I just joined the dumb**s club
Equipment
Well, after over 35 years of archery I dry-fired my bow. Don't know where my head was but I drew back and fired without an arrow on the string. Loud pop sound with a broken strand on the lower part of my string. Bow was tuned and shooting great. New string on the way but now gotta shoot it in a bit and then retune. Kinda pricey mistake.
Make sure your cam(s) didn't warp.
Don't ask me how I know this.
Don't worry you are in good company!! Still sucks though. Good luck getting tuned back up.
One mistake in 35 years isn't bad.
I know of someone, not me of course, who left his bow (again not me) on his truck and as he (again not me) was pulling away looked back as this guys bow (not me) was bouncing of the road.
Felt bad for the poor guy.
During the nasty weather up here, I practice drawing to keep my muscles and form toned. I'm always paranoid that I'm going to dry fire from a moment of target panic, but so far I haven't.
35 years?!!! Most guys get it out of the way the first time they pick one up :^)
20 years in and it did twice last year. DOH!!!
LOL - I'm a life member.
Make sure you take some cotton balls and run them over the limbs - if you see any microfibers that catch - that may be a problem.
I'm pretty much the Prez of the DumbAZZZZ club, but I only did it once at about 18 yrs old and that was enough. It exploded in my hands and cut a whole in my left hand 1.5" long and 1/4" wide... all the way to the bone. It was great!!!
I did it once as well, sighting in a brand new pse evo, string broke and both cams bent, hard to notice the damage on the cams
I watched my stepdad do it when I was young. That was enough for me. He ruined his bow.
Shooting with my buddy and blabbing away, took a shot at the target and Bang!. Forgot to put an arrow on the string. Totally ruined the strings and cables. Bow was fine thank goodness. Priceless was the look on my buddy's face!!
Scar - hence the handle?
I was target shooting with a buddy one time, and I'm at full draw all of a sudden he taps me on the shoulder and says: "so you gonna load that thing?"
Had 2 Hoyt Pro Vantage risers break in my hand at the shot. Shooting 2013 arrows at 80#, might as well been a dry fire. Dealer at the time, but Hoyt was not happy with me.
As I reached full draw to shoot the first 3-D target shortly after switching to a compound, a smartass in our group said, "Don't you think you should put an arrow on the string?"
Proudly, I didn't break my concentration on the spot. Fortunately a pro shop was only a few miles away, so after I picked up all the pieces from the motorcycle wreck, he put the bow back together, we fired a couple test arrows, and I made it back in time to shoot the rest of the round.....
Never have I dry fired, but I had to let down once on an old smart-assed doe, the corner of my unzipped jacket got between the cam and the string. Fffttttt ! Ruined my cam and I later sold that Outback to a guy who took it to a pro-shop to get it set up for him and the tech ran a cotton ball over the limbs. I bought half of the new limbs for him, but I wondered if it hadn't been that way since the accident. I never did kill that hussy either......
Well I have to admit, I've made both of those cool moves. Back in the 80's I put my bow on my pickup after a hunt one morning and headed down the road. Notice my bow wasn't in the truck so I turned around to go back. It was in the middle of the road! Two years ago I bought a brand new Elite. Second day I had it I went outside stood in front of the target and drew the bow and touched off the release! I was lucky tho. It shot my peep sight out of the string, but didn't hurt anything else. I guess that makes me a member of the double dumbazz club! )
Well I guess this puts me in the dumb Azz club as well.......
Buddy and I were shooting at an indoor range - I was sweaty and at full draw the handle slipped out of my grip. The bow slapped me a good one in the face - hurt like hell too.
My buddy laughed until he had tears streaming down his face. My tears were NOT from laughing.
No dry-fire, but I did drop my bow as I was hauling it up to my tree stand. The 10 year old frayed tow rope I was too cheap to replace finally broke. The bow was almost all the way up, about 15 feet, when it let go. Broke the bottom limb, it fell straight down on it. I was lucky as the pro-shop covered it under warranty even though I told them the truth. I replace the rope every couple of years now. Felt like a real DA though!
