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Bow hardening

Red Beard

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2019
Messages
5,503
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in my skin
I've come to realize one of the things I like most about traditional archery is that I can be harder on my gear and not worry as much about the perfomance of the gear itself. With a trad bow, my mind tells me, "It'll be ok dude. It's a stick and string". However, it tells me to avoid bumps at all cost when a compound is in my hand.

Example: I'll prop my trad bow against the nearest tree when I'm collecting arrows from the target after a shoot without even thinking about the limb tip (with rubber tip protector) coming in contact with the muddy earth at the base of the tree. Conversely, I would never even dream of setting my compound down in a similar fashion when retrieving arrows for fear of a bit of dirt getting on/in the bottom cam.

Other examples include stuff like, it takes me a crazy-long period of time to finally set my bow down after lowering it with my pull-up rope because I have to find JUUUUUST the right patch of grass for it to rest on or I have to have it lean against my tree JUUUUUST so. My trad bow... Heck, I may just let that sucker down flat on the stones in the creek washout overflow!

So, how does one get over compounddorkupaphobia? Can you ever truly overcome it?

What are some ways in which you've found to harden your compound setup? Let's hear tips and tricks. Maybe loctite on key bolts for piece of mind... maybe a cam protector that you've whipped up out of kydex (c'mon @always89y!)... maybe something else...
 
Realize it’s made of parts that can be replaced, set it down horizontally, spray it down with the hose and blow dry once a year low heat, if you do anything other than hold it in your hand or set it down horizontally in the ground gently shoot it before a hunt.

most importantly stop caring. I made a conscious decision to treat it like any other tool about 10 years ago. I’ve experienced no change in maintenance costs or accuracy of the weapon.
 
First let me say that given the title of this post, I was almost afraid to click on it after the "What Say You" thread.

I shoot an older compound (2013 Bowtech Experience) and don't baby it at all. I carry it strapped to my pack and often get it snagged on all sorts of brush to the point I have to replace a shredded string and cables every year. It's a tool, a replaceable tool.
 
I used to be that way. Still some what.

I watched my nephew abuse a Hoyt compound for years. Finish wore off all over, bottom cam made my chest hurt looking at it.

One curd sight pin with no housing, it rode on a 4 wheeler, and in the back of a truck, no case. He took deer year after year with it.

I watched him dry fire it several times after too many beers one night. If it was mine I’m sure it would have exploded.

He eventually bought another and treated it the same. Crazy but it is a tool I guess. Chest hurts thinking about it. Lol
 
U have whisker biscuit and ezv correct?
Drop away and an EZV. My goal was to change the drop away to a WB this summer but I'm too scared I'll mess up the current arrow flight in the process. It shoots lazers. So there it hangs like a piece of prized china cause I don't want to dork with it.
 
1 of the positives to the ezv imo is not having to worry if twigs get into the housing...I had that happen multiple times and I had to tweek the post back and just hope it was ok with pin sight.
I have never had/hunted with a drop away but in my mind the less moving parts the better. I spent the extra cash on the "pro" biscuit with vert/hori adjustment and once I get everything set I scribe reference marks. I don't go as far as locktight but I anti seez the bolts and torque them pretty good. Knock on wood nothing has been bumped or moved and I don't baby my bow. I'm mindful of it and try to keep it out of harm's way but honestly don't think much about it....
 
I haven’t had much problems and I doubt anyone is harder on stuff than me...my VXR looks like hell but it shoots great
 
I"m one of those people that has always tried to treat my gear very carefully. I've always been that way ever since I was a kid. My parents and everyone that knows me well understands how I am about my gear and it probably is some kind of OCD issue but anyway. I'm the kind of person that thinks about that kind of stuff.

So if I get a new bow or string set or make a change or adjustment I either write those measurement down or nowadays I find myself simply taking pictures of my bows, the orientation of the cams, the cables, how they are feeding though the cable offset bracket or roller system, how they orient onto the cams, the marks of my arrow rests, I also take either a pencil or lately a sharpey and mark the limb bolts on my bows to the limb so I can check for movement. I take measurements of my brace height and tiller measurements once I'm satisfied with the tune of my bow.

For concerns with ground debris getting in to the cam etc., on my saddle setups that are not presets, most of the time I carry my bow in with a carry strap system that completely encapsulates the cam and limb tips of my bow and I feel confident setting it on the ground in that instead of just setting it on the wet ground or in snow. I wax my strings often and try to use a hunting sight that is very beefy. I own an EZV sight and tried it in the beginning of last season for awhile last year but I didn't warm up to it like I thought I would. The simplicity and beefiness of the EZV appeals to my OCD tendencies but I have been shooting pins since I was 12 years old and find myself just gravitating to that kind of sight system.

With my preset stands, I have a pull rope that I can just clip the bow to which is high enough to prevent the bow from touching the ground. Likewise, it is short enough that at the end of my hunt, it hangs as well.

Even if I'm hunting at a preset location, I still carry my bow carry strap system in my pack or pants cargo pocket to use when I'm tracking or otherwise dragging the deer out or whatever.

There is also the bow jackt sling system which is a paracord system that stays on your bow the whole time. It incorporates the use of magnets to keep the sling from being in your way. There is some utility to that system but I'm the type that likes to have the least on my bow as possible once in the tree and I'm hunting.
 
@woodsdog2 the Jakt sling looks like a pretty cool concept. Do you have one? I'd be interested to see how much of a show it would be to use one with a full, bow mounted quiver.

Edit: I searched and can't find a video where anyone showcases the sling with their quiver attached.
 
