I bought a new Bear Cruzer Lite for my son. It has a pound adjustment from 5 -45 pounds. I adjusted the bow down to roughly 10 pounds. (The book said each turn equates to about 2-4 lbs. I tightened the bow all the way and the loosened it 10 turns on each side. The book said the bow could have 12 turns max.) So we went to shoot the first arrow form the bow and the bow flew apart. The limbs of the bow went slack and wobbled side to side. One side of the limb came off the bow. The cable came off one of the cams. The limb rockers fell out of both limbs. I mean the bow looked like some withered plant from a cartoon. But there was nothing funny about this for either me or my son. Is this something that is common with modern compound bows? I did a lot of research and this was supposed to be a good bow. I called the company Bear and ask them if they had any guides on how to restring or rebuild the bow and the tech support guy said they didn’t provide those because in order to fix the bow you would need a bow press. They told me I’d either have to go to a bow repair place or I could send it to them and it would take 4 weeks. 4 weeks! This is a brand new bow out of the box with only 1 arrow shot through it. Anyway I went to a bow repair place and asked him if he had any idea why this would have happened. He said that if you turn the bow to far to the side while shooting it could torque the bow and cause the cables to come of the cam but had no idea why it would have fallen apart. I was the one who shot it so I knew that I held the bow straight. So my question is the following: Is it common for bows to fall apart like this? Could adjusting it to such a low weight (though within its limits) make it so loose that it would fall apart? I am getting this for a young kid. Young kids aren’t necessarily always the most gentle with things. Once I get the bow fixed, is there a potential that this might happen again. Are modern bow really fragile and is it really easy for the cables to come off the cams and the bow to fall apart? I’m a little nervous about investing more money in this if every few weeks the cables are going to come off or the bow falls apart. I’m rather a newb when it comes to new compound bow technology. I had a bear whitetail compound bow growing up (28 years ago). I had it for years. It went through rain, shine, being dropped and being bumped around. Getting dirty out in the fields hunting. Hundreds of arrows shot through it, dry fired a few times on accident. I never had a problem with that bow. I would have expected the same from this one. Any input appreciated.
It's unfortunate that this happened to you, but all companies end up letting product with quality issues get past them on occasion. If you were truly within 2 turns of being at their spec of 12 turns out, it should've worked fine. It is not common at all for a bow to come apart. I would not expect to dry fire any bow and not have it come apart, your old Bear bow was extremely lucky to have been dry fired and didn't. Do everything possible in training your kid to not ever dry fire a bow. The best way to try to avoid it is to never allow a bow to be drawn without an arrow nocked. I would actually put the bow where your kid or his friends can't access it, at least until I was sure they understood. I personally would send the bow in to Bear. A month wait sucks, but it is a brand new bow and the results of a future customer are on the line as well. Unless they find that it was caused by some adjustment error by you, it is highly likely they will warranty the work. I would let them fix it and send it back to me, but would also ask them to adjust it to 10 lbs and fire a couple arrows before sending it back.
Sorry to hear that! If it said 12 turns, you should have been fine, but I would guess that this issue is indeed likely caused by the string being too loose. That could cause that to happen from decreased tension that allows the cams to run smoothly, and the fact that the bolt was too loose. If you believe the bow is faulty, and if it is still under warranty, I would send it in for a refund or replacement unit. There is also the possibility that you counted the turns too large and so it was the equivalent of 12, but I wasn't there, so I wouldn't know . You can take it to ****s Sporting Goods or Bass Pro and they could fix it for you for around $25 or less, if I remember correctly, and it is pretty quick, too. In the case that you end up turning this bow in for a refund, you could always try buying the Diamond Infinite Edge bow, which has very similar specs to the Bear in terms of adjustability, but is generally higher rated. Best of luck! Hope you get it figured out.