I watched a stickbow buddy (who was dissing compounds as being too easy..) try to shoot a friend's compound with fingers. He torqued the string and shot the arrow right through the sight aperture, blowing out all the pins. Now THAT was funny!
Apauls, Sadly sir that scar is only one of many and to answer your question... NO:/
My humiliation occurred in a store while bow shopping early in my bow journey. Proprietor was right there when I did it. Over the years, I have witnessed 2 dry fires during 3-D tournaments in my group alone. Heard of others along the way. I almost had a second dry fire during a tournament myself were it not for my buddy saying, "Hey, Randy, reckon you want an arrow for your shot?"
I'm so steeped in dumb***, my insurance carriers require I wear OSHA approved PPE at all times. :)
Been a life long, contributing member to the club. Never dry fired one like that but, I've done some dumb things that led to a new bow.
Here's what I know. it's hard on a bow whether accidental or by the string breaking. Give it an extreme look over.
God Bless men
Never dry fired, but did something way stupider(is that a word? ;-)
Years ago I was checking the draw length on some carbon arrows that were given to me. Like a dumb@$$, I did this in my den where I kept my hunting stuff. Came to full draw while "aiming" at the wall and the next thing I know the thing goes off. Launches the arrow thru the drywall with only a little of the fletching and nock sticking out. THANK GOD nobody was using the toilet in the next room! When I went in there to retrieve the arrow it was about head high and just to the right of where someone's head would have been if they were sitting on the throne.
That's the last time I ever loaded an arrow indoors! ;-)
sage buffalo, I didn't know you knew me... ;)
Long time member here. At age 13 I was fishing a farm pond. I placed my tacklebox full of my most prized fishing lures up on the hood of the car because there was a dog sniffing around. My 16 year old buddy drove off and BLAMO! the tacklebox exploded when it fell off the car on the main road. We picked lures out of the ditches for an hour.
Got the dry fire out of my system at about age 13 or 14 also. Fortunately, it was one of the original Darton compounds and it was tough enough to take it.
Oh! I thought you were gonna say you bought a Mathews! LOL! Pull the pins check for warp on axles and cams. If it's a Hoyt you have nothing to worry about. Sorry to hear this close to the dance... (PM if you need help)
I have had three bows fly apart on me so far. I never had a dry fire. My most spectacular event was a compound at full draw breaking a string. It was a slow process in milliseconds. First I felt the draw length change then there was a big POW! and a feeling of impact on my left foot. The top limb swung in an arc above my head guided by the cable. The arrow was at my feet in three pieces. After my shooting partner saw I wasn't bleeding started to laugh. He is a recurve shooter. I excused myself and gathered up my bow parts. I was up and shooting again on my old string in about thirty minutes. The failed string had fewer than 100 shots. I replaced the old one "Just to be sure. " I love this topic.
12yards convinced me to never buy a Hoyt.......they wear them out before they ever get to the shop ! :-)
There are some good chuckles on here. Can't claim a dry fire, I absolutely will not draw my bow without an arrow nocked...which explains why a cinder block in the basement of my old house has a hole in it. I am fairly good with my hunting stuff but hell on my fishing gear. I am good for breaking at least a pole a year, and have replaced a few props.
It is called the Pavlov's dog effect. One the bow reaches full draw the only thing the fingers or release knows what to do, is let go. :') DANNY
I worked a trade show next to the XI bow (remember them?) booth and they had a machine that dry fired a bow inside a plexiglass case all day long. Annoying for us but it did draw folks in. Same bow lasted all 3 days.
Elk yinzer made me think of my dumbass moment. I pulled my boat on the trailer and forgot to push the tilt button to lift the motor up. I pulled out and heard that scratch. The fin on the bottom on my outboard is now about an inch shorter that it was before that day. I still see my scratch in the concrete at that boat launch when we go there.
I came home with my new mq1 years ago. I had worked all night and was dead tired. Went out in the back yard when I got home. Had my quiver on my side with an arrow in my hand. my wife comes out and starts talking to me. Somewhere along the line I put the arrow back and my first shot ever was a dry fire. I was sick but no damage was done at all. I accidentally dropped my old cougar mag from a treestand once, it perfectly hit the wheel and bounced 10 feet up and I caught it. again, no damage.
