I have a friend who is currently obsessed with vintage Groves "Spitfire's" Recently purchased off big auction site upon delivery he noticed the cracks. Seller was unaware of issue. My friend has extremely high wood working skills and would prefer to keep it rather than return. Can anyone determine if bow is safe to shoot via pictures. It's 39#@28".69" long.

I would shoot it, probably with safety glasses the first couple of times...

From the pics it looks like surface cracks. It doesn't appear to follow the grain. Go slow and easy flexing the limbs and see if it changes. Good looking bow!

kinda looks like finish cracks? But what do I know hahaha. Very nice bow hope it can be shot.<><

I wouldn't shoot it but I watched a guy shoot a bow that broke in the handle when he shot it. It was awful. Guy was in the hospital and had to have some plastic surgery to fix his face. Made me gunshy

As a buddy of mine put it (and I knew he was right): It's not a question of If, but When. If you can run your finger nail across it and it catches, I think you have a problem. Again it is the question of When will it let go. DANNY

Just send it out to be converted to a 2-piece. ;)

The more I look at it, the sketchier it gets.

At 38 pounds I'd put some loc tite in the crack and shoot it a while. periodically check to be sure it hasn't reopened and have fun with it. Theres still several layers of wood under it and the crack is probably just in the one layer.

I would probably sand the area to determine if it’s just the finish. Doesn’t appear to follow the grain and is in an area of compression.

The fact that you can see roughly the same pattern on both sides of the grip tells me that the riser is flexing at that point. That is the portion of the riser with the least amount of wood so logic says that is where the bow will break when it breaks. I see no way to fix it without radically changing the appearance of the bow.

Loctite is not a magic potion. I attempted a repair on a Wes Wallace Mentor with problems in the throat of the grip. This one had a glue line that had turned loose. I flooded the crack with Loctite 420 using an insulin syringe. I repeated the process several times until no more glue would wick into the crack. Then I drilled and countersunk a hole through the center of the throat into an area with more wood and flooded the hole with Loctite 420. While it was still wet, I put a wood screw about two inches long into the drilling, then put a wood plug over the screw head. I touched up the finish and waited for a few days. The first time that I shot the bow, the finish above that glue line cracked. I call that a failure. Every time that I pick up the bow with intent to shoot it, my lizard brain kicks in and tells me not to be a fool.

I am no expert by any stretch, so for what its worth...

Looking at the cracks: I see 2 cracks running somewhat with the grain, in the shape of an hour glass. ") (" Like that. There is also a connecting crack between them. "-" like that. These are at the narrowest part of the bow and face the archer. If all of this is true, I suspect the bow has been dry fired or fired with an arrow that was too light.And that ")-(" "H" shaped crack is the result of the limbs delivering their load to the riser and that is the weakest area.

Imagine if you strung the bow up backwards and then drew the bow backwards. You would get that "H" shape fracture as the weakest spot starts to open up.

I would not even string it up,

It is a wall hanger or an Emergency room ticket.

Again, I'm no expert. I do have a very good understanding of mechanics.

39# and 69 " long from what i see in the pic I would shoot that all day. The glued riser pieces are not involved and are the strength of the riser.

Brad summarized my concerns very neatly. I see the point about the crack(s) appearing not to extend into the lams of the riser, but I’m adding the phrase Emergency Room Ticket to my vocabulary….

My Eaglewing had a few cracks in the finish which had me worried for a while, and it became difficult to shoot it with good form until I came to trust it fully, for Lizard Brain reasons; those are almost impossible to defeat with rational arguments. Worse than TP.

If the bow cost a lot more than it is worth as a wall-hanger, I would seek a remedy with the seller; they (presumably) represented the bow as being in shootable condition, and it is at least unclear whether that’s truly the case, so if I were in their position, I’d feel honor bound to offer at least a partial refund, but that’s Just Me; if you bought it online, the site should have that covered in their Terms. I don’t know if there is any real liability in selling a bow which is not structurally sound, but I’ll bet it’s pretty expensive to convince an injured buyer’s lawyer that it’s not worth pursuing.

If it's on both sides of the riser it's toast unless you do something radical like Brad mentioned. You MIGHT be able to put a blot in it....maybe.

My self I would clean that area with some alcohol and see if those lines disappear. If the seller waxed the bow trying to enhance the shine on the bow then that might be what you're seeing. I see other lines underneath those as well. Honestly if it were me I'd shoot it.

No, That's the classic fatal sight window crack. Someone who's done it before can repair it with a biscuit or dowells. Ken Beck gave me a great tip a long time ago. He and his bowyer Bill Bonner (if I remember right) at Black Widow used to repair those cracks with a bisquit the same radius and thickness a 7 1/4" table saw blade. I've done it a few times and it works. A simple clamp jig is needed to hold the handle and bring the grip side straight down on the blade. The slice goes through the crack. The biscuit is glued and inserted in the crack and the handle is clamped. After the glue set up and the handle is cleaned up, the repair is noticeable but I've never had one fail.

PS Phenolic,or G10 biscuits are the way to go. Pretty simple to make too.

I dunno. The cracks are in the thin portion of the wood behind the first accent strips. I suspect they're in that piece of the wood only and don't extend into or forward beyond the accent pieces of wood.

As such, given the weight, it's probably shootable if you can get your head around it. If not, a number of the fixes offered will work. Regardless, some compensation from the seller is in order. Sending it back should also be an option.

Biscuit sounds like what I had imagined it might take, but hadn’t imagined that was actually possible!

I see some definite finish cracks other than the main cracks. Before I panicked I would see if they sand out. It you can sand them out it was in the finish. If they are deeper they are right at the pivot,weakest,breaking point.You have a problem. Check to be sure you are not hiding & filling them in with sanding dust. Use air compressor to blow them out. >>>-----> Ken

Thanks for all the great imput.

Happy update: seller originally asking $500 or best offer..... accepted $300 offer.....after reading this post on Leatherwall seller returned $212. My friend will attempt repair. Good luck-!

I'd wrap it.

Could sand the finish off to see if the lines go in the wood or not. Or send it back for the refund.

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