Thursday, September 3, 2009

An Archery Crisis

Tonight was going to be the last night I shot my bow before the bow season opens Saturday here in Virginia. I was going to give myself a break tomorrow and get a good nights sleep knowing I was shooting great. But of course, something always has to happen that changes even the best plans. In my case, it is a severed bowstring.

I was shooting off of my barn roof, and my Dad was watching me shoot. I invited him to try and shoot my bow. Now, I am a lot bigger and stronger than my Dad,(5'8 145 vs. 5'10 215) so he wisely declined. I egged him on though saying, "Oh come on, you have shot it before." Then he said okay, he would try. My Dad wanted to try and pull the bow so that he could make sure he would be able to pull it back before he used a wrist release, which he is not used to. He grasped the bowstring with all of his fingers, locked them in place and pulled...

I was impressed, because it looked like he was having no problems pulling my bow. Then, right as he hit the let off point on the draw, his grip slipped and the bow fired. He and I both know full well how bad dry firing a bow is, so the moment seemed like it was in slow motion as the bow fired. There was a loud SNAP, and then a dangling string! Luckily only the main bowstring broke and not the other two strings that are on my bow. All the limbs check out and nothing appears out of place but my snapped string.

Needless to say my Dad is way more upset than I am. He thinks he has ruined my opening day. That is definitely not the case. Anyways, I hope I can get the bow fixed tomorrow. The bow shop I use will hopefully have the string in stock, and then all they should have to do is install my peep sight and string loop in the new string. I was surprised to find the Fuse string on my bow is only 35 bucks. Worst case scenario is that I don't hunt Saturday, and that may be a good thing because the forecast is calling for 90+ degree temperatures.

All in all I find this pretty funny. The only reason I feel bad is because my old man is upset. What I told him is that I have broken plenty of his stuff before, so it is no big deal. Stuff happens. Ultimately, we both learned how much power is stored in a modern bow and got to see what happens when something goes wrong. Lesson learned: dry firing a bow is bad! I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that I get everything squared away tomorrow, and if not, it is no big deal.

4 comments:

  1. I saw your comment on my blog. Thanks for visiting.

    Sorry to hear about your bow. It sounds like you have a great attitude about the whole incident. Good luck getting it fixed tomorrow.

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  2. At least it was only a string that broke. You should be ready to hunt in no time.

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