Twice I've driven quite a ways with a bow on the roof, but I was lucky to have heard it rattling before it fell off at 40-60 mph. After that I ALWAYS put the bow on the hood while fishing for my keys. Even someone with an MS in dumbassery won't drive off with a bow two feet in front of his eyeballs.
Check you axles...they tend to bend on dry firing.
This has been good. Sage Buffalo reminded me of one I had not thought of in a long time. Anyway to make a short story long. In my early twentys four of us scraped our money together and went Land Between the Lakes on a bowhunt. We barley had enough money between us for gas at the time. We didn't sweat the small details at that age, we would worry about having food and getting back home when the time came. Got to our camping spot around 1230. We didn't even consider setting up camp, we were there to hunt. Threw our meager camp gear on the ground and and circus of uncasing bows and putting mil surplus camo on ensued.
Jumped in the truck, backed out. My best friend ran over his bow and destroyed it. Left it laying on the ground behind the pickup. He stayed and set up camp for us, if you could call it a camp. Next morning he ran in to Paduca to sporting good store, used the phone to call his mom. No cell phones then. She used her credit card, bought him brand new Mathews and fixins. Hustled back and just set by a little pond under a cedar. Killed absolute monster that came in to drink. We got skunked. True Story.
I've driven off twice after laying them on the racks of an ATV in the dark. First time no biggie. Second time it bent some aluminum arrows. Drove off and left one on the tailgate once. That one got really banged up but, still worked. I dropped one out of a treestand once. It blew up the next day when I was checking the sights. Snagged a piece of barbwire fencing with my string on one, while riding an atv for a couple of miles opening morning of bow season. I was as disgusted as I had ever been that day. I fell about 18 feet out of a tree on my bow I had just lowered before climbing down. The bow turned out fine but, I needed new sights, a quiver, arrows, and a stabilizer. I've had three strings break at full draw trying to shot a release off the string versus a loop. I had one malfunction when my bottom cam hit my seat section of my climber upon release. I had no wrist sling so, the bow launched, came down and hit square on the cam compressing the limbs hard enough to unstring it. Missed the deer at 15 yards, by about 10 yards. I climbed down and found all my parts, went to the shop, had them put it back together and it did great for three more years. And finally, the dumbest thing I ever did with a bow was drop a screw in bow hanger out of the tree after dark. AFTER lowering my bow. I heard it hit and knew before I climbed down I had dead centered one of my limbs. Split it like a piece of Red Oak. So, rest assured, I am not only a member, I am probably the leader of this club involving self induced bow mishaps.
Dang WV, you just made my self esteem go up a few notches !
Dang WV, if that Hoyt machine ever breaks down, they might hire you to take its place.
I dry fired my bow the first night I owned it. I said "Watch this honey", BANG!!! My wife wasn't impressed...
nvgoat: You're lucky you got in, the waiting list is a LOOONG one. I joined in the early 80's when I left my shotgun on top of the pickup camper top when we were loading the duckboat on the trailer.....AT A PUBLIC HUNTING AREA! I realized it about 10 minutes later but by the time we went back it was gone.
Making that call to the county sheriff was a tough one.........
WV MOUNTAINEER FOR THE WIN!!!!
Although me almost cutting my finger completely off while trying to dig a broadhead out of a tree stump 3 hours from the nearest help makes me at least a senior member! Hence the name- Scar Finga. The blade snapped shut and I was bleeding really bad and it went 3/4 of the way through my finger and bone. My hunting buddy made me hold my arm out the window of his new truck on the drive to the hospital. He gave me the name, and it stuck... Pun Intended. SOOOOO we got to the hospital, the doc cleaned it up, you could see bone and tendon lots of blood... He went to numb it- BIG NEEDLE! touched my finger and I hit the floor! LOL! Pretty funny, I have set my own bones twice, and stitched up my own arm after a shower door broke and laid me open. But if a needle touches me, OUT I GO:/
Can someone call me a WAAAAAMBULANCE????
