Bear Archery Take-Down

The Redeem replaces the Persist 33 as Bear's 2026 flagship, and it is the brand's most serious run yet at the Mathews/Hoyt tier: a 30-inch, 340 fps IBO platform with the EKO2 cam, a diagonally pivoting roller cable guide that ArcheryTalk owners credit for a genuinely buttery draw, and QPC quad-pocket rockers that micro-adjust limb loading for tuning. Reviewers at Grand View Outdoors and Bowhunter Planet found it exceptionally stable for a 30-inch bow, holding well even in wind. The honest problems: at a measured 4.89 pounds bare it is the heaviest bow in its class — nearly a full pound over an ARC 30 — Grand View noted buzz in the grip and string twang out of the box, and the recurring ArcheryTalk gripe is that at $1,299 Bear priced it "almost as much as a Lift" when the brand's traditional edge was value. Draw weight comes in adjustable 45–60 and 55–70 lb ranges rather than discrete peak weights, which suits shooters who de-tune or build up more than 80-pound speed chasers. It is USA-made, with Bear's typically excellent factory grip.

The 1959 Kodiak is arguably the most iconic recurve ever made — the bow that put Bear Archery on every bowhunter's wall and became Fred Bear's own choice after its launch. Bear's modern recreation, introduced for the model's 60th anniversary and still in the catalog in 2026, reproduces the look faithfully: a shedua riser with a purple heart I-beam running through it, green-and-white glass accents, maple-core limbs under Grayling-green fiberglass, and the signature feather arrow rest on a crowned, cut-on-center shelf with leather side plate. It's built in Gainesville, Florida and ships with a Dynaflight 97 Flemish string. On Trad Talk and Tradgang, owners praise it as smooth, quiet, and genuinely nimble for a 60-inch bow, with several comparing it favorably against semi-customs like the Toelke Chinook; the main gripes are the $730 price — Bear's most expensive one-piece — and scattered quality-control reports (finish blemishes, glass cracks) that Bear's customer service reportedly handles well. It carries 7 reviews at 3Rivers with no displayed average. If the Grizzly is the workhorse and the Super Kodiak the flagship, this is the heirloom: a hunting-ready piece of archery history rather than a budget tool.

Introduced in 1967 to succeed the original Kodiak, the Super Kodiak was Fred Bear's personal hunting bow for the last decades of his life — the bow in most of the famous photos from his later African and Alaskan hunts. That pedigree still drives its reputation: on Tradgang and ArcheryTalk it's routinely described as the smoothest-drawing production Bear, with a longer 60-inch AMO length that forgives sloppy releases and suits draws out to 29-30 inches better than the Grizzly. The two-piece shedua riser carries a black accent stripe and a full, palm-filling grip, and the crowned, cut-on-center shelf with bear hair rest and leather side plate shoots clean off the shelf. Unlike the Grizzly, its layered black-and-white glass tips take the included Dynaflight 97 Flemish string, so you get a modern low-stretch string's extra speed and quieter shot from the factory. The 3Rivers listing has accumulated 66 customer reviews, though no numeric average is displayed. Knocks are few: it costs $130 more than a Grizzly, left-hand weights are thin, and purists note today's Gainesville-made bow isn't hand-shaped like a Grayling original. As a do-everything hunting recurve, it's the flagship of Bear's one-piece line.