Cold weather bow care??

[kwaldeier]

i am a new bow hunter...never hunted in the cold before so i had a few questions to ask about it....first of all is there any other precaution to keep your bow in tip top shape from the cold/snow then waxing it??also is there anything else you do to your bow or yourself because of the snow??? like stretch your arm muscles or whatever....i am excited to bow hunt in the snow but am worried i will mess my bow up so i thought i would ask....also i am worried about the bulk of clothes on my arm hitting my string ...excited to get a few inches on the ground and go tho!

[MISwampDog]

Well, the cold may effect your abilty to draw. When you are sitting out in the cold for long periods of time ur muscles kind of shut down. Your body is conserving enery and not circulating as much blood to your outer limbs. i have never had a problem, but i know alot of guys that can't draw their bow back when they have been sitting in the cold for hours. one thing you can do is back the poundage off the bow 5-10 lbs. however if you do that you will have to sight your bow in again.

the cold may cause your string to twist if you don't have a good quality string on ur bow. this happned to me last year. i bought a new bow and every thing was fine during the middle of the day when i was practicing. however, i went out one cold morning (25 degrees difference) and had a deer come in. when i drew, by peep sight was over rotated and i couldn't see through it. I then put on a zebra twist bow string, shot it for a while, and did not have a problem this year.

keep your bow in a cooler place when you are hunting. in extreme cases (going from 65-70 degrees inside to 0 or - whatever outside) your bow could snap and break. the bow will soak up the natural moisture of humidity in the house. when the bow is taken outside in extreme cold weather the moisture will freeze and make the bow brittle. i have only heard of this happening on one occasion. that time the bow was kept in a 80 degree cabin and was taken outside into -15 degrees. like i said, extreme cases.

store your bow in the garage. the slight temp change should not effect it. lastly, the more cloths you wear the more likely you will be to hit your arm with the string when you shoot. i wear thinner layers that keep you warm to avoid this problem. under armor and polar tech stuff works good. if you don't have that, wear an arm guard on the arm that holds the bow. strap it down tight. this should keep your clothes out of the way. good luck.

[AK NIMROD]

long arm guard, practice with heavy clothes on( try shot after sitting for 3-4 hrs in the cold.)
friend one time stalking (crawling) for caribou got snow or ice in grooves of cam as he was coming back to truck thought of taking practice shot at a bush with small game head. when he drew the snow and ice unstrung his bow. 400 miles from closest pro shop. took 4 of us to get the bow back together. i gave each of us portable bow presses that Christmas.

[kwaldeier]

i am trying to use as few warm layers as possible but there is still bulk....and also i do keep my bow in the garage...the first time i drew back on a buck earlier this year it was a little hard but i didnt have enough clothes on