Scar
Well, you guys have made me feel a little better. The bow is a 2017 Prime Century with new, as of June, ox-yoke string and cables. On cursory exam the bow looks fine. Waiting for new string and cables to arrive before taking it apart for complete exam. Now shooting my 2010 Hoyt Maxxis until all is decided. Couple good tags this year- one in 3 weeks.
Don't feel too bad. I have had several high-dollar traditional bows blow up on me while properly stringing them. Had a couple of strung bows blow up as well.
I was in a pro job and the gent put a new Matthews in my hand to shoot, I shot it put dropped the bow immediately on release on his concrete floor, scrape the paint and he was po-ed but my ulna nerve in the elbow felt like it was hit with a electric shock, had to have that eventually rewrap, but never had that problem with my recurve. Told the owner I'll pay for the repair but he said he will just send it back as shipment damage and that I have better get my elbow fix or go shot a x-bow which I said no thanks that it isn't bowhunting.
I strung a brand new recurve, and drew it. apparently I never placed the string on the tip properly, as I neared full draw, the string popped off and the bow bounced from my hand onto the concrete driveway. the limb was twisted, but I was able to fix it. the riser and side of the limbs scratched and dinged.
this was a brand new bow, with a nice zebrawood riser. the riser and limbs were pretty banged up. the bow shot OK afterwards and never a problem afterwards.
now, I always check the string, twice, on my bows before drawing and shooting.
I have been a member of this club for a long time, including some serious injuries from power tools. :)
drycreek, I am the undisputed winner of anything that requires dumb actions to be nominated. It's hard being me sometimes.
I just saw on tv the President of Hoyt archery says all their bows are dry fired 1,500 times before they go to market. Is that a good thing?
On a serious note, I too am a member of this infamous club. I bought a brand new closeout Martin Bengal back in 2008 for a song. I had it set up and was monkeying around with it in the house. Started to draw it back with my fingers (no arrow), got it most the way back and pow!! The string slipped from my fingers. Heard something ricochet around the room, which ended up being my peep sight (which I never did find). On cursory examination, everything looked ok, but I took it to a shop anyways. He immediately put it in the press and took the mods out of it, which fell apart into pieces. Bengal mods were plastic and would crack often when dry fired. Apparently this shop owner was cut real bad by these types of mods after a dry fire. So the lesson here is, even if you don't see any damage, have the pro shop check it over thoroughly (or you if you are capable). You don't want to get hurt by something you don't see.
Great stories of mishap!!
Unfortunately I am in the club as well, it's been a while but I had a Pearson Spoiler that I shot for 20 years and it took some technique to pull back and when you got it back you had to hold on since there wasn't much let off, Sooooo I waked into the archery shop and picked up the most expensive new bow they had, I had zero experience with new high tech bows and all the employees were busy with other people, I proceeded to pull the bow back like a neanderthal and the dam thing was so easy to pull back that I rammed it all they way back and jerked the string out of my hand and POW! my watch went flying blood started gushing out of my wrist, I had a 2 inch long welt on my forearm that looked liked it was fixing to blow up and to my dismay everyone in the store was now looking at me. they took the bow from me and I grabbed my watch off of the floor, covered my wound and said I gotta go and I will be back to pay for the bow. The next day I reluctantly went into the store and to my surprise they didn't want me to pay for the bow, told me the bow supplier will take care of it, I don't think I'll ever get over that one.
Could be worse. You could have a great AZ elk tag in your pocket and have this happen!
This is a buddy of mine from this weekend.
I had one break and stick in my forearm years ago.
Make sure your arrow doesn't have any cracks in it!
Hope he can heal up enough to hunt...
Here is what can happen to a recurve. My son had a nock slip off and dry fired a 55# recurve.
Must have put a small crack in the riser. Broke the next day after about 100 more shots.
Turned a 3-piece into a 5-piece take down.
What head was he using? It obviously goes through bone!!!
Don't have any idea where that picture came from!!! Nothing from my pictures!
Try again.
That "mysterious picture" appearance has happened to me too. VERY weird.
