Dry fire advice, please...

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Well, yesterday morning I took two non-hunting, non-archer friends out for a walk in search of pigs. I brought along my little K-Mag for them to shoot at termite mounds. Anyway, I strung my 80# @ 28" (~83# for me) Silvertip recurve, and went to go through my usual routine of having a few warm-up shots into the dirt. I drew back, and upon release was horrified to hear an explosion and see my arrow (two pieces thereof) land about three or four metres away. My mind went a bit numb, and it took a few moments to realise what had happened, and then to realise that I'm still in one piece and hadn't been stabbed. It seems my nock failed. I examined my bow for signs of damage, and found none. I pulled it a quarter draw and half draw a few times. Then I shot it with another (obviously) arrow at half draw a couple of times. There were still no signs of trouble. I then shot it half-a-dozen times at full draw, with no trouble. We then went hunting, and I shot a few more arrows, unfortunately not at pigs; instead, it turned-out to be a morning of mercy killings, finding first one ribby cow stuck in the mud with no fight left in her, then another, even worse, and crawling with meat ants, and then a blind, sick, crashing walleroo, stuck in the bottom of a creek (it is that time of year where our grass is brown and useless, and the sick and old perish; the sun is our most ruthless killer, and the dingoes and ants eat these victims alive). Also, and this one has nothing to do with my dry fire, we found and caught a baby pig, as big as two-and-a-half of my fists put together, who had had the hide ripped off of his right flank from neck to middle, leaving just hardened, blackened muscle and stomach underneath, oozing blood through the cracks. I wonder if it was the work of a dingo, or of a boar? Anyway, I had to put the brave little fellow down, too. So, it was quite an interesting, horrific morning. My bow seems fine. Has anybody else dry-fired their bow with a positive outcome (that is, the bow is still going strong)? Do nocks sometimes just give way? Is the explanation that anything that is made or manufactured can have hidden, invisible weaknesses?

Here are photos of the arrow (30", 110# Douglas fir, wearing a 160 grain blunt):

 

 

[excelpoint]

Ben, I had the same thing happen to me on my Firefly. I went through the same process as you. I have since put hundreds of arrows through the bow with no problems. Sometimes we get lucky. Good work on the mercy killings to mate.

[Stiks-n-Strings]

you should be fine, not a good experience though is it?
I sanded some of my nock throats down a week or so ago and had a couple I took just a little to far, they slipped off my string when I shot.. you guessed it, Dry fire city not once but twice, Scared the living crap out of me both times but luckily it didn't hurt my bow.
Needless to say I replaced a few nocks that same day.

[ozy clint]

looks like you oreinted the nocks 90 degrees to the growth rings too. glad you and the bow are fine. my jaw dropped when dry fire and silver tip were used in the same sentence.  

[Grey Taylor]

I'm with Clint. It looks like your string is parallel to the grain on the arrow. The proper orientation is to have the string perpindicular to the grain. This will not only be safer but will also use the shaft's rated spine correctly (if the shaft was spined on the test machine correctly).

Guy

[Bernd]

Hello everybody,

I'm a longtime reader of all tradgang forums, but never posted anything yet. So here we go:
Hi Ben, same thing happened to me just two weeks ago. I was on a 3-D course and just finished my round when I decided to fire one last judo tipped arrow out of my new recurve. I suddenly heard exactly that explosion you heard. Immideatedly I knew what happened and I was absolutely horrified, nearly petrified. I didn't dare to look at my bow, knowing everything could have happened to it. Very slowly I had a closer look at the riser, couldn't see any cracks, then examined the limbs-- nothing---pheww. Went on with the same process, you did... man, I was one lucky man.
What happened? The nock of the arrow was a bit too loose, so it just slipped of the string while drawing it back to full draw.

On my woodies, I always wrap some inches of fastflight string just behind the nock, so the arrow can't split and there's less tension on the nock ground. Are you sure, the arrow was okay when you shot it? Sometimes, there's a little crack you can't see because of the feathers. At the moment of the release, the crack opens and splits the nock. I saw that a few years ago. That guy wasn't so lucky, part of the arrow went through his hand.

[freefeet]

You can see all the grain lines along the split, seems to me that they are perpendicular to the string.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

These arrows were made by Joe, and he sure knows his stuff. The nock was aligned perfectly properly.

[TheFatboy]

I've had one nock break on me also, and scared the crap out of me, to say the least. Was with a carbon arrow, and it ripped my bowhand to shreds.

Sad to hear about your encounters with dying animals. Nature is not merciful. I bet they were thankful that you showed up and put them out of their misery.

[Grey Taylor]

If the nocks are on there properly then I'm just glad you and the bow survived the experience with no lasting effects. That kind of experience will definately startle the Cheerios out of you.

Guy

[Charlie Lamb]

Ben... In all these years I've about had it all happen. Yes, even a nock breaking. All of my heavy bows that have been dry fired are still going strong today... stronger than I am anyway.
   

Make sure your nock to string fit is not too tight.
Could be just one of those things.

Hunters understand and loath animal suffering better than any animal rights schmuck ever could. Glad you were there for those unfortunates.
 

[frank bullitt]

Hey Ben, done that with a Bob Lee recuve, it's scary! I'm also so frugal, that I would cut the nock off, glue the shaft back together, new nock, and shootin it again! Good shootin Steve.

[2treks]

Did that four times myself. twice with a 68# bamboo back and belly laminated bow. once with a 70# selfbow. and once with a 50# longbow. All of the bows are still going to this day and I have learned to look at my arrows better. A well made can take it, and Dave makes a great bow for sure. 3 of the 4 events ended me up with a bloodblister/welt on my left forearm that made me think my arm was gonna pop.. It stings pretty bad.

[JimB]

I had it happen more than once recently due to a bad batch of nocks on some Gold Tips.It is a frightening experience and one I hope doesn't ever happen again but the bow is fine.

[Mr.Magoo]

This thread's a jinx.  Had an arrow nock slip-off and dry fired my Brush Bow this AM.  Actually blew a hushpuppy clear off the string.  I promptly went inside and added some serving to the string to tighten-up the nocks.

[reddogge]

I'm not so lucky.  A month or so ago the exact same thing happened to me with a cedar arrow not of my own make.  Grain looked good though.  The '72 Bear Kodiak Hunter suffered a small delamination right at the fade and I got a verticle stress crack in the belly glass in the same area.

[tradtusker]

first thing i would do is give Dave a shout and go by his advice, hope she is fine mate

[Foxtail]

Heck with the dry fire issue-
what an experience with mercy kinnings! One might stumble across one of these experiences occasionally, but this sounds like a hunt out of some twisted nightmare!

[hunt it]

Ben,
If your bow was an old vintage relic I'd be concerned otherwise no. Most of modern bows can handle alot more than this. Seems a nock splitting or breaking is not all that rare and has happened to most of us. I've had at least 4 new Beeman MFX and Easton Axis nocks let go on me this year alone. If there is one common factor I see, it is that those of us that shoot heavy poundage see more of this than others. As long as it dosen't bite you in the process your good.

[ozy clint]

what i said was that it looks like the string is 90 degrees to the growth rings which it is.