Scariest Thing Ever Happened Shootin a Bow

[joebuck]

What has been your scariest thing to ever happen to you while shooting a bow?

Mine is...a friend of mine was in the bow building business for a part time living and ask me to come over and test shoot his new T/D recurve prototype..... Bow was gorgeous, inovative, well just a complete package...he said alright shoot  these 2020's...well I snatched the arrow back 30" and held my pause then..........WHAM.......both limbs flew off the riser with bolts attached.....top limb scratched my head and bottom limb poped my knee cap....My buddy looked at it and said..." I knew that cheap collar wouldn't hold that limb bolt!!!"

That scenerio started a 2 year stint I had with target panic...everytime I would pull back...I ..remembered .....WHAM

[mike g]

Same for me except the target panic....
I have had a couple of bows blow while pulling them, One blew completley apart like a bomb....
    It will make ya jumpy for awhile.

[hockeyref]

Nothing like being the "test dummy"......

Me, I had the bottom limb of a 70# recurve delam and full draw (32") limb tip stayed with the belly glass and jumped up to slap "the boys"... now Y'all know ho bad a flick or an open hand slap hurts, well let me tell ya.......

The other one was a teardrop on a compound cable went bye bye right after release... arrow went 15 yards and the bow just recoiled funny. I wontered what happened until I noticed that the cables were all slack... very lucky that it didn't happen at full draw, would've been worse on the boys that just slapping them.....

[STOBBER]

Treestand.....6pointer......limbtip hit treestand.......bow flew 10feet into air......buck ran.......bow limb busted.....went home.

[Mike Orton]

Years ago I was shooting training wheels while bow fishing.  Had a cable snap at full draw.  String w/ brass nock wrapped around my bow hand/wrist and cut up my hand pretty good. Still wear the scar today.

Limbs flew off into the shallow water.  Fortunately I was able to recover all the pieces.  Shook me up pretty good.

[BamBooBender]

I've had an osage bow blow at full draw, a couple strings break after releasing, a tear drop pull out of a compound cable, and I had an ol curve on which  the limb was twisted so bad the string would pop off at full draw.      

 
imo The bow blowin up has had the most residual pucker effect. To this day I'm still a little cautious when  I pick up a selfbow that I haven't shot in a while.    :eek:

[SCATTERSHOT]

When I was about 6, I was shooting in a friend's backyard, and hit him near the eye. Lightweight bow, no real damage done, but I still have nightmares about that, and I'm 61 years old now.

[d. ward]

Well it was not the first,but a good one.1969 Bear Tigercat as mint as the day she left Grayling 65#er.Snagged it at a flee market for 10 bucks.Took it right home and made up a flemish string.Made one mistake,and that was stringing the bow in the frontroom,while my wife a son were watching a move.Stung the bow checked and double checked the edges of the limbs for any sign of problems and there was not one thing visable.Pulled her back and I believe the word is wham.Top limb looked like it was sawed off clean right at the fade out.After wacking me atop the bald head,the upper limb managed to free itself from the string loop somehow.It went on an uncontroled flight looking somewhat like a boom-a-rang across the room first slipping Linda right in the cheak,continued on it's flight and hit Troy atop his head.Good thing for me the lower limb and riser section managed to hit me in the ribs and knocked the wind out of me like a Mike Tyson punch,down I went.Now they could not get mad fast enough.But lucky for me I could not talk for a few seconds and they thought I was really hurt bad.I faked it for about half a day to keep the Mrs.off me.I called that one 3 with one blow.Have not strung many in the house since,well not when she's here.bd

[Over&Under]

2001 - shooting a wheelie bow.  Killed a nice little buck and was back at the house shooting a little before elk season.  I had a peep sight with the rubber tubing to turn it straight when at full draw.  The rubber tubbing was attatched to the cables with a little piece of hard plastic the plastic broke and came back when at full draw.  I shoot with both eyes open.  It hit my left eyeball at full speed!  Everything went black in that eye within seconds.  2 surgeries and alot of down time later, I can see only about 50%.  Good thing I am right eye dominant. Needless to say shooting was a little tough for a while, just wish I would have switched a long time ago.  

