Public Service Announcement, re: a way to avoid potential DRYFIRE
This is what happened to me that could've resulted in a dryfire:
I have a 26" Vectrix that I got rid of a brass nock on and replaced with an eliminator button. I shot it over the weekend without problem but today I experienced something that could've proved fatal for my bow. I was doing a little strength training exercise with my bow by nocking an arrow and holding it at full drawthen trying to remain steady for 30 seconds at a time.The veryfirsttime I did this,the arrow just fell off the string after about 15 seconds while I was holding full draw!
What happened was that because the eliminator buttonisdirectly touchingthe arrow,there isvery little room between the arrow's nock and my release.As I drew and the eliminator button squished even smaller, this allowed contact between the arrow's nock and my releasewhich pushed thearrow off the string just a little bit.Then with thestringbeing atsuch an acute angledue to theshort ATA, having the pressure of the release pushing upward on the eliminator button pretty much just squeezed the arrow the rest of the way out after15 seconds of holding full draw. I repeated the excercise and each time it happened again. I could look at the arrow and see it slowly coming undone!
When I was shooting over the weekend I didn't hold full draw but 5-6 seconds each time I shot and this didn't happen. Had I had to hold it longer, right now I'd be making a "I dry fired my bow and don't know how I did it" post. Worse yet, this could've been 7 months later and happen as I was taking aim at a deer. Then I would've dryfired and missed a deer and not know what happened. So, just as a courtesy this is my precautionary tale.
p.s. string loop here I come