Dry Firing Bows

TreeGuy · #1 03-19-2009, 10:24 PM

I've been bowhunting for 4 years now, and have fallen in love with the sport. Yet there is something that was instilled in me from day one that I never really understood.

NEVER dry fire a bow! It was made out to be a scary thing to me and I have never, ever done it. Yet I never really recieved a good explaination as to why.

Can someone explain to me why dry firing a bow is bad?

Thanks,
Tree

hunt_and_fish · #2 03-19-2009, 10:28 PM

I had the same question. The answer I was given is that the weight of the arrow slows down (and cushions) the string...therefore dry firing can cause damage to the bow. I can't back that up with anything though. I don't know of anyone that's ever done it.

munyee4321 · #3 03-19-2009, 10:31 PM

this isn't the greatest explanation but more of experiance
its loud and hurts the ears... wrist and the bow from the shear shock possibly cracking the limbs..... have done it once and had my gfs father doing it once an old bow... its not pleasant. Although the newer bows these day can stand a couple of dry fires but its still not recommended. Hoyt bows supposedly have thier limbs tested to with stand 1000 dry fires with nothing failing before going onto production and market

CNP · #4 03-19-2009, 10:57 PM

Hunt and Fish has it.....When you dry fire a bow, all the energy that is normally transferred from the bow to the arrow......stays with the bow. A bow is a big spring that has to be decompressed under load. The arrow acts as the load. Bows are not engineered to absorb the stress of a dry fire (some fare better than others). You can crack limbs, deform your cams, bend your axles, break your string or cables...................and injure yourself or someone else that happens to be in the vicinity. Shooting an arrow that is too light for your bow is also dangerous as that mimics a dry fire to some extent (that is why it is recommended that your arrow weighs a min of 5 grs per lb of draw weight.). I've got a nice scar on my wrist.......the result of a dry fire........both cams on the bow had to be replaced because they were deformed. That was a BowTech BKII.

uraarchr · #5 03-20-2009, 12:06 AM

some years ago,i was goat hunting and my buddy took a shot downhill.as he released the string(or a split second before)the arrow fell off the string and the bow went to pieces,i heard him say something loudly as the goat came around the cliff to me(i was at full draw on the goat now)so i didnt let the arrow go thinking that he had already arrowed it.he comes around the corner with a mess of bow in his hands, and the goat is gone.the same guy also had his father-in law dry-fire a bow of his and it also went to pieces.this was all a long time ago though.back when my knees were good.

#6 03-20-2009, 05:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TreeGuy

I've been bowhunting for 4 years now, and have fallen in love with the sport. Yet there is something that was instilled in me from day one that I never really understood.

NEVER dry fire a bow! It was made out to be a scary thing to me and I have never, ever done it. Yet I never really recieved a good explaination as to why.

Can someone explain to me why dry firing a bow is bad?

Thanks,
Tree

WOW bow hunting 4 years and now you need a good explaination as to why.hunt_and_fish has it right

TreeGuy · #7 03-20-2009, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by river_runner

WOW bow hunting 4 years and now you need a good explaination as to why.hunt_and_fish has it right

Thanks so much once again for a positive contribution. I learned so much from your incredbly informative SENTENCE! Grow up would ya...........

For those with informative posts, I thank you.

I pretty much got the same(ish) story from day one. I never tried to question it. Why would I?

The reason I posted is because I never recieved an answer I felt satisfied with.

I'm chuckin' super light carbon arrows, and cannot see them absorbing enough of my string's energy to really matter. Then a though came to mind.........

Bows are rated on a min/max scale. Correct?

I'm guessing that a dry fire 'blow-up' event is most likely due to guys having their bows tweeked to the max. The arrow takes that 1% that the rig will not.

Thoughts?

