Trad Gang

Is it just me, or is it incredibly and shockingly tragic when you finally get your hands on a long-awaited treasure, only to see it shatter before your very eyes? And, to make matters worse, you didn't even get to experience it in all it's glory?

AARRGGGHHH!

Feel my pain:
(http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad183/wclooper/Shrew%20Hill%20break/2012-07-23124136.jpg)

Where's the Tums?

What the heck happened.....???   :scared:    :scared:

OOOUUCH!!! Not the Shrew Hill! I'm sure they'll take care of you.
Did it get broke in shipping?

:banghead:    :banghead:

Oh I think I would have a little cry about that one!

I cant look  :scared:

A little gorilla glue, and that will be good as new! Well, maybe not.   :knothead:

No way!

NOOOO!

After I decoded the message to my wife... "looper's shrew hill exploded" meant nothing to her...then she came and looked. She's not a shooter and even she cringed at that one!

:eek:    :scared:    :scared:    :help:    :banghead:  

That looks BAD!

Sorry!

Well, the short version is that the limb collapsed the very first time I tried to make a full draw with it. I had just strung it for the first time and made a few half draws to get a feel for the limbs working. I had given it the once over after unpacking it and didn't find anything amiss. When I went to draw it back, the limb simple folded up right at the fade out. It wasn't a violent event, either. It was more akin to breaking a somewhat still green piece of wood.

It looks like the belly veneer failed right above the fade. It could have been an unseen pinhole, but it's a little difficult to tell.  

At any rate, it's going back for an autopsy, and a new replacement is in the works.

Here are some more pics:
 (http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad183/wclooper/Shrew%20Hill%20break/2012-07-23124152.jpg)
 (http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad183/wclooper/Shrew%20Hill%20break/2012-07-23124213.jpg)
 (http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad183/wclooper/Shrew%20Hill%20break/2012-07-23124223.jpg)
 (http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad183/wclooper/Shrew%20Hill%20break/2012-07-23124203.jpg)

Wow !

Geeezzzz

So sorry!  That must have been a devastating feeling.

I'm sick looking at it.  I can only imagine how u felt!  Only happened once to me with a very inexpensive hickory Selfbow I purchased.  Was a 26" draw, I'm a 27.5.  Didn't think it would matter    :confused:  

It mattered...   :dunno:    :dunno:

Sorry to hear this happened to you. Sounds like you already have a remedy in the works though. Glad you weren't hurt!!!!

Atleast you know they'll take care of you as far as a replacement.To bad,that bow was a looker.Maybe they'll really pretty up the next one for you.  :goldtooth:

that's pretty ugly...I'm sure your luck will be better with the next one.

Dang I can't believe it, she was a serious looker. But I'm very sure you'll have a replacement.

wood is always subject to fail at anytime!

Your new bow doesn't look like it will shoot very well.  

It's your own fault it broke.I was just looking at the pics of it in the other thread.You told Ron to shoot it for awhile.You have to know the weight he can draw,he was probably pulling the poor thing to around 43" or so!!! wore her right out quick!
(judging by the title of your post,I figured you could take a little joking  ;)

Makes ya just hang your head and cry. I wounder if it being shiped in the heat had anything to do with it just a thought so sorry to se that

Had that happen before a week or 2 before denton hill. Horrible feeling. The bowyer built me a new one though and thats been going strong.

QuoteOriginally posted by Goshawkin:
It's your own fault it broke.I was just looking at the pics of it in the other thread.You told Ron to shoot it for awhile.You have to know the weight he can draw,he was probably pulling the poor thing to around 43" or so!!! wore her right out quick!
(judging by the title of your post,I figured you could take a little joking   ;)  

I wish he had. He said he only shot it about 15 times. It broke on the very next draw.   :(

I think I told Ron to give it a kiss of luck for me. He must have got mixed up and given it the kiss of death instead.   :)  

Anyhoo, I'm getting ready to box it back up for a trip to the mortuary. RIP Yew Shrew.   :(

Sorry to see it go as it was a looker but glad to see you were not hurt.

Man,I hate to see that sort of thing.

Oh, that stinks!!!! I had an all wood bamboo backed Ipe bow blow up on me at the Oklahoma Longbow Championship shoot 2 weeks ago. It only had about 150 shots through it. It just really bites when a bow breaks. I hope the replacement is all good.

Bisch

I'm sure the replacement will be everything it should be. I just have to think that the belly lam on this bow had an unseen weak spot right at fade.

QuoteI wonder if it being shipped in the heat had anything to do with it just a thought  

That's one of the possibility's being considered, Cheney did mention that the box was left out in the sun, and he said he didn't even reach full draw when it failed. I shot the bow a dozen times or so and Gregg had it well beyond the 30" mark on his tiller many times.

When you've been building bows as long as Gregg has things like this are rare but not impossible. Hopefully we'll be able to figured out what happened when we get it back....    :dunno:

Hey it's wood and can happen to the best of them...  good news is your odds go Waaaaaaaaaay off the chart for a solid replacement  :)

It wasn't left in the sun here. As soon as it was signed for, it was set inside my air conditioned house. I opened it after an hour or so. When I first ran my hands over it, to check for any splinters or cracks in the finish, I did notice that it was warm to the touch. When I say warm, I mean that it wasn't at room temperature. Maybe a little more. The bow definitely wasn't hot enough at that time to cause me concern. It was only a little before noon, and the temp might have been around 90* or so outside.

The more I think about it, the more I think it probably was left in a hot warehouse or truck over the weekend. That is the most likely scenario. As easy as it broke, the glue must have been heated up enough to fail. I bet it didn't reach 25" draw, before it went.

As bad as it is, at least she let you down easy. Let's just hope her sister luv you long time.

