are my limbs cracked

gibblet · 05-09-2004, 01:23 PM

hi fellows,
i shoot a 2004 bowtech patriot. i noticed today my bottom limb has a slice on the bottom face of it. it's perfectly straight and about 6 inches long and i can catch it with ease with my nail. its on the bottom face and not on the inside face. it is not making noise when i shoot it. funny thing is i just sold my old 2002 black knight and the shop called to tell me it had the exact same slice, and he said it didn't make any noise either. he replaced the limbs before selling it. could it be from putting it in the press wrong? any ideas?

hawgdawg · 05-09-2004, 02:58 PM

If you can catch it with your fingernail I would say you probably have a cracked limb and my suggestion is don't shoot the bow anymore til you get limbs replaced. Carry it to the pro shop.

gibblet · 05-09-2004, 04:36 PM

thanks hawg, i hate to take it to the shop i got it from. dude set it up with the accessories by eye, which is fine if you're good at that, but it was way out. bought 2 bows from him, both bowtech, and having learned what i have over the past 3 years about tuning and setting up accessories i realize how completely slack he is, down to reccommending arrows with the wrong spline strength. does anyone know if you can take a bowtech to a different dealer than you bought it from for warranty work?

Danny45 · 05-09-2004, 04:47 PM

Gibblet, first off, welcome to the boards.

I have to second hawgdawg's recommendation. It definately sounds like the backing material has a crack developing if you can catch it with a fingernail. There's no telling what caused it, but it's too dangerous to let it go and keep shooting. The inner limb material may be cracking too. We'd have to see it to make any kind of assumption as to why.

TFOX · 05-09-2004, 05:13 PM

I would say you definately have a crack forming and it needs to be addressed.

Any dealer should be able to take care of it for you,just explain the situation and let them know that you are looking for a new shop to deal with.

To your question,yes a press can cause it if it isn't being done properly. If your last bow and this one show the same crack,I would say that the same thing caused both.

DaveC · 05-09-2004, 05:39 PM

Have you been successfully pressing your Patriot in a standard press?

or have you already upgraded to one designed for paralell limb use?

walks with a gimp · 05-09-2004, 06:19 PM

I'd say that overtighting the limb bolts can cause a crack to develop at the bolt groove. Take it back and have your dealer get a return number and send it back directly to Bowtech for warranty repair,,, if you don't trust your dealer. This might have you without a bow for a longer time but you can be assured of correct repairs and replacements

gibblet · 05-09-2004, 08:19 PM

thanks for the welcome guys. i've been successfully pressing it in a standard press, though it takes some rolling of the rollers to get it positioned properly after it's tightened a little bit. i didn't know they had new presses for parallel limb bows. who sells them? i should admit i dry fired it once about 2 months ago (thought i had nocked an arrow, it was at night and i was going to shoot a possum in the chicken coop, but no crack showed up at that point, and after a week or so i quit looking at the limbs very closely). the crack is in the middle of the limb, and approaching the bolt. guess i'll take it in tuesday. i'm gonna try to take it to a different shop, seems like they would do it, i mean what if you moved.

DaveC · 05-09-2004, 08:42 PM

Here's one- http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...424&hasJS=true

Here's another -Oops (look below)

I'm not saying they're only for VFT bows, but they also work on VFT bows as to where normal presses don't do so well. I've heard of bent risers when people try to use a conventional press on a parralell limbed bow. I tried pressing my patriot VFT with my apple archery "E_model" press and didn't get anywhere.

Take it to the another dealer and it will get taken care of.

gibblet · 05-09-2004, 09:09 PM

thanks for the links. i think they're both pointing to the same press. was that a hint? yeah, i'll take it in tues. wouldn't you know it - just when i got it like i like it and $hit. thanks for all the help. you guys have been been great, and it has been a pleasure perusing the threads.