Haven't used bow in a year?
 

I'm new to hunting, never went before (I've gotten a lot of crap for wanting to go tho since I'm Indian and all haha), but I'm looking to go this season possibly. I bought a Mathews Mission Riot last fall and have used it a few times, but, I let my younger cousin use it and they dry fired it. Thankfully, only the strings have come undone so I went and got it fixed. I used it once or twice after that before I got into some health complications. I'm now wanting to get back into it and was wondering if I should do anything to my bow before I use it? I don't want it to 'snap' on me tho. Do I need to wax the strings first?

Also, how long should a bow like the one I have last me? I bought it brand new and everything.

First off, did you take it to a QUALITY archery shop to get it checked over? Dry firing a compound can have some pretty drastic results. You have to be sure they checked the limb tips as well as the pockets for any sign of damage. You also need to thoroughly check your riser for any sign of stress cracks. Check out your cable anchor points too. If all that checks out and you had the string and cables replaced, you should be fine. Used to, a dry fire would have taken a good many years out of the limbs of a compound but with today's materials not so much. Today they are either good or broke and not so much in between. That Riot should last you many years.

As far as you hunting this year, I wouldn't recommend it yet. Archery hunting requires a LOT of practice to be efficient in delivering a clean quick kill. Practice a lot the rest of this year and next year and you will be ready. Practice from many different positions as well as unknown yardages. That will help teach you how to judge yardage in the field.

Will do! I'm pretty sure it was, I looked up specific ones for Mathews but I'm not 100% sure. I did use it after it was 'fixed' ad was able to hit all the marks so I'm guessing it was a good job. However now I see some fraying and am kind of hesitant to draw it so I want to make sure. I'm planning to go this week to another one which is mainly if not all archery so I'm hoping they'd be able to look over it when I buy some wax.

Gotcha! I practiced quite a bit last year and actually went out, but didn't see anything I felt comfortable taking a shot with. Now since I moved and switched schools, I don't know where I can practice since I would do it on my friends land and all.

I see you're from Illinois, do you mind me asking which area?

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 :s2:

Have you ever heard of Dunn's Sporting Goods? That's where I get the strings re-attached.

Gotcha! I'll def. try to find a place (I'm in Central IL now) to practice before going out or find/make a friend close by.

And I'm planning to go to Wolf Hollow Archery to get some wax tomorrow and to see if they wouldn't mind looking at the strings on my bow (which I'm hoping they'd do for free haha).

OHHHHH you just had them put the string back on. I personally would have had it restrung with a new string. I don't know if the string got "wrapped" in the cam or not or how much hit it took before it came off the cams. But since it DID come of the cams I would personally replace it. But you sound a bit young and might be strapped for cash (which isn't just a youth problem anymore in today's economy) and string for that Mathews is going to be on the salty side I'm sure. So make triple sure that string isn't nicked anywhere (use a magnifying glass) and pay close attention to the string area closest to the cams. If it got twisted up in the cams that is where it would have received a nick.

Yup, sorry for not clarifying it! And yea, I'm a bit strapped for cash right now especially now since college textbooks cost a pretty penny.

Do you know if a shop would charge me if I just asked them to look over it to make sure it isn't nicked? I'll be buying wax from them so it's not like I'll be walking in and out haha.

Checking a string isn't difficult. Just get a magnifying glass and look for separated strands or deep "dents" with heavy furring around them. Most shops wouldn't charge much, if any, for a quick string inspection. But of course you have the "seedy" ones that will say you have a screwed string just to make a sale. I don't know the 2 places you mentioned. I do all my own work on my bows other than jigging my own string. That I farm out to a friend of mine in Pa who does a lot of custom strings for Lancaster Archery. He's been using Dynaflight97 for my last 2 bows using endless loop rather than Flemish and Halo serving. But he is expensive (my last string and cable set was $110).