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
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.
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.....
Treestand.....6pointer......limbtip hit treestand.......bow flew 10feet into air......buck ran.......bow limb busted.....went home.
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.
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. :smileystooges:
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:
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.
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
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
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.
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...
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
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!
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: :scared: Whats a man to do, I know body armor :D
Brent
Then after Vermonsters blow up kevlar gloves!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
The first (and only) takedown longbow I have ever owned came apart at the riser where the screws entered. Full draw, of course. I was very lucky that I cant my bow hard. The bottom limb and string whacked me across the lower back just south of my beltline and the top limb went shooting past my right ear.
Back in the mid 80's i had a teardrop come off of a PSE. It was the last day of the season and i was climbing out of an old oak tree, i hung on to the tree and dropped off onto a stump about 6' down past that was a small creek. The rotten stump couldn't take it and i went down hard into the creek with my bow! I walked back to the house and thought i'd shoot my bow and check the sights, when i pulled back 29" TO FULL DRAW i came to my anchor point and started to release when WHAMMMM!!! the bow flew out of my hand and the string and cables wrapped around my arm hit me in the face! That stunned me for a min, i looked at the bow and saw where the top limb came apart and i never found the teardrop either.
I had a string break on my fisrt widow too. I came to full draw out in the back yard and POWWW!!! the string wrapped around my left arm. No damage to the bow, only my nerves! :knothead:
one time I had a new string that broke after just ten shots, it popped at full draw, I had a red line on my face for a week
I got a good one for you but it didn't happen to me . I traded a Great Plains to a gentleman last year for a striker longbow and he was telling me about how good is grouping was with it. He said it was so good that when his wife ain't home he would shoot it down a long hallway.Well one day he got so good that he hit a light switch, nicked a wire and busted the box. He told me he had to run to the hardware store and get everything to fix it and get home and do all the repairs. Here is the :scared: scarey part. He got it all done just as his wife came home and I don't think she even knows what took place that day. I can't remember this fellas name but I do know he was from Texas and his wife wears the pants in his family LOL!!! :biglaugh: Keefers <")))><
Man, scary stuff there fellas.. When I started shooting years ago we would find lost arrows while walking the outdoor range.. We'd wait till we were headed back to the parking lot and in this huge grass field see who could shoot the lost arrows the farthest.. One day I found an old fiberglass arrow.. When I released the arrow folded up, about 2 inches in front of the fletch. Seems the arrow was broke but not in two.. Raked my whole arm, but no blood just a huge bruise.. Coulda been a real disaster..
Mine was when I shot a compound, I was at full draw in an indoor range when my brand new magnesium risered Hoyt snapped right in the middle of the grip. Got whacked in the head, had a lump for awhile but no permanent damage....
David
Mine was two weeks ago when a bow delamed at full draw and the lam went through my left hand until it hit bone. Don't try that at home kids!
Mine #2 all time..... Years ago my buddy Biggie wanted him and I to make a wood bow together for him to shoot. I had only made a couple easy MuirHeaths (?) and limb bows out of hickory but I had a locust stave we could use. Biggie drove up that day from Macon to Atlanta and we piled into Schuster's basement where I had my tools.....power tools!#$.....In no time we had ripped a D-bow out with my table saw and belt sandeded it to what appeared a decent tiller...My infamous words now are etched into Biggie's brain...."Ok, Biggie watch these limbs work as I give it it first full draw and see if they are bending the same......" KUUUUBAAAMMMM...Well you woood bow experts guessed it.The top limb completely sheared off above the handle at 27 1/2" of draw.....After realizing I was going to live and Schuster wasn't going to quit laughing..I noticed No Biggie....I have never seen 300#'s disappear that quick in my life......
I got you all beat. I stepped out of the cabin and saw Ron LaClair and Fred Asbell shooting thier bows in thier long underwear. And I got a picture around here somewhere :scared:
Like others, it has to be a bow exploding. It has only happened a couple of times, and once it was not a surprise, but man, what a shock.
scariest thing for me was one night at our range a woman next to me drew someone else's arrow on her bow---it was too short and fell off the back of the arrowrest, hung up there with the bow at full draw----she turned to me, held the bow out toward me with it pointing directly at me and said "what do i do now ?"
hit the floor so hard i bruised both knees, had to apologize later for what i said
" ...Ron LaClair and Fred Asbell shooting thier bows in thier long underwear."
I could have lived a long and happy life without that mental image threatening my REM cycles. :knothead:
I was 14 or so and shooting a lemonwood bow my grandfather had given me (he was about 5'6", I was about 5'10"), using his arrows, some of which were spliced. I pulled one back far enough that the point came off the rest and was resting against the inside surface of it when I released. The arrow broke and put a bruise on my bicep you wouldn't believe. No blood, not permanent damage, and thankfully no eye damage. I have never, in the 40 years since, shot an arrow less than my draw length.
carbon arrow blew up and a 5 inch piece went straight into my forearm. five hours later i had the main arrow out, but to this day there is still little pieces of arrow in my arm.
