Dry firing a bow

[jeffnsa]

I know your not supposed to dry fire a bow but why exactly? I don't see an arrow as having enough weight to offer any resistance that would make a difference or is it like the rumor of dry firing a gun. It has been proven that dry firing a gun has no effect on the firing pin unless you do it tens of thousands of times. I was just curious and was wanting to know.

[Sippy]

your bow go bang. bang not good.

[Coach W]

Limbs will and have been definately cracked/broken/blown up in Yo face!

No Myth.

[Reaper]

this sums it up nicely:

There are a few outcomes that could happen when a bow is dry-fired, the first is that your bowstring, and cables could snap resulting in your limbs breaking and potential debris flying all over the place. This is basically the worst case scenario. The second scenario is that your string breaks however everything else stays intact, and the third possibility is that it will appear that nothing has happened to the bow.

article here

[BIG D]

I dry fire mine every once and a while just to make sure all the screws and such are tight

[super_dave]

Because there is no back pressure on the string, cables and limbs. It's like running open headers on a car. Some engines can take it and some blow up. Some bows can take it. Some can't. The back pressure created by the arrow holds things in place when fired


Shank 'em!

[sodapop15]

Limbs could crack or shatter, cams will most likely wrinkle, string might come off or break, and could bend the riser of the bow. Let me out it like this. We bought my Dad a Mathews Reezen for faters day last year. He was in his stand pig hunting. Well some pigs came in, he shot, the nock broke, but the bow still shot the arrow. In other words the bow got dry fired, but it still had some of the force of te arrow on it. His cam was bent to hell, his string broke, the bearing on his idler whell was toast, and his riser was bent. DO NOT DRY FIRE YOUR BOW UNLESS YOU WANT A NEW ONE!!!!

[Randy]

I saw someone dry fire a Bowtech guardian back in 07.

It blew the cams and limbs off the whole bow. Lucky no one got hurt.

[arrowdynamic]

What is Kinetic Energy?
The kinetic energy of an arrow is the energy it has based on its weight and speed and is measured in units of foot-pounds (ft-lbs). For example, an arrow weighing 350 grains and traveling at a speed of 275 fps would have 58.79 ft-lbs of energy. The best way to visualize this is if you shot your arrow vertically into an item weighing one pound it would have the energy to lift that item 58.79 feet.

When you draw the bow, it has potential energy stored in the string and limbs. When you release, the potential energy becomes kinetic energy.
Without an arrow, all that kinetic energy gets absorbed through the limbs, cams, string, etc.

[southpaw]

I just recently had a nock break on release which for all intent and puposes makes like a dry fire. I was lucky that all it did was break my cable. After the hellashish loud noise, I was holding my bow with the bottom limb hanging by the string.

[bowhuntntxn]

it is not a rumor.

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229324

post #4 explains it the best I can.

[dpatterson1976]

You ever swing a golf club at a golf ball and missed? It just doesn't feel right...

[bubba1]

Some very informative info on this thread. Thanks y'all.

[Adgerc15]

nubbin buck....

[jeffnsa]

Great explanations and thanks a lot.