Satori VS Titan - Bear? - There can be only one

[trad007FL]

Good Morning!

My name is Travis. I'm brand new to the site and trad shooting/hunting. I've been hunting with a compound bow for around 25 years. I grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Southwest VA. I've spent the last decade living and working in South GA and FL after getting out of the Army. Currently, I'm semi-retired and primarily live in coastal Ecuador.

I'm looking for a bombproof trad setup that requires minimal maintenance. There are no archery shops here in Ecuador (it's not a thing here), so everything needed (arrows/arrow components, bows, limbs, strings, etc) all have to be brought back after a US visit.

I plan to come back to the US for pack-in hunts in Wilderness areas on the East Coast (primarily WV, North GA, & KY) for about a week every year, and will be hunting red stag in Argentina.

In knowing my situation, would you choose a Hoyt Satori or a Tradtech Titian III riser? Would you choose Hoyt Satori limbs, or the Tradtech max 2.0 glass/wood limbs & the wood/carbon limbs?

I could do 2 sets, one lower poundage target set of limbs in tradtech glass/wood with a tradtech hunting weight set of limbs in the carbon/wood, as opposed to just one set of Hoyt Satori limbs - but is there a huge gap in quality & longevity between Tradtech and the Hoyt Satori?

Like the subject line says - there can be only one, I can't/won't bring multiple bows to Ecuador. Bringing things like this to third-world countries that have no tradition or interest in archery or hunting raises flags with the immigration folks at the airport and is a pain in the arse. I have the time to shoot for hours every day, and I really want to devote myself to getting proficient with a recurve. 

Out of those two options, if you could choose only one, and had to live with that bow for the next decade, what would it be?

Bonus question - Surewood Shafts (Douglas Fir). Do they stay straight for long periods of time in storage? I'd love to get out of the carbon arrow game.  I thought of returning to XX75 Easton Aluminum arrows.

Thanks!
-Travis

**Edit** - Any experience with the Bear takedown, or Bear Eichler takedown? Wonder how the quality stacks up against TT and Hoyt?

[EHK]

Welcome to Trad Gang, Travis. 

I can't answer your question 100% as I have not shot both bows.  I did recently try a Titan 3 with the Trad Tech black max 2.0 limbs, so I can share an opinion on that.  I am very torn about the ILF platform as a whole.  ILF may seem simple compared to compounds, but compared to simple, true stick bows, they're more complicated and some might argue, not maintenance free.  I can see the appeal in them though.  You can have one delivered to your door in a few days compared to waiting for a custom, and the flexibility of multiple limbs, shooting off the shelf, shooting a rest, etc. is hard to argue. 

If I was going to shoot an ILF bow, I would want to take advantage of some of the features offered by ILF, particularly the ability to shoot off a tunable rest.  When I got the Titan, I was surprised to learn that there are very few rests that work with it because of how the riser is cut, and I wasn't interested in trying any of the rests that would work with it. And, the shelf of that bow is pretty darn flat, so if you want to shoot off it, you're going to need to do something to build it up or create some kind of radius.  For me, if I'm going to shoot off the shelf, I'd prefer a one piece bow with way fewer moving parts.  That's just my opinion. 

I will say the 19" Titan riser coupled with medium Trad Tech limbs shot faster and much quieter than I expected.  Maybe I got lucky with initial setup, but I was expecting something very noisy that took work to silence.  That was not the case at all. 

So, in summary, my experience with  the Titan and the wood/glass TT limbs - performance was solid.  Flexibility of rest options was limited.  Sorry I can't help on the Satori side of the house, but I do know that does come with a pretty slick adjustable shelf and side plate.  When I bought the Titan I was having the same debate and leaning towards the Satori, but someone talked me into the Titan at the last minute.  Some day I may try that Satori/Trad Tech combo myself. 

[McDave]

Both risers have been around for a long time.  Many of them bought and sold over the internet, so I presume the choice would come down to personal preference. I have two Satori's, a 19" and a 21", which I intend to keep.  I use the 21" mainly for bare bow target and the 19" for 3D and hunting.  I've never shot a Tradtech Titan riser.  I do use both Tradtech 2 wood carbon limbs and Hoyt limbs, and prefer the Tradtech limbs.  Again, a matter of feel.  I prefer Uukha limbs to either of the two, however.

My first ILF riser was the Satori 21", and I liked it so well that I bought a Satori 19".  For some reason I could never get the Satori 19" into perfect alignment, even with all the ILF adjustments.  I decided the limbs I was using on it were slightly twisted, and played around with different limbs for a while, but never really solved the problem.  I finally figured out that the real problem was not the limbs, it was the riser that was slightly twisted due to a manufacturing defect.  I didn't know such a thing was even possible, and played around with it too long to send it back, so I ended up donating that riser to my club, and buying another one that was straight.  The reason for all this rambling is that since you are new to ILF, you may not be any more of an expert in aligning limbs and riser than I was, and probably living in Equador compounds the problem of warranty replacements, etc.  So my advice to you is that unless you understand these things better than I did, take your new bow to someone or some shop while you're here in the US to get it completely checked out before hunting with it or taking it back home to Equador.

The Satori comes with an optional shelf rest.  It seemed a little Mickey Mouse to me at first, but the more I tried it, the better I liked it, so that's what I use on the 19" riser.  I use an AAE micro arrow rest on the 21", and like it very much.