Jake

[wapiti792]

Wearing those bino holders that fit them snug to your body...pulled back my bow to gig a little doe and released. All i know is there was a crack as the string caught the binos and slammed the carbon arrow into the risor, and then pieces of it into my wrist.

I  hit a superficial branch of my radial artery and had blood squirting above my head. I held pressure and climbed down the tree. I passed out for a few seconds and got it together enough to call my friend (an ER doc) who I was hunting with. A quick trip to the ER to remove a few shards of carbon, a dose of Rocephin in in my hip, and I was dancing again. (It was the rut in Illinois you know). I still shoot carbons but will NEVER wear anything around my neck while shooting a bow.

[NDTerminator]

Not using a Trad bow at the time, but back in the early 80's I had a first gen carbon arrow blow up on release.

The bow itself literally exploded and self destructed in my hand. My bow arm was shredded & peppered with carbon slivers.

It was a memorable trip to the ER...

[insttech1]

I semi-dry-fired a bow from a too-loose nock...arrow went about 10 feet, and the bow jumped sideways in my hands, with the string hitting me near full-force on my left arm.

No arm guard...and it wouldn't have mattered anyway, since it hit me in the elbow.

I had a bruise that wrapped 75% around my arm and was 11" long.  Had to wear long-sleave shirts for 6 weeks.  

Don't know how there wasn't any permanent damage done...the wife damn near passed out the first time she saw the bruise.  

It actually made a rainbow on my arm as it passed through slllloooooowwwww stages of healing...

My arm took the shock; bow was fine....luckily!  It just came unstrung.

Take Care,
Marc

[tradtusker]

im with wapiti, i will never shoot a bow with anything big like bino's around my neck, and i keep an eye on what clothing i where to, once i was shooting with a jumper with a hood that had beads on the stings that you use to pull the hood tight, on release the string flicked the bead up into my eye, thwack....not a fun experiance.

another time i was bowfishing with a friends homemade bowfishing real and i didnt put the string on properly when i shot the string caught and with a scary bang i was wearing the fiberglass arrow on my forhead, gave me a good touch up!

[hormoan]

Knock on wood, no blow ups bow or arrows. But as I do not ever where a arm guard shooting cept with long sleeves. I'm thinking I really should, may just get lucky. And save me from, from a arrow piercing. Then I think maybe it will just deflect it through the hand    :eek:            Whats a man to do, I know body armor    :D    

                      Brent

Then after Vermonsters blow up kevlar gloves!

[MI_Bowhunter]

I've been pretty lucky.    I had a sring break on release once. Scared me but no injuries.

The worst was when I was a kid, I had a feather fletch embed itself in my hand.  It slit me open for about an half an inch before embedding itself near the knuckle.  That was close to 30 years ago and I still get paranoid about loose fletching.

[JOKER]

I have a good one! It didn't happen to me but a friend of mine. It was back when the "string trackers" first came out for deer. He had one on his wheele bow and shot a doe with it. The arrow went through the deer and stuck in the ground. Of course the deer took of as fast as she could go and the line was screaming out as fast as it could go. He said it was at this point that he started wondering what would happen if the line was tied off at the end or if it snagged. He quickley decided to hold the bow out with one hand and grabed a hold of the tree with the other. Lukey for him the line stoped coming out and he never found out.

[RamiusEng]

Had a bow break in two at the top of the grip below the arrow shelf.  Well the top part of the hit me square on the forehead.  The entire club stopped shooting.  I was on the floor, bottom of the bow in my hand, arrow nocked on the floor, and the top half of the bow on the arrow....blood all over my face.

Yeah that was wierd.

[Bill Turner]

I wasn't shooting but I was stringing a Wing Thunderbird with a recurve stringer no less. As the limbs bent and I proceded to move the string into position the limbs snapped. Sounded like a gun going off. Scared the belittle out of me and the young man I was showing the bow to. I've been extremely cautious when stinging my bows ever since.

[Roadkill]

I was in an indoor range in SD, CA in the 70's and a Jennings compound next to me blew up.  Had a piece of the wooden riser and cable graze me.

[Golden Hawk]

Had a bow blow up on release once. Not an experience I care to ever repeat! Sounded like somebody fired a 12ga right next to me!