Dry Fired Bows

[buckeyebowhunter]

I about had myself a heart attack today. While shooting my recurve with my dad i watched him come to full draw and see the nock somehow slip off the string just as hes letting go practically dry firing my bow. After a moment of silence i said hand me the bow, after checking it all over i didnt notice anything, so i tried a few shots and everything seemed ok. needless to say i'm still worried about it. I know that dry fires are about the worst thing for any bow, and that many bows will simply just blow up due to dry fires. I was wondering what you guys think about this situation? How many of you guys have had this? How often do bows survive and when they do survive do dry fires have any effects on them?

[WESTBROOK]

Yep, that scares the stuffin' outa ya for sure. I've done it a few times, all the same scenario as yours. 1 bow has taken 3-4 of them, still no side effects and its been shot alot since then.

Definately ruins your concentration for a while!

Eric

[Overspined]

Had it happen to me last night for the first time and it sucks! I always just hope my deep core longbows can take the beating they are supposed to if something like that were to happen.

[brill16hockey]

I had a nock slip off when I was shooting someone elses Widow longbow!  I freaked out and he was just laughing.  He said not to worry about it, you couldnt hurt that bow.  I now own a black widow longbow as well, but I hope I never have to see how tough they are again!

[Arrowhead80]

Please post a picture in case it is for sale in the classifieds in a few weeks.Just kidding.I had a cracked knock give way when i shot with an old longbow i had and it scared the crap out of me but i had no problems out of it.I think it is a little different with a partial dryfire compared to a fullblown no arrow at all dryfire.I seen a guy dryfire a recurve that had no arrow at all 5 minutes after he bought it from a buddy of mine and it broke the entire tip off the bottom limb.I said what in the hell were you thinking and he said i didn't know it would hurt it.It was his first bow and didn't know any better but he learned an expensive lesson.I wouldn't stress too much about it if it hasn't shown any splinters yet.Later.

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

Sorta like Westbrook said, I think its definitely harder on my nerves than I think it is on the bow.  

I wouldn't intentionally test a bows worth by dryfiring it, but I dont think I'd wanna own a bow if it couldn't handle an accidental misfire. I got a 15 year old Great Plains recurve thats been accidentally dryfired several times. So far she's in tip top shape.  Just frazzles my nerves for a few shots afterwards, though!

[George Tsoukalas]

A dry fire means you draw and release with no arrow on the string. I believe having an arrow on the string takes some of the energy making that situation not as bad. Jawge

[Blackhawk]

Over the years I have witnessed many broken nocks, broken strings, and other "accidents" where a dry fire occurs...and not one resulted in damage to the bow.  

My opinion is that any quality bow (Widow, Wes Wallace, Morrison, others) have some dry fires in them.  Unfortunately, I hate to experience any.

[K. Mogensen]

Any bow worth its salt can take a dry fire. I have a Martin X-150 that's handled a broken string and 2 other dry fires due to nocks slipping off. Still works fine, no cracks or anything.

I think I heard somewhere that a lot of places when they test out a new bow design, they test it by dry firing to see if it can handle that kind of stress. Not sure if that's true or not...

[James on laptop]

If a bow won't take being dry fired it is because it had a problem to begin with that just had not shown up yet.A good bow will handle it just fine. jmho

[poison arrow]

My bows get dry fired every now and then usually it is someone who doesn't have a clue about archery. Just last week I had visitors. An old friend and her new boyfriend fresh from fighting in the streets of Iraq. They usually all do the same thing. Pick up one of my bows and draw it way back and let R rip. I turned around just in time to see my bow shutter. I had to give the whole expination to a Sgt. Major why you do not dry fire a bow. I look them over very carefully always and keep my fingers crossed.

[buckeyebowhunter]

Im glad most of your guy's did not suffer from the dry fires, I wonder if multiple dry fires or partial dry fires weaken the limbs or stress the riser more.

[Arrowhead80]

It can't be any worse than guys trying to get a few more feet per second by shooting too light of an arrow.I ain't dissing anyone who does it but it can't be good on em.

[Holm-Made]

As stated, a well built bow should be able to handle a dry fire or a few dry fires for that matter. It wouldn't be a reliable piece of equipment if it couldn't.  Chad

[Gray Buffalo]

Chad is right. Earl Hoyt had my brother and I dry fire some of his SKY proto type longbows for him. The bow I had was dry fired 165 times with no sine of damage

[jrchambers]

every bow ive owned i have dry fired at one point or another, i have a bob lee that has broken two strings and three nocks, no problems.  just did it with my adcock no problems.

[BWallace10327]

I have a White Wolf beowolf t/d that has had two strings break and one nock fall off the string.  The bow is unharmed as far as i know.  The last string pop gave the top limb a noticable twist, but I fixed that and everything seems fine.

[Jim Curlee]

I had a Moanrch go 13 dry fires, then broke across the riser,
There is a limit to what a bow will take.
Always look at your nocks, most of the times that I have dry fired a bow its from a broken ear on the nock.
Jim

[McDave]

I worry when I occasionally pull an arrow out of the target and the point and insert comes off and stays in the target.  Usually, I don't notice and fire that arrow again without any point or insert.  I've done that several times, without any apparent damage to the bow, but it's probably almost as bad as dry-firing it.

[reddogge]

Ironically I had a nock break on a nice '65 Bear Kodiak and a couple of months later it delaminated.  Related problem?  Who knows but it happened.

Also had a 60s Hoyt Pro Hunter loose it's lower limb last week but never had a dry fire or any problem with it.

Maybe I have bad luck with old bows.