I think I'm experiencing some kind of glitch with my Archer. I'm a pure archer at the moment and sometimes when I'm using my bow I check the inventory and see that lower level bows and the bow I'm using show a higher damage rate. Sometimes when I attack enemies with bows it doesn't do as much damage. I then check my inventory and the weapon I'm using is actually displayed as stronger even though it's already equipped. If I re-equip the weapon it goes back to normal and I find that the damage is much more powerful. Is this some kind of glitch? It's like my bows damage decreases until I re-equip. It's really annoying as I kill slower and have to re-equip the bow.

Is your bow tempered? I have this issue with my Legendary Daedric sword, however it's actual damage remains the same, only in the menus do I have the glitch

I'm using a plain Glass Bow at the moment. I only use gear I find. I also have two of them. I used to use some powerful Nord Bow before then and had the same glitch. I don't know if the damage changes but I'm pretty sure it does. I did a sneak attack on a bandit or something and it did not so much damage, I then saw my bow needed to be re-equipped so I did and then it did much more damage.

Do you know how or when it happens?

Nope I just know it happens on randomly but quite often. I don't know what activates it I just feel as if my bow is weaker and I check my inventory to find out the same equipped weapons has green lettering with +29 or something (not actual damage). So I re-equip and it feels more powerful.

Maybe try using bows on another account to see if it still happens.

I have the same thing. My Glass Bow sometimes drops it's damage and does barely any. I shot at a simple vampire in a Sneak Attack and it took away like 1/4 or 1/6 of his health. I looked at my inventory and saw that my Glass Bow which was equipped had +39 Green lettering. I re-equipped shot the vampire and I did a huge amount and it was a sneak attack either.

So thats why this is happening lol! I noticed that but i havent figured out that it was the bow. I use a daedric bow and really often (always after a few sneak kills in the same dungeon in a short row) my bow does significant less damage. I thought well maybe some stronger enemy. But i have to try to reequip my bow!! I also noticed that when fighting a dragon sometimes it only needs 3 - 4 ebony arrows and sometimes 20 - 25. So there seems to be a bug thanks hehe

I've observed inconsistent bow damage as well, but that's the extent of my observations. Just that sometimes it seems like the damage is "off" either up or down. Generally though I've just attributed it to sneak, armor, use of marked for death, hitting a shield, not pulling the bow all the way back, or some other assorted factors that affect damage I'm not aware of. Of course it gets even more inconsistent if you get the critical perk.

The weirdest is when I sneak attack something for ~30% - 40% of its health and the next shot (not a sneak attack) kills it. Seems to happen a fair bit. I use an upgraded Daedric bow and before than an upgraded Dwarven bow.

Under the topic "Bow Glitch", my bow went invisible in bleak falls barrow. In 3rd person it looked like it was on my back, but I had it drawn. Attacking made an arrow float up in front of my charcater and shoot away No idea why it happened, but I got disarmed, automatically swapped into a sword, picked up my bow, re-equipped it and then it was invisible.