Same problem here, I hope it gets patched so when I make a Dragonbone bow my wife/housecarl can use it.

I can't say anything about that ... NDA and all ...

But I hope it gets patched when they do the patch for DG.

Try using Feandal as a follower. One of my Bosmer characters has him as a follower, theyare both archers so I try to give them both the best bows and arrows I can. I gave Feandal an Imperial, Orchish, and then finally a Dwarven bow and he used all of them without ever switching back to the Hunting bow.

I am using him right now on this character (Hes one of the few that isn't really bugged too bad) but he only gets so strong (he's one of the weakest followers in the entire game) and eventually I want to upgrade to another follower eventually.

I wish that when I gave them better armor or weapons, then the old default equipment that I can't take from them, would at least not encumber them to any degree. It is a pain giving them better gear because then they can carry less for you. When reallistacally speaking, they would toss the worthless junk or stow it in a chest back at the house, why not just give them some clothes to wear and let us equip them from the get go, or have them default to clothes once we give them better armor and weapons.

The only thing that will help but not fix this bug is to take all weapons from a followers inventory then give them just the weapon you want them to use before every battle you can. I had this problem with one follower and it annoyed me that no matter how powerful a weapon I gave them they still used their default hunting bow. It can be very tedious exchanging weapons with a follower before every battle but unless it gets patched that's the only advice I can give you.

You can give them clothes or something and when you take it out of their inventory they'll equip the best stuff, temporarily.

Yeah they shouldn't be encumbered by their default (non-removable) items. The problem with your proposition of having them clothes only could be a problem for people just starting out or swapping to a new hireling (without taking the old guys gear or a new type of hireling i.e. from a fighter type to a mage type) I think your idea of them dumping the old gear is more appropriate in this situation. It's quite disappointing that this doesn't happen (especially considering that they can just have the basic armor respawn on the character after dismissal and disappear after being rehired and reequipped.


That's not really an issue at least not one I've ever had they will always equip the new armor I give them as long as it's better than what they already have (though its a pain sometimes if you want your follower to use only light armor [if its their primary skill] and have them just hold on to lets say an ebony or daedric chestplate they'll equip said chest-plate instead of the armor type they're most proficient with [in this case light armor])

One of the problems is that if you can remove their hunting bow they usually don't have this issue to begin with. For instance, I cannot take J'zargo's hunting bow, even though I have 100 pickpocket with Perfect Touch. it does not show up in his inventory, at all, ever.

Well J'zargo shouldn't be using a bow lol he's a mage but yeah that is what we are talking about. The "hidden" weapons and armor that the follower will default to (its only supposed to default to that when you dismiss them) but for some reason they always use that wretched Hunting Bow instead of the maxed out double enchanted Daedric Bow I give them.

Ok Faendal DOES NOT equip the bow you give him >.< even he is barred by the stupid "Hidden" Hunting Bow >.<