QuoteOriginally posted by joebuck:
Mine #2 all time..... Years ago my buddy Biggie wanted him and I to make a wood bow together for him to shoot. I had only made a couple easy MuirHeaths (?) and limb bows out of hickory but I had a locust stave we could use. Biggie drove up that day from Macon to Atlanta and we piled into Schuster's basement where I had my tools.....power tools!#$.....In no time we had ripped a D-bow out with my table saw and belt sandeded it to what appeared a decent tiller...My infamous words now are etched into Biggie's brain...."Ok, Biggie watch these limbs work as I give it it first full draw and see if they are bending the same......" KUUUUBAAAMMMM...Well you woood bow experts guessed it.The top limb completely sheared off above the handle at 27 1/2" of draw.....After realizing I was going to live and Schuster wasn't going to quit laughing..I noticed No Biggie....I have never seen 300#'s disappear that quick in my life......
I don't care who ya are, now that there's funny....
Shooting carp with a compound when I was a kid. The string got hung up and the arrow came back at me nock first and stuck in my leg.
Fortunately never had a bow explode on me. Weekend before last, had a nock blowup immediately upon release. The sound about scared me to death. Took a few minutes to figure out what happened, then a few more minutes inspecting the bow once I determined what happened. Cautiously started shooting again only to discover blood dripping down my shirt. When the nock blew, it cut a 1/2" gouge out below my lip. At least my anchor was consistent, but I am happy I shoot split finger and don't anchor close to my eye! It could have been a real mess.
I was shooting at a hog with a homemade longbow a few years ago. I was on the ground and had snuck up behind a big oak. I leaned around to shoot and in the heat of the stalk and getting ready for the shot I did not see the abnormal limb sticking out the side of the oak. Top limb hits the oak limb at the shot and the arrow falls at my feet , the bow comes back and whacks me a little on the forehead and knocks my glasses off.Pigs trot off about fifty yards and start rooting again.RC
I was on the practice range at a 3-D shoot and one of those fancy split limbed compounds came apart right next to me, parts went everywere, thankfully no one was hurt, I have dryfired once from a bad nock, I won't be doing that again soon,(Knock on Wood) :scared: Mike
A few years back gold tip arrows came out and they had a allen screw to tighten to hold the nock on well one abme loos when i released and flew back and split my nose stillo have the scar. my frends said i deserved it for buying weels,
Years back I had two Bear mag handled t/d bows blow up.. Actually it was the limbs that broke, both times.. The one that got my attention was when I was out stump shooting. As it was during hunting season I had a bow quiver on and full of sharp Zwickeys. When the limb broke, at full draw, five arrow with broadheads went in five different directions including straight up.. As all the pieces and arrows came down I was sure thankful none landed on me !! And yeah, both time got slapped by the broken limb..
Here is a litany Of flukes blunders and acts of God
Winter of 1988
Whellie bow next to me delaminated at a tournant nice white shirt full of blood is mine or the guy next to me was him fiberglass in his vain
Gal on my squad pulls back and the nock blows up. at this point I am getting a little shy of bows and what can happen to people and there equipment. then my bows all within a short time
`993 in a pine tree Greenwood SC on a warm night deer are starting to make there way out into an opening look up and there is a pine snake approx 5 feet long and it wants down the tree no deer
that night
2004 Set up a deer stand with my son after a night in the woods, full moon so we can see like it daylight so we searched out a tree for another stand found what we were looking for put up the strap on steps four or five, set the stand. Went tromping through the woods with Brandon one of those nights that you will always cherish on the way back we stopped back to the location of the tree only to find it not there but on the ground expedited by a beaver
2005 sliver from a broken riser under my fingernail
I'll add the incident that is a dead tie with the carbon arrow blowing up. This also happened back in the early 80's. It was my first & last experience with climbing tree stands.
I was using a climber that I had previously put 10' up a tree, that I got to via tree steps. I had sat down on it with my bow in my lap and was just starting to buckle my safety belt when the bolts holding it together broke almost simulataneously, bang! bang!.
In the split second before I hit the ground in a tangle of stand pieces, I had the smarts to throw my bow (and it's quiver of arrows) as far from me as I could.
Think in terms of falling unprepared 10' intermixed with a garbage can full of scrap steel. I had more bruises, dents, cuts, gouges, and scrapes than an NFL team on Monday morning.
Never used a climber since then...
Had a bow blow up at full draw in the house that sounded like a gun going off. But it didn't scare me since it was over before I had time to be scared.
Fell backwards 15 feet up out of a tree, but was to busy trying to live to be scared. I was a mite startled though.
I guess the only thing that really scared me was this summer while working on a children's archery line a little eight year old pulled his arrow back behind the riser and the arrow blew up as he released it. I couldn't stop checking his forearm for damage. I just knew he had pieces of arrow in his arm. But luckily he didn't even get scratched.
About 25 years ago I had a table display at Anderson Archery's Clinic here in Michigan. One of the bows on my table was a 130# Hill style longbow built by a friend of mine. It was strung with a sign that said, "Pull me if you can". A lot of guys gave it a try with no one getting it back more that than about 12". I had been using the bow as a workout bow to make my 80 to 90# bows feel easy so when a couple of big strapping lads wanted to see it pulled, I proceded to show them how it was done.
They were standing in front of my table so I faced away from them along the line of tables and pulled the bow to full draw and held for a second when... CRACK! :eek: the bow blew into a hundred pieces with part of it landing three tables down and part if it hitting me in the head. When my eyeballs stopped dancing and my vision cleared, I looked for the guys and they were long gone. :archer: