CAUTION- Mathews Reezen
Equipment
This past weekend I had an unfortunate accident with my Mathews Reezen 6.5 that I wanted to share in order to help others avoid the same. The following depiction of the events that occurred Saturday is based on my personal opinion and experience. To be clear, I am not a bow tech or engineer.
On Saturday, I stalked within range of a hammer that was tending a hot, bedded doe. It was one of the biggest dear I’ve ever had within bow range and a deer I’ve been hunting all season. After waiting him out for a while, he finally made his move allowing me a 30 yard, broadside shot chip shot. I pulled back my Mathews Reezen 6.5 and “erped” to stop the buck all in one motion. Next thing I know my bow “explodes”, pieces (believe they were the harmonic dampeners) go flying and the buck ran off. I was in such a state of shock it took me a several seconds to figure out that the string on my bow snapped, resulting in the catastrophic equipment failure.
On my way to the bow shop immediately following the incident, I began to replay the events in my mind. What I realized was that my arrow actually fell off the string a millisecond prior to the “explosion”. It wasn’t until my bow was inspected by several bow techs at the shop that I realized why this may have occurred.
According to the bow techs, my riser and limbs were actually bent, which fact appears to have caused the entire accident. My hypothesis (which was shared by some of the bow techs) is as follows: the bow’s riser had a manufacturing defect that caused the riser to be bent when I purchased the bow in April ’09. As time went on, the bent riser caused the limbs to twist and the cams to cant correspondingly. When I pulled back the bow on the hammer this past Saturday, the string popped off the cam, which was canted due to the twisted limbs/bent riser. When the string popped off, it allowed me to (again, for a millisecond) over-pull the bow, which resulted in my broad head contacting the rest and the arrow popping off the string and falling straight to the ground a millisecond before the string snapped forward, hit the Dead-Zone and snapped.
As I began thinking about this crazy chain of events, I also put together a few more pieces of the puzzle. A few weeks ago, my broadheads (Slick Tricks & Shuttle-T Loks) were hitting 2 feet right despite paper tuning the bow when I purchased it. I’m thinking that the issue with my broadheads was likely due to the continued twisting of the limbs due to the bent riser.
The reason I wanted to share my story is to help others prevent the same thing from happening. I was unbelievably lucky I didn’t sustain any serious injuries. However, I’d personally recommend that if you shoot a Mathews Reezen, you should take it to your bow shop and have them inspect the riser and the limbs to ensure everything is copasetic. While it may have been a problem unique to my bow, I’ve always believed it’s better to be safe than sorry.
My bow shop is contacting Mathews today to inform them of the issue and obtain a new/replacement bow for me. Unfortunately, this really puts a damper in my season and cost me a hammer of a deer. I love Mathews bows and this is the first major problem I’ve ever had. Hopefully, if there is a more wide spread issue, Mathews will step up to the plate and address the matter.
I think a hammer = a big buck.
The millisecond the string pops off, all hell breaks loose. Since you imply you have recollection of other events between when you think the string popped off and when parts started flying, I think you need to go back to the drawing board.
Generally speaking, risers get bent from improper pressing. Have your bow techs ever put that bow in a press for you? That would be my focus.
I would be interested in hearing how they determiend the limbs were bent. They tend to be straight or broken, not a lot in between (at least when not under tension).
Not saying something along the lines didn't happen as the Reezen has a lot of reflex and is not an inherently stable design. More likely you torqued the bow at the moment of truth which caused the string to come out of the groove on the cam.
I'm not throwing stones, but if my broadheads were hitting 2 feet from my field points and everything seemed inline I would have been looking at things a little closer.
Every Reezen (2) I have looked at has a bent riser brand new. It is how they are manufactured or designed maybe. Pull one off the sheft an look close see if the new one does it too. I am gonna bet that either you torqued the bow or had a sick get roled into the cam when you were drawing back.
Should putting torque on a bow cause this?? If so ill stick to Bow Tech. Twice this season I was at full draw and pulled my head to the side to make sure I cleared a few little limbs near my stand,the only result was a dead deer.
This is why I only shoot at small bucks. Seems like you always hear of equipment failures, when that big buck is present. Just once I want to hear a story start out "I was stalking this fat trophy spike horn"... I'm just kidding. Seriously though, I would have to agree with Matt & Ty. I would guess you probably torqued the bow, which is pretty easy to do. Especially under the circumstances.
Question: if a new bow has a "bent" riser, how do you know that is not a component of the bow design? I acknolwedge that it doesn't seem like it should be that way, but it may not be fair to presume it is a problem without understanding that first.
Objects between the string and cam can most certainly cause this sort of thing - good point.
Torque is a function of hand position, not head position. Hand torque shouldn't *shouldn't* the string to come out of the track, but it can. This is true with any compound, the difference is the matter bow design and degree. Higher let-off and more reflex to the riser can increase the possibility (although it remains highly unlikely).
Update: I spoke with the bow shop. Mathews is replacing the bow. Very stand-up action by a good manufacturer. Hopefully it was a fluke accident.
"A few weeks ago, my broadheads (Slick Tricks & Shuttle-T Loks) were hitting 2 feet right despite paper tuning the bow when I purchased it."
Duh!!
I had the same thing happen while practicing this summer, the tech said that the string had been twisted too many times, causing excessive cant on the wheel and cam. He set the bow up for me so could not blame anyone but himself. Mathews did the right thing and replaced the limbs and strings/cables, but I still think the wheel and cam look canted, they blame this on the rollar guard being offset. The bow shoots fine but I am still a bit worried that it is a design issue. Glad I am not the only one that has had problems, I have owned mathews bows for several years but am looking at other brands now.
did the hammer somehow hit the bow or something. i am having trouble following this, but is seems like you are making up scenarios to fit the facts vs. looking at the facts.
looks like to either had a sting failure at full draw, or dry fired the bow, or something with the hammer damaged the bow.
Many years ago same thing happened to me sorta with a PSE. Cept in that case I had inadvertently nicked string with the broadhead when I was super sneakily putting the arrow on the rest. I knew it touched the string but in heat of the moment I drew on a deer. Same results as you describe but broken string caused the bow meltdown in my case. And I watched the mighty spike just walk away, tear in my young eye broken bow in hand and off all weekend to hunt. Scarred me forever.
bending that riser would take tremendous effort, very unlikely unless it was severely mishandled at some point in its short life
good thing that a missed hammer was the only outcome
the only issue with mine(6 years old now) was string not seated in roller guard after pressing, felt/shot weird after third practice shot, looked over bow and found string frayed near guard
good luck with the new one
More often than not, the bent risers are a result of the dryfire and/or bow explosion, not the cause.
I'd bet on the hand torque or stick in the string.
I'm confused by the comments on hand torque. How on earth could hand torque cause a bow to explode??? Do you mean enough pressure applied on either side of the handle at full draw caused the string to jump a groove? Really?
The slimmer you go....the less room for error there is.
So lets get back to this hammer. Are we talking a finishing hammer, a framing hammer, or a sledge hammer? Cause that could really help confuse things... lol
michael
had the string pop off my top roller on my Q2XL, twice in two days.
Finally figured it out on third morning to stand on atv, going thru puddles, and water got in the groove and froze, thereby eliminating the groove.
Only carry bow cased now, instead of in a rack.
I think its obvious that you can look to your broadheads as being the culprits.
If you had been using a RAGE broadhead this would never have occured. Think it over.
Hand torque???? LOL....I would love to see form with so much torque to be able to jump a string from it's cam/idler wheel grooves.
Unless you deathgrip the bow to the point of strangulation, and have it at an angle wayyyy off line of the draw (good luck with doing that too)...you just ARE NOT going to cause a srting to jump the grooves. Now you could pull a string off the grooves if you could draw the bow off to the side of the cams on a huge angle...but good luck with that also.
Something else happened here...I think a stick in the cams....or just a boken string at full draw...during the shot maybe.
I've seen it first hand twice Serb, both times on a new Mathews. Once on a Reezen, once on a Monster. Each time, the guy had a hard time drawing it on the first try, so he really got a good hold and yanked back, pulling the string right out of the idler wheel(or cam). One guy was able to let down with minimal damage, the other guy(Monster)was not so lucky. It can happen.
You know what I'm saying x-man...I'm not saying lighting can't strike twice....I'm saying it just doesn't happen often at all. There's a difference with a newby with a bow for the first time...and an experienced bowhunter using his own bow.
I can if i wanted to ...yank the strings right off the idler wheel or cam...I KNOW HOW TO DO IT....IT JUST ISN'T EASY TO DO.
Right Serb, I'm just saying that maybe the original poster here might not be such a "bow ace" after all. ;) I just didn't want to come right out and say it, ... I guess I just did.
I'm still leaning towards the stick theory though myself. I'm 99% sure the bent riser came AFTER the string derailed and broke.
Good luck with the new one. Some times lessons in life are hard learned, even after the second mishap.
