I was shooting my great plains recurve on sunday. Ive been shooting pretty good for me lately. One of my arrow nocks got hit in the target, not split but it wasnt snapping on the string like the rest. I kept shooting it anyway. There I was at full draw,anchored solid, i let the string slip from my fingeres and at the same time the loose nock slipped from the string and fell to the ground, and I dry fired the bow. It flew out of my hands flying about 5 ft. forward. When it hit the ground it was unstrung and the arrows in my bowquiver all flew out. Really scared the crap outa me!! I restrung it and shot a dozen or so more arrows and all seems well. I was really rattled tho and was shooting pretty lousy after that so I quit for the day. Shot a bunch today too and all seems fine. I was shooting better too, as good as before the dryfire. It was a real disgusting experience. I hope theres no hidden damage thats going to end this bows life early. Anyone think its anything to worry about?

Not really.  Just don't do it again.

From what little I've seen, if a dry fire is going to mess up a bow it does it right then - sort of like carbon arrows - they're either good or they're broken - no middle ground. Just as a precaution though I'd take a magnifying glass to the tips and string groove to check for hairline cracks.  You really don't want that experience again.

That's happened to me a couple times with my Kwyk Styks...just fine...but very scary        :eek:

Ugly sound isn't it?

did the same thing with my Horne's mountain bow a few days ago.  Nock split on release and pow.( not a pretty sound).  No damage, got lucky!

I know the feeling and yep, britches needed changin'.

Had the same thing happen with my Firefly. Had a good look over it, did a few half and 3/4 draws then full draws before shooting again. No damage done but as said above, scares the crap out of ya.

It's has happened to me also, same cause as yours. I always look for signs of damage on my nocks now. My Wes Wallace Mentor was fine as well, other than a few marks from the patio.