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ORIGINAL: Scrapdawg

Not trying to start a dispute. I know that people have dry fired a crossbow and had severe damage happen. I don't need to know about all the damage. My question is simple, why does the damage happen? Does the arrow supply that much resisitance that it prevents damage? Is it because the string waves or something? I am just confused as to why a dry fire is so hazardous to the crossbow. Thank you for your help.

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ORIGINAL: Dnk

Like any other bow the arrow absorbs the energy. If the arrow isn't there the limbs take the excess energy but they can't dampen the impulse of excess energy. So the limbs and or string say goodbye. Well constructed bows and strings can deal with some but most are at the edge for perfomance reasons. In other words the ultra high performace limbs and strings are made light to perform at max and they don't have enough mass that absorbs the energy.

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