Southern Illinois. That "fraying" is more than likely normal use fray. You need to keep the string waxed well. Keeps it lubricated and reduces fraying dramatically. Find you a place to practice because Archery is more muscle memory than pretty much anything else. Calculating range properly is a mind thing and can be picked up quickly with a little practice at unknown yardages but form is something that has to be "kept up". Muscle memory is most definitely a SHORT TERM memory! I've been into archery since I could walk pretty much and that has been a LOT of years. I still have to practice regularly to keep up to MY standards of shooting. You would think with 60+ years with some form of bow in my hand it would be ingrained in my bones but I do have pretty damn high standards for myself so I keep up the practice. I aim for a 1" square target on a deer and if I don't feel I have been shooting enough that week to solidly hit that target area then I wont take the bow out to hunt. I'm a bit OCD