Well, during the Carpbusters tourney of Illinois last weekend, after 20 years of tying to the back of the arrow and probably tens of thousands of shots, it finally happened....... my string (200 lb. fast flight) tied itself to my bowstring just underneath the nock on release. The arrow didn't snap back but the line simply broke and my arrow flew off into the water. I was quite surprised at just how tightly it was knotted to the bowstring and it took some time and effort to get it off. The only thing that I think I may have done different on that particular shot was that I don't think I reached full draw but I've done that hundreds or thousands of times. I'm glad it wasn't stronger than 200 lb test.
Makes me think!

Glad you weren't hurt.
I can see the headlines now...
"Eye Doctor looses eye in freak bowfishing accident."


I'd been bowfishing for about 15 years whenSnapback first happened to me. My arrow DID come back, and put a nice scar in my favorite leather hat, just a few inches above my eye. [][:-]

Holy cow Dr. Rob!I thought you used slides. It's a good thing you didn't catch that in the face somewhere.Really glad you didn't get hurt.

I just don't think that 200 lb fast flight is going to snap back. Fast flight cannot hold up to a sudden load force due to extremely low elasticity. I have had the knot happen once, and it was with 400 lb fast flight. Same result, the line snapped and my arrow kept going.

I don't understand how your bowfishing line tied itself to your bow string. I've had one arrow snap back at me before. I have no clue why it did that.Scary none the less!!

Bulz, had a friend of mine that was an eye doc that lost an eye while participating in a Civil War re-inactment, his black powder gun blew up in his face. I always thought it was interesting that he chose not tomake use ofa modern prosthetic (glass eye) but rather until he passed away, he wore a black pirate-like patch. Yea, I'm glad the line snapped rather than snapped back.

I've had my share of near misses over the years; I switched to slides at the beginning of this year.

Since I use a drum reel (I'll get a Zebco 808 soon), I found that the string occasionally gets wrapped around the bolt that attachesthe reel to the bow. Usually the string breaks and I lose an arrow; sometimesthe arrowsnaps back at my legs. I didn't want to tempt fate so I switched to slides.

Glad you didn't get hurt.

Well i was on hte boat with My captain and i must say it made a quite a racket when it snapped it happened so fast it was like what the heck till Rob sorted it out..........