muzzyman88

I was at my shop shooting today for a while when another guy come into the range and joined me. He pulled his bow out and began to shoot. I immediately noticed his bow was very loud and just did not sound good. I happened to walk by him on the way to the soda machine and noticed the string on the bow was looking really shabby. I commented on the way back about it to him and he told me that he wasn't worried, and hadn't replaced the string since he bought the bow, but it was ok to shoot. I spoke to him about his setup and get this... Mathews Legacy at 70lbs with a 30" draw shooting Gold Tip 3555's with a 90 grain head. Thats way too light to the best of my knowledge.

Well, here comes the scary part. The bow come apart. The bottom limb exploded and sent peices everywhere. It knocked this guy to his knees and I could see blood on the floor in front of him. The shop owner and I ran over to him and he was holding his forarm. I dont know how or what, but it cut him open pretty bad, not to mention the gash on the side of his face. The bow is junk obviously. We wrapped him up and called his wife who came and got him and hauled him to the hospital.

My shop owner wasn't too happy with this guy. He said that he originally set this bow up for him with 7595's. He wanted to go lighter but he advised him not to because he would be too light. Now, he is worried that the guy is going to come back on him for something he did. But he didn't do anything wrong while setting this bow up for him. He went and bought the lighter arrows somewhere else and shot them.

In anyway, I'm pretty shook up myself. Thats the first bow I ever heard and seen blow apart. Man that was loud!! LIke a 22 going off. Makes me want to make that much surer of my stuff and keep it in top notch shape and never do a stupid thing like he was doing. Why in the world would you want to risk personal injury to yourself or someone around you just to gain speed?

Please everyone, use your head. Keep a good eye on your equipment and make sure its safe. I know most here have more common sense than this, but I just thought I would share this with you anyway.

Swamp Dawg

Thanks for posting on your horrible experience today. I'm sure that wasn't at all pleasant to witness. However, I think there are alot of guys out there just like him. It is very important that we all inspect our equipment regularly and don't shoot too light of arrows. I hope the guy is ok.

Arthur P

You should've been around in the mid-80's, before IBO came out with their anti-idiot rule - 5 grains of arrow weight per pound of draw weight and 80 pounds max. I saw MANY bows blown to bits back then. Lots of people were getting hurt too. You can always tell an old hotshot 3D'er from the scars those steel cables and teardrops left on his face and arms.

Maybe the next time you see someone doing something stupid, you'll report it to the owner so he can tell them to either fix up their bow or get out.

GVDocHoliday

Yep...that's way under 5 grains per pound...sad thing is he's not gonna be able to get warrenty work because if I'm not mistaken Mathews states that shooting an arrow under 5 grains per pound will void warrenty.

Pinwheel 12

Aw c'mon now Art, you were probably right there in the thick of it with the rest of us nimrods![8D]

Seriously, Art is right. I remember those days too. You could hear bows going off over 300 yds away on some occasions, and parts were regularly flying everywhere each weekend. We were all in those days shooting 85-90lbs with 200 (yes I said TWO hundred) grain arrows at speeds over 340-350 with ease! (for a few shots anyway!LOL) What a bunch of numb-nuts![] I've seen many arrows folded in half, (the spine would just plain give out) along with cables and limbs and cams and risers and all different kinds of shrapnel going everywhere. Many people injured, you had to always be on your toes--I saw broken arms, scalp wounds, eye injuries, and other various assorted stuff. Thank God the IBO initiated the 5 grain rule, problem solved.

Never easy to witness such stuff, just glad this guy came out of it intact for the most part--some do not. Good shooting, Pinwheel 12

ampahunter

Very unfortunate and a painful way to 'learn'. At my buddy's shop we have put up disclaimers for those who 'know it all'--even though it's unpleasant to see a fellow bow hunter/ gun hunter injured in an accident--sometimes this is what it takes to get them to UNDERSTAND!! Sad, very sad indeed.
Safety, guidelines, experience and respect, after all, our bows (even though we call them our toys) are weapons---and can and will cause quite some damage is used incorrectly.
It's better to be SAFE than to be sorry.
I'm glad to hear that the guy will be OK.

coyote170

Used to hunt with a guy who always had his gear
on the verge of blowing up.One day it did he was
in his tree stand cut him up pretty bad took to the
emergency room,two weeks later shooting the
same light arrows and not learning from his
previous experernce,dont hunt with him any more,
dont like the sight of blood!

Arthur P

Pinwheel, I have to admit that I shot comparitively light arrows back then out of a hatchet cam compound. But I wound up selling that compound. After IBO passed the rule I couldn't tournament with it any more. Nice bow. Martin Cougar XRG that pulled 100 pounds at 34" draw. Had a short overdraw and shot 32" 2419's out of it. Wound up being just under 6.5 grains per pound. Pretty light for me, huh?

Turkey Blaster

My dad had a PSE blow up on him a couple years ago and it cut his arm pretty bad. It turned out to be the riser on the bow that was faulty. He still has scars all over his arm. I think they started making machined risers now though instead of the cast ones like in the past. He took really good care of his bow and was even using heavy arrows. I guess that is why they are dubbed "Pull Shoot and Explode" as in PSE.

Turkey Blaster

One of my uncles also had two of the same model of bow blow up on them. I think the old cast riser gave it a weak point in the handle area.