Many years ago a friend and I went to the local Fin and Feather sporting goods store to check out the new bows that came out. This is about when the compound bows starting coming out with the 80 percent let offs. My buddy picks up one of the bows and pulls it back and says to me "look how easy this is to hold back" as he is now holding the bow out in front of him with both hands out away from his body. The string slips out of his hands and dry fires. The sales guy comes over with a not so happy look on his face and grabs the bow and goes in the back with it. I am now laughing my butt off. After some time the sales guy comes out and says the bow is fine with no damage. To this day I blame my friend for the reason the sporting goods stores put cable locks on the bows now.
No dry fires, but I once left an expensive longbow and my pack in my parking spot on public land. Got a little excited after shooting a doe and left my stuff behind, didn't notice until I went back in the morning. Lying there under a couple inches of fresh, wet snow behind where my Jeep was parked was a lump that looked like a longbow with a quiver attached...DUH! Pack was there too, luckily no moisture damage to anything inside even though it was a cheapie. .
Tree line, hope your friend is ok. I was practicing in the yard last year and had this arrow knocked. I was about to draw and noticed something was a little off. I pulled the arrow and tried to bend it just a bit. This happened. Had I not noticed it, I easily could have been in the same situation as your friend.
I am a 3 time member of the club. November 9, 2011 I set my bow on the ground on the passenger side of the truck while I got out of my hunting clothes. Drove off without it. Left a note there the next day and another hunter called to return it 2 days later. In the meantime I thought it was Karma so I bought a new bow and the next week I repeated the same thing with it, but it was still there the next day. Now I never set my bow down until it is in the truck. 4 years ago I got into my tree stand and was getting my stuff arranged. A doe appeared at 15 yards so I drew and released. She stood there laughing at me. Split one limb.
Really enjoying this thread. BOHUNTER09, the best thing about breaking or losing a bow is when you NEED a new bow. Sort of like breaking or losing fishing rods. Nothing better than going to big sporting good store and NEEDING something.
Unless you ain't got the money for it. Then it's a bummer. :^)
Never dry fired one yet, but had a Golden Eagle bow blow up on me at full draw back in the eighties. Crap went everywhere and something cut my forearm, but pretty minor. Could have been way worse.
I did get my membership card last year, unfortunately. Got back from from my Alaska moose hunt and all my bags showed up as well. My wife came to pick me up in Minneapolis. I had a valet help me cart my bags all out to the truck. We loaded everything up (I thought!) and headed out. About twenty minutes later, I get a call from the airport stating they had one of my bags that had been left unattended. I looked in the back and my Pole Mountain bow case (that also included my .460 Casul) wasn't in the back! We turned around and hauled a$$ back to the airport! I thought the valet had loaded it in the back, and obviously he thought I had. I'm sure glad that bag had my phone number on it!
You're lucky that unattended bag didn't get inspected by TSA!
Or someone else didn't walk off with it!
I've done so many stupid things, but never dry fired a bow. Knock on wood. I did drop my new switchback about 20 feet out of a tree. It was fine. And I've driven off with it on the roof of my truck several times.
The dumbest thing I ever did was back my 4 wheeler off my truck without the ramps. It was really cold and I decided to crank the bike and let it warm up while I got all my stuff together and put the ramps down. Well it wouldn't crank. After messing with the battery wires for about 10 minutes, it cranked. So I was sitting on top of it, letting it idle and decided I might as well back it off while I was up there. It was quite a ride for about a second. If it hadn't been for the big basket on the back, I could've been hurt bad. When it landed it just stayed straight up. It took me a while to calm down.
Had a 4-wheeler get away from me once on the side of a mountain.
A buddy had shot a bull elk a ways above treeline. The cows were just milling around and I had a cow tag. In my stupidity, I decided to shoot a cow. So we had 2 elk down. I went ahead and quartered them out and set the meat out to cool. Looking at the terrain, I thought we might be able to get my 4 wheeler up the mountain to the elk to make it much simpler pack out. We didn't have big packs, so loaded up the straps and tenderloins and hiked down to get the 4 wheeler.
Decided to drive up a slope to the elk. It was very, very steep. Had my buddy sitting on the front to hold it down.
He got spooked and bailed off and the front end lifted up and it flipped over on me. Luckily, I was in some thick willows and the rig didn't flatten me.
