Bear Cruzer G3

The Royale is the small-frame specialist of Bear's adjustable line: 5 to 50 pounds and 12 to 27 inches of draw on a 27-inch axle-to-axle frame weighing just 2.7 pounds bare (about 3.3 with accessories). The $299.99 price is for the Ready-to-Hunt package - Trophy Ridge 3-pin sight, Whisker Biscuit, 5-arrow quiver, Fletcher no-tie peep, and D-loop - and Bass Pro buyers rate it 4.2/5 across 35 reviews, the biggest verified review base in this batch. EnduraFiber split limbs and rotating modules make every adjustment Allen-wrench simple, and RockStops string suppressors keep the shot civil for its size. Understand what it is, though: this is the bow for kids, small-framed women, and short-draw adults, not a growth path to full-size hunting. The 50-pound ceiling is adequate for whitetail at moderate range (with heavier arrows and sharp broadheads) but leaves no margin for larger game, the 27-inch draw cap excludes most adult men, and 290 fps IBO means real-world speeds in the low 200s at typical settings. The short frame and 6-inch brace also punish form errors more than the 31-32 inch Diamonds. Within its niche - a genuinely light, genuinely huntable small-frame rig - it is the best-reviewed option under $300.

The Bear Grizzly has been in continuous production since 1950, and the current bow is essentially the same design Bear settled on in 1964 — that heritage alone explains why it's 3Rivers' best-selling one-piece bow and the default first hunting recurve on ArcheryTalk and Tradgang. At 58 inches it splits the difference between stand maneuverability and forgiveness, with a shedua-toned hardwood riser, clear-maple-core limbs under black fiberglass, and a radiused, cut-on-center shelf with bear hair rest and leather side plate, so most well-spined arrows tune easily right off the shelf. It ships with a Dacron Flemish string, and Bear doesn't rate the tips for fast-flight material, so stay with B-55-class strings. Community sentiment is overwhelmingly warm: smooth to about 28 inches of draw, quiet once brace height is tuned, and tough enough to be knocked around a deer lease for decades — vintage Grizzlys from the 1960s are still hunted every fall. Complaints are minor: the grip feels blocky to some hands, marked weights can run a couple pounds heavy, and it stacks noticeably past 29 inches. At around $500 it remains the benchmark entry point for serious traditional bowhunting.

In the Bear lineup since the late 1990s, the Montana is the longbow most American trad hunters start with — a 64-inch, slightly reflexed D-shape design with a hard-rock maple riser, white maple limbs under black or grey fiberglass, and a supple leather grip with matching leather shelf rug and side plate for shooting off the shelf. The slight reflex and tapered limb laminations give it more zip than a straight-limbed Hill-style bow, and the 64-inch length keeps finger pinch and stacking away for draws up to about 29 inches. Lancaster calls it a longbow that 'performs well above its price-point,' and Amazon buyers rate it 4.4/5. Community feedback on ArcheryTalk and Trad Talk is largely positive but honest about longbow realities: there is some hand shock — mild by longbow standards, and mostly tamed with a properly tuned brace height, heavier arrows, and the included Dynaflight 97 string — and the sight window is not cut past center, so arrow spine selection matters more than on Bear's recurves. At $460-530 street it undercuts custom longbows by hundreds while delivering a genuinely huntable, quiet, lightweight package that carries all day.