Tree

cuz · #8 03-20-2009, 11:41 PM

I am no engineer, and don't even pretend to know everything. but I believe the energy transference would be substantially more than 1%. If you ever get a chance to watch a bow fire from a high speed video, u will see that firing a bow really is quite a violent affair, and without the degree of backtension, and energy release to the arrow, why a dryfire is so hard on bows. If u get a chance, try shooting a few differant arrows, some lighter (towards the 5grain/pound), and something heavier (even 10), you fill feel the bow settle, and the noise levels drop, and that is really a tiny weight increase. Might add some perspective.?

uraarchr · #9 03-21-2009, 10:40 PM

the crossbow that i mentioned had the bolt on the string(touching)but not totally clipped on the nock.so maybe 1/8 gap.every person that tried it i reminded them of the importance:last guy i noticed right before he pulled the trigger.TOO late.its something i really watch now when i shoot my bow .

russ · #10 03-22-2009, 08:44 AM

My bow takes an arrow and puts about 60 or 70 ft lbs energy into it. That my may not seem like much when compared to a bullet, but it's close to 4x as much energy as the recoil of my .270 win. which is spread over 3 or 4 square inches. If I take the arrow off of the string and send that energy goes to the limbs & cams instead. Something's gotta give.

cardiacphil · #11 03-22-2009, 10:39 AM

I had one of my bows dry fired by a friend and never hurt a thing....I have shot it since and its been great...

BUT if it ever happens it smells funny...Like 3 in 1 oil...I dno I was leary at first but now I shoot it like normal...

Its a apa mamba x2

CP

BigRackLover · #12 03-22-2009, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TreeGuy

I've been bowhunting for 4 years now, and have fallen in love with the sport. Yet there is something that was instilled in me from day one that I never really understood.

NEVER dry fire a bow! It was made out to be a scary thing to me and I have never, ever done it. Yet I never really recieved a good explaination as to why.

Can someone explain to me why dry firing a bow is bad?

Thanks,
Tree

Thanks Tree and Hunt&Fish - Always knew not to dry fire myself but never knew why (or wondered why). I like knowing. Thanks again.

Ahhh! The AO forum ... I learn so much without even asking.

fourpoint · #13 03-23-2009, 12:19 PM

Okay this was explained to me years ago let's see if i can do justice to it, to load the string by putting an arrow on thus the arrow takes a percentage of the energy and displaces it causing the arrow to moved forward ( with the odd explosion lol not) and the rest of the energy is sent to the bow thus vibrations and noise the bow absorbing the rest of the energy. To dry fire the bow means to send all the energy through the bow thus sometimes causing minor or serious imperfections to show up on the bow, ie limbs risers etc. this is the reason that was given to me not to dry fire a bow, plus having a friend do it and knock him unconscious drove the point home, so basically its not recommended but things go wrong and happen sometimes not intentional

Jerry D · #14 03-23-2009, 02:32 PM

From personal experience when I was younger/a kid... I had no mentors and learned everything myself... my parents got me a bow and first thing I did was pull the sting back and let it go - boy was it loud! 40 lbs of draw weight... it sounded like a gun shot. I did it a few times but not that many - maybe 5? yea it wasn't smart anyways I never did damage the bow so I'm lucky.

Basically the energy gets sent to the arrow to make it fly, with no arrow the energy gets sent right back into the bow... supposedly with fiberglass type bows you can shatter them or crack wood bows... I've never seen it done, but I'm sure there are pictures online.

rugatika · #15 03-23-2009, 04:04 PM

When I was first looking at compound bows back in about 1995 or so I was in a shop (SPAL??) or somewhere (did Phoenix gun range used to sell bows?)..anyway. Someone dry fired a bow at the other end of the shop and I got hit with shrapnel flying off the bow. Not sure what I got hit with but he felt pretty embarrassed as there were "No dry firing" signs all over the place.

russ · #16 03-23-2009, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardiacphil

Like 3 in 1 oil...I dno I was leary at first but now I shoot it like normal...

The synthetics that the strings are made of are paraffin based, probably the smell. Just curious did you pull the axles and roll them on a piece of glass and see if they made a light clicking sound?