Nice Chris, very nice what the spec's.

Hope it works out for you, that is a great looking bow!

Chris .......... a tipp of the hat my friend ....... way cool for sure nice job !!! ...... Lonnie

I think you did a great job it should shoot fine now .

Hey Chris, great job man. Quick question, do you know why the bow would be off that much on the tiller? Is it a manufacture issue or an age issue? I don't know jack about tiller and just trying to learn. Thanks, Chuck

Very nice work. I hope it shoots as good as it looks. Lance.

I have a 55" long Shakespeare Necedah that's just over an inch out like yours was. Not sure I'm willing to work on it myself but, interestingly, it shoots pretty darned good now. Be curious to see how much weight you lose. Mine is 45 now and wouldn't want to lose a lot.

Sweeet, keep us updated :-) JF

Re-tillering or lightening the weight is a snap. Just be careful with it for a while. That far out could signal an internal break or damaged spot. If so it could suddenly fail. I haven't ran across one where a limb had weakened that much. Good job and good luck with it. >>>----Ken

That is one nice looking bow. Glad it worked out for you.

Nice bow!

One thing about a lot of Hunter Flights is they look out of tiller but shoot well with a 7.5" brace height and no lower. I like the maple in your riser! It looks like the birdseye maple in mine. We need your serial number for our list. Mine is 7749.

Joe

Chris, Nice work bringing that back from out of tiller. One other infamous Drake bow we all know all too well, seems to be in great shape......the user is out of tiller though!!!! TLM

Great project and a very nice bow. I too would be watching closely as something caused this issue. Rooty

Chris I have a trade lined up for you already if your interested. Shoot it a little then let me know. Bear Zebra KH 58" 45 weight. Hows that one sound.

Yep,out of tiller bows are one thing but nothing to be done for the out of tiller archers.:^) >>>----> Ken

Good job, if the tiller continues to change and you don't know why I would abandon it.

Well done Chris!

Nice job, but that Drake was never dead, it just needed some therapy. Beautiful bow.

That's a FASCO built Drake by the way.

Jaz- It might have been built before FASCO took over, as mine has a little later serial number and Fred told me mine was built before FASCO and is a Mart Mathew/ Harry Drake bow. So, I think this one is a Drake/Mathew made bow. I also think there was nothing wrong with the bow, and the tiller was as from the factory. Mine looks off and shoots great with a higher brace height. With a low brace height, mine shot horrible.

Joe

I'm going to restore the Grail next summer. I was going to use Dutchboy clear coat, just like the original, but I'll be going with Krylon non-yellowing. The greenish hue to the Grail back glass will be replaced with the original sky blue!

Joe

I find the limbs on all of my Drakes are very "wobbly" compared to any other bow. They are more prone to move if you grab the string and move it inline with the direction it is strung.

I'll have to measure the tiller on my Firedrakes when I get home. I have a feeling they're a bit off too but it does not affect accuracy.

Chris? PURDY BOW! Hope that it is gonna survive all this attention.

Looking good Chris! I wish more guys will delve into trying to fix stuff! I have re- tillered and weight adjusted in several bows over the years And I love to see one others take the bull by the horn’s!

The one thing to be aware of, which has been mentioned by several of the guys here, is why was that upper limb so weak? My bet is that that bow would not have been allowed to leave the Fasco bow shop with the tiller well over an inch out of whack. It’s looking like you’ve been doing a great job weakening that lower limb but don’t know, and therefore have not been able to address, the reason why the upper limb is so weak...

Maybe wear a bicycle helmet for the first couple hundred arrows! LOL! Good luck!

My hunterflight is one of my two hunting bows this fall. :-)

J.

Let me know I def. want this bow. No matter what you do I'll prob. send it out and make it perfect though if I get it. I want the short bow that's laminated like this in the grip. I love my little Black one I got from you Chris.

Lookin real good Chris!

J.

Another observation/note Chris... Checked my Hunterflight tiller yesterday and found it to be quite a difference too! 3/4" positive/upper limb! So maybe yours wasn't that bad after all. Hope she holds together for another 10,000 + arrows!

J.

Just measured my Drake Hunter Flight, serial number 7957, which looks exactly like the one in this topic. Top limb is 5/8" positive/more than bottom limb.

That,s a Drake built "Hunter-Flight"—not a FASCO built.

Fred, when Chris sent me pics of this bow I thought with the reputation Harry Drake had there was no way he would have sent a bow out with the tiller this bad. Would you have any insight as to why this bow was so out of tiller? I know that some bows shoot ok this way but they look like hell and I don't think they would have the reputation they do if many of them left the shop looking like this.Just curious

I agree Steve. These were pretty "high-end" bows. I can only speculate that maybe it was left strung with the top limb in warm sunlight or near a heater.

I will measure the tiller on mine when I get home and I PM'd Frisky asking that he do the same. So far, it looks like the Hunter Flights had more positive tiller than most of today's bows. Maybe we can get a consensus on what "normal tiller" is for them. - John

It was tough to measure because the ends of the fades are difficult to locate and a lot of bending goes on in that area. Mine measured positive 3/8" at a 7 1/2" brace height. At times it looked closer to positive 1/2". I had to try several strings to get a 7 1/2" brace height and it looked like it had more positive tiller at higher brace heights. - John

Kelly and John, Interesting! Curious what Sir Frisks Alot finds for The Grail's tiller... and anyone else who's got one.

Fred, Didn't know this was made in the Drake shop. Thought ''twas a FASCO. Good to know! Maybe you built mine! Be VERY cool! :-))

J.

I'm glad this thread came up when it did. I was getting ready to measure the tiller on my Hunter Flight anyway, only AFTER having it refinished by Cueman. I would have been disappointed with its tiller if not for this thread. It's starting to look like 1/2" positive or so is normal for these old bows. I would like to hear Fred's take on it as well. - John

P.S. Apparently Frisky killed another doe last night. He may be slow in posting his bows measurements since he probably needs to take his car in for repairs...

LOL! Glad I saw this. I'll get measuring my tiller. Car is fine.

Joe

My bow has at least 3/4" of positive tiller. It doesn't hurt a thing. Except for my Pro Medalist, my Drake was the poorest shooting bow I've ever shot when I got it, shooting at a low brace height. The Hoyt was worse at a low brace height. Raising the brace height turned them both into beauties! I keep the Drake braced between 7.5 and 7.75". It shoots great! I have a feeling these positive tillers will be found on a lot of Hunter Flights. I too wish the venerable Skookum would chime in here.

Joe

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