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I never understood the "less moving parts" argument for a rest... The compound bow is a complex machine with intricate moving parts. Adding a few more moving parts doesn't really change the risk profile. Adding a few more crappy, weak moving parts definitely could. I've shot 30,000+ shots through a bow. Going back as far as I can remember, I've never had a rest fail. I'm sure there was some issues I can't recall from 20 years ago. But certainly nothing in the last 10 years/10000+.

Fiber optics I guess you could argue are weak. There again, I've never had a sight pin fail on a bow while hunting. I'm not a fan of the EZV for other reasons, but yes it has less failure modes. I'd argue we're overstating the importance of that, though. Do people really have sight failures? I mean I'm not a complete clutz, and I don't just barrel through the woods eyes closed. But I'm pretty damn rough and hunt pretty damn hard, and never had a sight failure.

I have a whisker biscuit in my kit, marked to center shot/nock level for my bow. It stays in the truck should I ever have a failure. Not because it's more robust (it's not), but because I can set it up in 5 minutes and it's cheap. This does remind me I need to buy an extra sight pin for that kit, that I'll never use...
 
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I shoot a 2009 Bear Lights Out. I’ve dropped it 20’ from a tree, tripped and fell on it, leaned it against a tree, and more. The time I dropped it out of my tree I took it home and it was still shooting lasers.

All I do is torque all the key bolts down pretty good when I get it dialed in and let it roll.

Like everyone else has said, it’s a tool. I buy stuff that’s bulletproof and let er rip.

Good luck!
 
One way to get over it is shoot a cheap bow. Or just recognize it’s a tool that’s meant to be used and accept when it gets some chin music. Don’t get me wrong I don’t use my realm as a climbing stick but I don’t treat it with kid gloves either. I hunt in rain and snow, it scrapes up against trees when climbing and gets scratched when I stalk. If it gets wet I dry it and hang it in the sun and make sure to keep the moving parts well lubed and the string waxed. I find the first scratch is the hardest and hurts the most. Once you get that over and done with it’s sorta a relief.
 
Why a whisker biscuit? What’s wrong with your current rest?
 
I'm of the @kyler1945 school of thought when it comes to my bows. They're just tools to get the job done. I lower them from the tree and let the cam hit the ground, I carry them slung through the thick stuff and then pull the weeds/briars from around the wheels when I get up in the tree, I hunt in rain/snow and just drop them in the box to air dry after I'm done. I use a whisker biscuits and ex-v sights with no peeps mostly because they 're functional and are hard to screw up through mis-handling. My current bows are an interchangeable pair of 2014/2015 Elite E2's so I get plenty of life out of them in spite of my mistreatment.

I have always said that my guns/bows are all working weapons and I don't have any closet queens and am not afraid of a scratch or two from usage. That pretty much goes for all my gear including my trucks. My standing joke is that after getting a new (to me anyway) truck the first thing I do is drive it down the narrowest 2 track I can find so I get that concern out of the way right off the bat.
 
I'm of the @kyler1945 school of thought when it comes to my bows. They're just tools to get the job done. I lower them from the tree and let the cam hit the ground, I carry them slung through the thick stuff and then pull the weeds/briars from around the wheels when I get up in the tree, I hunt in rain/snow and just drop them in the box to air dry after I'm done. I use a whisker biscuits and ex-v sights with no peeps mostly because they 're functional and are hard to screw up through mis-handling. My current bows are an interchangeable pair of 2014/2015 Elite E2's so I get plenty of life out of them in spite of my mistreatment.

I have always said that my guns/bows are all working weapons and I don't have any closet queens and am not afraid of a scratch or two from usage. That pretty much goes for all my gear including my trucks. My standing joke is that after getting a new (to me anyway) truck the first thing I do is drive it down the narrowest 2 track I can find so I get that concern out of the way right off the bat.

The way you treat your trucks reminds me of an experience I had fishing bass tournaments. We were all putting in one morning before daylight, I was walking out on the dock and a brand new $70,000 bass boat is pulling into the slip beside me. It was really windy and he was clearly going to miss the slip and hit the corner of the dock, so I reached down to grab his boat to help him. He Yells at me "don't touch my boat". He then slams into the side of the dock, bounces into the slip, shuts off his boat and says to me "sorry to yell at you buddy but if I worry about that first scratch I'll worry about the rest of them".
 
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Reminds me of a story (What doesn't right?). A few years ago I was out trolling solo for salmon in Lake Michigan south of Charlevoix. It was middle of summer and the water was warm which translates to salmon being deep. I was putting along a drop off parallel with the shore about 3/4 of a mile offshore with the downrigger balls just off the bottom. There wasn't a hint of breeze and I was one of 3 boats I could see and no one was with 1/4 mile of me. After a bit I had a 30+ foot sailboat approach me under power (no sails up) heading NE but actually headed toward shore, not even angled toward the nearest port of Charlevoix. His course was taking him right across my bow. I turned in as far as I could but I had three manual crank downrigger balls over 100ft down and I finally I reached a point I couldn't go any shallower. I was already as slow as I could go. I tried waving him off but he maintained course. As we closed to within a few yards he started yelling he was a sailboat and had the right of way. I just sat in the drivers seat, maintained my course and said calmly back "You're under power and, look at my POS fishing boat and your yacht, whose gonna be more bothered by a few scratches in their finish?" Needless to say he gave way at the last minute. I bet we came with a couple of feet of trading paint alone in the middle of Lake Michigan. Wouldn't have bothered me in the least.
 
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