Recently I acquired several bows from an estate. One of the bows is a Tigercat with Zebra wood in the riser and black limbs. In the sight window it is signed "Fred Bear". It appears to have been signed on top of the fisnish. This would seem to indnicate that he actually signed it for someone after it was produced. My question is whether this was common or not for Fred to sign a bow, and is that where he would normally sign it? The bow is only 25# and is 62" in length. I believe that it was purchased somewhere out west.  

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who is familiar with these. It seems to be a collectable bow.

Fred did that all the time. No doubt signed thousands of bows that folks asked him to sign.  Signed on different places on the bow/riser as well. Often signed in the sight window if it was large enough, or the outside of the  bow opposite the site window or the lower grip area on the outside of the riser, etc.

Signatures are a hard one. For me as a collector I usually won't pay more for something signed by fred unless there is a picture to go with it showing him signing it. And like Orion said fred signed thousands of items. Chances are it's a valid but you never know.  Still a great find though either way. Would love to see pictures if possible.

I watched Fred sign a Proline compound bow for my brother at Anderson archery one year, he signed anything people asked him to sign.

Fred was at our campfire at a shoot one evening and he signed my sister-in-laws proline compound.

crazynate, I'm going to try posting a photo. It's not a great photo but my batteries were going.

Thanks for posting that. What a great looking bow. That signature tops it off nicely too. Great find right there

Nice bow!    

crazynate, I sent you an email. Seems like I may have met you somewhere, possibly in Louisville, Ky.

I had several really nice vintage bows fall into my lap this week to sell. I love the old Bear, Wing, and Ben Pearson bows, but I'm not as familiar with them as I'd like to be. It's amazing all of the variations. Have you ever seen a nice Tamerlane and Kodiak Magnum side by side?
Wow!!

Hi 2 fletch I responded to your email. The variations are endless in this game. At least with bear bow. That's why sometimes they can be hard to date.  I'd love to see more pictures of the bows you received. Tamerlanes are fun bows to shoot and the k-mag is one of my all time favorites.