Tourquing the grip of darned near any compound bow at full draw, particularly if there is any debris caught in the eccentrics, can cause the string to pop off the wheel/cam. This does not happen on the practice range nearly as much because we are relaxed and in generally comfortable, practiced shooting positions. When you add all the variables of actual hunting conditions and the necessity of shooting off-position at times, it tends to happen more frequently. The SE4 materials Matthews uses to construct the limbs do not have "memory." It seems to me that a bent riser will not result in limbs that also develop a slow bend over time. However, a riser that either came from the factory bent or was bent in a bow press at some point thereafter (more likely) will significantly increase to potential for the string to "pop off" the cam/wheel when excessively torqued.
My bowtech cautioned me about purchasing the reezen because of the smaller limbs (thinner) twisting at full draw and string jumping. they have also sent several back! They assured me the 2010 bow would be wider and that I should wait or buy a different brand. I waited and yes the Z7 is wider. Never heard of "hammer" maybe Tahurtaquirk LOL
Another guy in my hunting club was drawing back on a doe this morning with his Mathews Reezen 6.5 and had the same thing occur. I've also spoken with several other people in the past week that all share the same story (drawing back, string breaks, pieces go flying). I assume some of the posters here are going to argue that it's merely a coincidence that all the stories of such involve the Reezen 6.5. Maybe sticks are highly attracted to the cams of the Reezen 6.5; much more so than every other bow. Come on guys, that's ridiculous. If you have a Reezen 6.5, talk to your bow shop. They will likely confirm the same or similar issues with the first iterations of the Reezen 6.5 (there have apparently been a few iterations). I think Mathews is a top notch bow company that makes great bows and I have shot (and continue to shoot) a Mathews for years. The whole intent of this post is to warn owners of a Reezen 6.5 of a POTENTIAL issue with the bow so that maybe they don't have to go through the same thing. Even if the incidents are all the result of operator error (i.e. hand torque), it's still worth raising the issue so owners are at least aware.
I have also heard of this scenario happening to a few bows where I'm from. But it was only the Monster. This is the first case I've heard about on the Reezen. The ones that I've heard about on the Monsters the string didn't break but came off the cam or whatever Mathews calls it. One case was from a shop owners own bow. It happened to him three times before he contacted Mathews about it. The last two times it happened to him was when he had the bow at full draw and holding the bow away from him trying to look the bow over to see any kind of irregularities in the riser or the cams, thus putting some torque on the string. He's braver than me because it would have only happened to me once. Anyway, I don't think that I would buy a bow that came apart on me with a little hand torque. I'm not the best shooter in the world and I know that I've torqued every bow I've ever owned. Never had one come apart on me. And yes I've owned several Mathews too. I have nothing against them but it just seems like this problem has really gotten out of hand lately.
I wondered if the parallel limbs were the all they were touted to be. Never saw this happen with the OLD bows. It is scary! MR
Never had this happen with my bowtech either. maybe you should stop shooting those over priced s**tty Matthews bows.
Do you fella's realize how often a riser gets bent?
Outside of doing something really weird like driving a car over it, or using it as a prybar to open fire doors with....it's pretty hard to bend a riser othewise. I have to date only seen 5 bent riser go throw our shop , and thats with over 900 bows sold and traded in on yearly!!! Not to mention the 10,000 archers that come through the doors for work.
Risers can be checked for bends mind you by the archer, or the proshop, you don't have to have the maker check it. Bows do need to be disassembled though.
you should of just bought a HOYT !
Sounds like one more reason not to buy a reezen.
I have heard of strings comming off of the new PSE bows very easily especially when drawing them with fingers.
I have a Reezen 6.5. No prob so far.
Ditto Steeler! Had my 6.5 since July and love it. I shoot it every day and it just keeps getting better!
THAT'S WHY YOU BUY A HOYT!
Just thought I would stir the pot.
This is too hard to believe. If the riser is bent, it was damaged by someone and you should know who it was. The bow was paper tuned when you bought it. Braodheads started hitting 2 feet off!!!!! You saw the arrow drop from the string....causing a dry fire. Sorry, but I think in your excitement of the hunt something went wrong due to operator error. Either way, Mathews CS can't be beat and your dealer should take care of everything.
Just shot that Reezon last night- at the Hoyt night!One of the only LH bows at the shop..
Is that beyond parallel design geometry what is making it so critical? I didn't check for cam lean....
"Another guy in my hunting club was drawing back on a doe this morning with his Mathews Reezen 6.5 and had the same thing occur. I've also spoken with several other people in the past week that all share the same story (drawing back, string breaks, pieces go flying)."
WTF??????
