Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-108.28.37.243-20151116014024/@comment-6881629-20151116101740

It is on Faendals bugs list and its the same for quite a few followers as theres a bug that stops them recognizing bow damage over a certain amount, which will stop them using the better bows as they pick their basic hunting bow as to them it seems better (and i think it counts arrows in too).

Faendal is the Steward for one of my PS3 characters though and he uses a tempered ebony bow and arrows. Try giving him a bow only just a bit better than the hunting bow temporally so you can take the hunting bow away, then give him the bow you want him to use and take back the temporary one.

Being default equipment the hunting bow might respawn so you might have to keep doing it, but my Faendal still has his ebony bow equiped and i completed all of Dragonborn since making him Steward and giving him the bow.