I went to one of my local pro shops earlier this afternoon to get my new Winners Choice Strings put on..He said he could do it no problem and it would be ready in 30-45 minutes. I watched for a few minutes as he put my bow in the press and began to take my old string off and then went to get a bite to eat.. I came back just in time as he was taking it out of the press with my string applied and then he put it in something similar to a hand winch and drew the string. Thinking to myself, the limbs appear to be under a lot of stress, POP. It didn't explode but it definitely got everyone in the shops attention. "What was that noise" - me "I'm not sure" - idiot "My bow hasen't ever made that noise before" - me Taking it out winch mechanism - "Well, it looks like your limb cracked" - idiot "WHAT!!!???" - "Well, I didn't do it...before I put your bow in the press, I checked your limbs and noticed there was a little slit" (as previously stated, I watched him put the bow in the press and begin to remove the old string...he never checked the limbs - furthermore, if he did check the limbs and noticed a little "slit", why would he put it in the press anyways???) "There wasn't a "slit" in my limb. This bow has been babied since the day I bought it, nobody else holds or shoots it, it travels in a case everywhere it goes and there isn't even a scratch on it, anywhere, not even the rest or sight housing." "Well sometimes these limbs just crack" (backtracking) I'd had enough and asked him what the next step was and he said that it was covered under Mathews warranty. He said you can still shoot it... I thought to myself..yeah, I'd love for my bow to blowup at full draw. Have yall ever heard of this happening and do yall think this could have been caused by him exceeding the back wall? ughhhh, still trying to calm down, I was so mad
Cracked limbs happen....I don't see where your saying he "exceeded the back wall" since that's pretty much impossible to do on a bow with a stop on the cam. I'm gonna assume the "hand winch" your talking about is really a draw board and he was using that to check cam timing on the bow at full draw as well as the draw length, they are a very handy tool. Now trust me when I say this, I'm NOT taking up for the tech in the shop cause sadly I've seen WAY more idiots behind the counter over the years than guys that actually know something so I don't put much faith in most shops. Have your Mathews dealer get intouch with Mathews, get some new limbs and be done with it, that's about the only option you have at this point. As far as him saying there was a slit in the limb before he started, well it's highly possible that there was, but at the same time I'd hate to think he saw a crack in the limb and never bothered to tell you before hand and then went on and worked on the bow....If someone brings me a bow and I see a crack in the limb I'm not touching it at that point, I'm telling the owner his limb is busted and it needs to be fixed, no way I'd go ahead and press the bow and put new strings on it.
Thank you J-(I'm not calling you daddy) for the response. Obviously, I don't know the correct terminology of the equipment utilized, nor the process, but I'm more concerned about how something like this would happen if he didn't exceed the back wall. Perhaps it's not possible like you said, but having shot this bow thousands of times, including the day before and everything was flawless confuses me. Although it seems logical that you cannot feel the tension while drawing the bow on a "draw board", could he have mistaken the back wall as the valley and turned it too much resulting in excess stress on the limbs causing it to crack?
Not really likely because the back wall you feel while shooting is a stop on the cam that lays against the cable... If you pull past that the stop jumps by the cable and the bow then either locks up at full draw or the string/cables derail and the bow flies apart. Now it's possible to crack a limb if your using an old press "Apple style press" on a modern past parallel limb bow, but outside of that sometimes limbs just crack... I've had it happen over the years for no reason at all. Limbs and strings are the most common failures on a compound bow. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I work in a pro shop here in illinois. I toatally agree with j daddy limbs crack sometimes. But i inspect every bow before i press it if theres any chips or cracks i wont press it and ill let the customer know asap. Is this a new mathews with the backwall stop on the limb like the creeds this still shouldnt be a issue the backwall stop wouldnt break a limb. Where did the limb crack or break at was it in the middle or back by the cam or up front by the limb pocket ? Most blown up limbs i see are at the stress points in the limb where they bend when drawing. I inspected a hoyt maxxis looked spotless when i pressed it the lower left limb cracked and splintered stuff like this just happens from time to time. It might of been the techs fault or might not have been. I take 15 to 20 min inspecting and talking to the customer before it even sees a press and if i see anything i wont press it at all and notify the owner and bow company. And i would never put strings on a bow with a cracked limb. And i would never say its ok to shoot thats stupid i would tell him not to shoot till it was fixed to avoid injury or any major problems. Thats the first thing they told us when i was becoming a mathews tech .
What kinda press was it? Do you remember what it looked like? It's sad to say, outta the 5 shops within distance to me. Not one has a tech that can do much of anything. Most of them can't install a string correctly. What J-Daddy, said! I'm agree, seen way more idiots behind the counter than good ones. In my 21 years of Bowhunting I've been to one shop that had a real bow tech. I would just get new limbs put on it. I'm sure there are some good shops out there, there is just not any around me.
As has been said he shouldn't have put it in the press if he saw the limb was cracked unless he was replacing the limbs. I've seen a tech that knew limbs were cracked and let me tell you, by his cautiousness, you knew something wasn't right with the bow even if you didn't know what it was. VERY careful to say the least. They do crack though so, wether he was at fault or not I couldn't say. I would suggest in the future inspect the bow in front of the tech before they put it in the press. It just good practice as you could catch something the tech doesn't an vise versa. It also makes them aware you inspected the bow so there is no "well, you didn't even look it over before you....." From either side. You could look at is as its a good thing it did crack on you at full draw.
I had a limb blow up at full draw this time last year. I was shooting techno at the shop and at full draw while holding back, the bottom limb just shattered. I was lucky that the only thing that happen to me was I punched my self in the face. Its better that it happen on the press than while you are shooting. Mine had no sigh of ware and carbon fiber core exploded from the inside out.
I would have got him to sign a piece of paper saying that he serviced it when the limb broke just in case something doesn't go right with the warranty.