I raised up to watch the 4-wheeler gain speed and start flipping and rolling about 2,000' down the mountain until it finally came to a stop against a tree. It was still running!
I looked up at my buddy (he's from Kansas) and he had the weirdest look on his face. I called out to him and he looked down at me and said "I thought you went down the mountain with the 4-wheeler and were dead!"
We were not far from the elk, and had backpacks, so we loaded up a quarter each and went down to the 4-wheeler. It had died, but actually started. The racks and handlebars were broken and bent up, but we were able to walk it out to the truck.
Went back to town and borrowed horses from a friend and made an easy walk up and pack out. Should have done that in the first place...
I got lots of 'em :)
I am a card carrying member of the Dumb **S club and could probably be voted President...
Wonder some days how I am still alive...
Got in a fight with a wounded bull elk once. Definitely not recommended. Not even a little bit.
Crawled in a cave about 200' up a cliff with a wounded mountain lion to finish it off with my longbow once. Also, seriously not recommended...
Have tussled with a number of wounded deer as well. Although not as tough to handle as an elk, they definitely can be a handful...
Only dry fired a bow once and to this day have no idea what happened. Knocked and arrow came to full draw, anchored and at release heard a horrible slapping/popping noise and arrow ended up barely stuck in the ground about three feet from my left foot. Had an identical bow set up for 3D and using the same arrow drew and let down countless times over several days to try to see if I could get something to go wrong and repeat what went wrong but never did. Went to a D-loop as I suspected I had some how pinched the knock at the exact wrong moment and was the most plausible cause for what happened. I start EVERY practice session with bending all my arrows on hand and bend each one at least after every 2 or 3 shots. My friend has multiple carbons he has shot into brick walls or trees and still uses them as he is to cheap not to. I told him that the cost of having one shatter at release and go threw his hand would cost many thousands of times more than all the arrows he has or ever will buy, but leopards don't change their spots. I have great puncture resistant gloves I get for free from work I wear while shooting now that I confirmed will stop a shattered arrow from entering my hand.
My dumb ------- trick occurred a long time ago, in the early 60s. My father and I were shooting our recurves after dinner as usual. Things were simpler then and our back stop target was simply 2 bales of straw. We each shot about 5 shots apiece and when we went to retrieve our arrows my little sister jumped out from behind the bales to surprise us. She certaintly did that. She was supposed to be helping Mom with the dishes. If any arrow would have hit between the bales she would have been hit. I see her now as a retired school teacher with an extended family and I still shudder at what could have happened. Ron
OK Treeline.......you win with your "mystery" photo of your son's recurve. Looked like it gutted and skinned him for the grill........where you took out a few moments to have a beer. I guess you liked that bow, eh? Still giggling over that one. 8^)
Personally, I am pretty careful with my gear and only had one bow come apart.....a custom Bear recurve that delaminated at full draw a few days before season opener. It was totally a manufacturing error that they covered with much chagrin, but I never shot that bow again. When the new limbs showed up I sold it and was glad it was gone.
My rare foray into the DA club came by way of a quiver full of arrows left on top of my Jeep Cherokee after an evening hunt. Driving down the road in the dark, I heard something on the roof and thought a tree branch had fallen on me. It wasn't until I had driven about 5 miles down the road that I thought "OH NO.....my quiver!!!". I turned right around and ended up searching for about 15 minutes by headlight in the ditch to find them. Arrows were a bit ruffled and quiver had road rash, but it proved that those Kwikee hard plastic jobs were indeed tough as nails.
Never dry fired my bow but...Limbs blowing up at full draw, D, loop , cables and strings breaking, peep sights flying, bent cams and axils and an arrow through a hand and im sure I left out some nasty things that have happened. Gee guys, thanks a lot! LOL. These things never even came to mind when I practice until last night when I drew my bow for the first shot. Then all this stuff went buzzing through my head at full draw and I had to talk myself...a LOT! I almost put the bow down and went back to doing whatever it was I had been so happy go lucky doing before I was looking forward to shooting my bow. Fortunately I was able to recover and shot pretty well. ;-) Whew! Hope that's past me now. LOL
