little off... had to play around a lot with different spined arrows.... Settled on Easton aluminum hunters 2117... Which shoot perfect!