Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: DC on August 02, 2020, 01:32:12 pm
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I know you guys like this stuff ;D ;D I was turning the clamp around on my shooting machine so the fixed jaw was against the back and I grabbed this bow to test it. I'm sure the string was on properly because I had to fiddle with one tip so I double checked. The machine triggers automatically when it reaches 28" so I don't know exactly when this broke. It was right at full draw though. The arrow fell on the floor, never went forward at all. The string ended up on the workbench right in front of the bow. With the belly broken evenly at 8 and 9" from center I guessing the string must have come off and it dry fired. I don't burn my initials in the working portion of the bow any more but I think it was going to break around there anyway. It was a nice bow but that's the name of the game. One less bow to lean against the wall. The Bamboo is still good.
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More
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Oh no! Which bow was that?
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I doubt I even posted it. It shot about 185 according to the masking tape label. I'm thinking now that what happened goes like this. I few days ago I broke the nock on my test arrow and replaced it with a new one. It didn't snap on to the string as well as it should. I thought I'd fix it later. I didn't. I think the arrow fell off the string and it dry fired.
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owwwwwww!
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One thing about Yew, it sure knows how to go boom ;)
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I literally just finished posting in the New Bow Measurements thread about the safety issues of standing next to a fully drawn bow in your shooting machine before I opened this thread up. Glad to hear you are ok and only a bow was harmed in the making of this thread.
Mark
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It broke right the fade, highest strain area on any bow. Could it have given way there due to grain runoff on the yew or the strain at the handle, ie. bending too much there?
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I don't think so Pat. With the Boo back still intact it looks for all the world like someome bent it backward until it came apart. The breaks are 17" apart. It was not one of my best builds. It's fairly old for my stuff, at least two years because the boo is one piece. It looks like I got it below weight and ground the whole belly off and glued a 1/4" strip on it. Then I screwed up again and put an 1/8" belly on that time. Then it worked but it was such a dog's breakfast it just went on the shelf. It didn't break near the end of a lam and all the glue joints are solid. It's nice straight grained yew. Dunno. I'm still going with a dry fire because the arrow fell off or possibly the string pulled of the pin nock. I'm think the arrow fell off because it just fell on the floor, never went anywhere.
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In the past a broken string (or a slipped string?) on a yew bow was considered a recipe for a belly fracture.
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Those are tension breaks. That is a shame but you live and learn :)
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"The Bamboo is still good."
...that's a classic bowyers take on it.... ;D ::)
Del
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Those are tension breaks. That is a shame but you live and learn :)
The thing is I know I checked the string on both tips and I've shot the bow on my machine before. The string was intact. I don't know what happened so in this case I didn't learn anything. I remain puzzled.
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I guess it can be called a reverse tension break. The bow was pulled backward too much and/or too fast, causing the tension break of the belly. What kind of string did it have?
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Fast Flight
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Well there you go... >:D
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Those are tension breaks. That is a shame but you live and learn :)
The thing is I know I checked the string on both tips and I've shot the bow on my machine before. The string was intact. I don't know what happened so in this case I didn't learn anything. I remain puzzled.
Yew tended to break on the forward swing of the limb. Just like if you tried to straighten a bow with string follow.
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I discovered something this morning. I put another bow on the tree and the strip of wood with the DL written on it was laying on the floor. My shooting machine sits on a workbench kind of under the tree. Room constraints mean that if the back of the bow were straight it would be about 4" from the measuring strip. Once it's braced there is 6-8" clearance. The string had to have come off in order for the bow to bend backward enough to knock the strip off my tree. The picture shows how much clearance there is with a similar bow. The bow is not braced. There is 5.5" to the strip. It had to bend forward a long way to knock the strip off. It probably broke before it hit the strip.
PS The strip wasn't very well attached :-[