I was so hoping this was a manatee hunting thread....

QuoteI think I told Ron to give it a kiss of luck for me. He must have got mixed up and given it the kiss of death  

Now that's funny

Sorry about the bow, that would depress me a little!

Let's hope that there is only one Hindenburg in a fella's lifetime.

Killdeer

I bet heat is a partial culprit.  It gets real hot in those delivery trucks/warehouses, especially in a record setting summer.  I learned the hard way last summer when I thought I bought some wine, but ended up being shipped bottles of vinegar.
:knothead:

Being the one who gets the honor of replacing the bow, I would rather a hidden defect be the problem.  Or else, I have to worry every time a bow gets shipped.  :scared:  

How many are in the mail every day crisscrossing the country?  

Heat would be a nice scapegoat though!

Gregg

That was a gorgeous bow!! Major bummer; stuff happens  :dunno:

OH man I would have cried for at least a day or two

QuoteOriginally posted by Java Man:
Being the one who gets the honor of replacing the bow, I would rather a hidden defect be the problem.  Or else, I have to worry every time a bow gets shipped.   :scared:    

How many are in the mail every day crisscrossing the country?  

Heat would be a nice scapegoat though!

Gregg

Thats the truth eh Gregg? I get the shakes just thinking about sending a bow this year. I try to get shipped on a Monday so it can keep moving for at least 6 days.
Sorry for the Loss to you 3.
CTT

To all bow builders ship bows in coolers packed with dry ice!!! I dont buy heat as the killer most glue for bow building is cured in hot box around 150-180 degree. So if bow doesnt get to those temps glue wont fail.I would go with defect but thats why you buy bows from the ones who stand behind there products. Im sure shrew will take good care of you.

If that bow was shipped in an airtight PVC tube, I bet the heat was the issue.  It would be in a virtual oven inside the tube while the delivery company / man left in in a hot truck or wharehouse for hours.  Can bows be shipped in tubes with ventilation holes drilled into them to at least let warm air escape??  Just a thought.  ~Steve

Ok it was heat wait till october to ship bows.

It was shipped in a white box. I, too, for all our sakes, hope it was just some unseen flaw in one of the lams. It is little unnerving to think about a bunch of bows sweltering in boxes in the back of a vehicle during this heat wave.

I wonder if turns out to be heat damage, is there any recourse through USPS? I have to think that high temps could damage a whole host of things and surely they take steps to prevent exposure.

QuoteOriginally posted by The Vanilla Gorilla:
I was so hoping this was a manatee hunting thread....

You reckon they are any good to eat?

QuoteOriginally posted by Shortlongbow:
 

QuoteOriginally posted by The Vanilla Gorilla:
I was so hoping this was a manatee hunting thread....

You reckon they are any good to eat? [/b]

They have to be tasty! They're just one giant backstrap with a head and some little flippers!  They say they are protected, but I doubt an arrow would bounce off one.

As for the bow, I don't buy that it was heat related.  Believe it or not, this isn't the first hot summer we've ever had (well, maybe it is for some of yall).  I think there was just some small flaw that was in the material that wasn't visible to the eye.   Sometimes poop happens.

OH I JUST ATE!!!!!!!!!!!. Where's the tums

I hate it when that happens.

I had my first bow failure a few weeks back. My 2 piece T-Stick blew while I was drawing down on a large turtle. It was to be my primary bow when I go to Africa in a few days. Durn the luck. Oh well, I have another bow and I sure got a lot of years of pleasure from the T-Stick. (hopefully, you will get years out of the replacement for your Manitee.)

Could have been alot worse...we both still have ten fingers and eyeballs left!

Were you hurt?  I know it pained you.

Although the summer heat theory is within the rhelm of possibility, I think if this were an issue we all would have figured out a long time ago not to ship bows during the summer months.

That Bites!!! She was a beauty...

At least you did not have time to fall in love with her.

No, I wasn't hurt at all. Like I said earlier, it wasn't a violent explosion, it just simply collapsed as I drew it back. My hand was a few inches from full draw.

You know, at first, I think I just laughed. What else can you do? Believe it or not, I actually had an incident with another new bow a year or so ago. I ordered a different type of bow with cocobolo veneers. The bowyer didn't wipe the limbs down with acetone prior to glue up, and by the time I got the bow, there were already some splotches under the back glass. It held together for a while, but eventually delaminated. The bowyer made the situation right and built me an even better looking bow.

Two years ago, I had a really nice Adcock non-acs delaminate on me, and I really felt sick about that one. It was a used bow and was really a piece of art. It was also probably the best shooting bow I've ever handled. The sickening part about that bow wasn't just the financial loss, it was knowing there weren't any replacement limbs available. I still have the riser of that bow.

I've also had an untold number of my own hickory selfbows break on me. I used to just be glad if a bow lasted through a hunting season, and I honestly saw them as somewhat disposable. No doubt I didn't treat them gently. I'd used them to hack brush out of my way, use them as walking sticks, toss them in the back of my truck, leave them hanging in a hot shed, etc.

I guess I'll just say that, while I don't expect a bow to break, I'm not surprised when one does. Sure it's disappointing, but I actually felt more concern for both Ron and Gregg. I'm self-employed and know that a thing like this can totally erase any profit they had on the bow. I hate to see a man do good work for free, unless he wants to, of course.

Let me also say that the fit and finish on this bow is as fine as I have seen. Very tight glue lines, no sanding marks, and a perfect finish. I couldn't find one blemish, anywhere. The tips looked great and the grip was exactly what I asked for. When it broke, one of my main thoughts was that it really was a shame to see it happen to such a nice piece of craftsmanship.

Those pics are horrific, I think I just threw up in my mouth........  :(