Tru-Fire Edge Release Failure and broken Bow

[atc250r18]

So here's the story. 

For my Birthday my Dad bought me a Bowtech Assassin to replace my ageing Hoyt Ultra-tech.  Man I love that thing; it's light, accurate, short ATA, way quieter then what I've been shooting and just feels perfect in my hands.  So Saturday, I was doing what most archers do the last weekend before season, shooting broad heads at all ranges, both verifying my setup and giving me that confidence that I need.  I can only shoot out to 30 yards at my house so almost every weekend I go out to a buddies and shoot out to 60.  I don’t feel confident shooting an animal at 60 but if I can consistently group a 6” circle at 60 yards it makes me uber confident at 40 yards on a deer.  Well that’s exactly how the day ended…I was shooting great!

But anyway, Sunday after a day at the MX track my buddy calls me up and say’s “hey let’s go try to get one of those bears behind my house”.  “Roger that” I said, my stand set up with a maximum shot range right at 50 yards.  I’ve already had bears within range just walking with my wife and son on the trail close by so I figure I’ll leave the WSM at home and take the Assassin.   Well we get out to the trail and I draw back to verify peep alignment after doing my minor tuning adjustments the day before.  I get back about 90% draw and it sounded like an explosion went off in my hands.  I look down and my string is limp, it’s off both cams, the cable guide went flying and my nock loop is broke.  WTF I said, I looked at the nock loop last night and it looked great.  Man I was pissed off!

Well at that moment I was at a loss for words and my buddy says “Well we can go get my 45-70 and you can use that”.  So we run back to the house to grab the rifle and that’s when I finally decide to take off my release I look down and...   “What the heck” my release was missing the Release portion. 

Later on, sitting in my tree stand with a borrowed rifle I put the picture together and figured out what went wrong.  The split ring that holds the release to the wrist strap let loose.  With the release still clipped to the string it came forward and ripped the nock loop and derailed the string, I went looking for the release but it shot off into the woods never to be found again.

All in all, new limbs, new string, both cams bent, all this 4 days prior to the opener.  I am livid!   Everyone’s telling me, don’t tell Bowtech the release broke and they’ll probably warranty everything.  Well my answer to that is “it’s not Bowtechs fault the release broke and ruined my bow; it’s the release that failed”.  I’m really not sure how to approach Tru-Fire, they said they would warranty my release but I don’t want another Tru-Fire now!  I already bought a Scott to replace it.
Here’s some pics from my phone.

You can see on the second image the crease the string left in the cam.

[Jason]

Man that sucks! but good lesson learned, never EVER draw your bow without an arrow nocked.

[atc250r18]

Not sure it would have mattered in this senerio with the release still attached.  The damage may have been less but it still would have at least broken the nock loop and the side load from the release would have most likely derailed the string and damaged the cams.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

[spookgus]

The upside is you were not injured. It sucks but mechanical things fail. I am around enough electronics to know that even that crap fails. Have a good season and be safe.

[mtbiker]

Sorry to throw salt in the wound, but not having an arrow nocked did matter.  If the string was released by human or mechanical failure (a release in this case) and without an arrow nocked, then it was a dry fire.  Anyway, glad you weren't hurt.

[dirty24d]

man that stinks...

But i agree that if you had an arrow nocked  you probably wouldnt have had that damage,  i actually  think you probably wouldnt have had any damage to the bow. but its never happened to me so i dont know..  Glad you didnt get hurt..

[atc250r18]

It's never happened to me either so I don't know for sure if anything would or would not have broken. It wasn’t technically a dry fire because the release was attached to the string, therefore the string was weighted.  I agree it was a huge error on my part but the release has got to weigh close to the arrow's weigh.  It might have minimized the damage with the extra weight of the arrow but regardless of that I’m pretty sure stuff would have broken. 

You know it’s funny, in the 3 years I’ve been shooting bow’s I’ve only drawn back twice without an arrow nocked.   The first time my Dad scolded me like a teenager (I’m 29) then this.  I just didn’t want to knock a broad head without having a target.  Diffidently enough salt in the wound already, but thanks for the reinforcement.

[dirty24d]

    

[HunterFisher]

I have that release, just bought it this year.  I didn't realize that the ring was not solid but now it makes sense.  It's the only way to get it to flip the release head over against the palm.  Wonder what the weight rating of that ring is and the expected mean operations to failure?

[halflife65]

It's never happened to me either so I don't know for sure if anything would or would not have broken. It wasn’t technically a dry fire because the release was attached to the string, therefore the string was weighted.  I agree it was a huge error on my part but the release has got to weigh close to the 289 grains my arrow's weigh.  It might have minimized the damage with the extra weight of the arrow but regardless of that I’m pretty sure stuff would have broken. 

You know it’s funny, in the 3 years I’ve been shooting bow’s I’ve only drawn back twice without an arrow nocked.   The first time my Dad scolded me like a teenager (I’m 29) then this.  I just didn’t want to knock a broad head without having a target.  Diffidently enough salt in the wound already, but thanks for the reinforcement.

That sucks, man.  My dad accidentally dry fired his bow and got lucky.  The string jumped off the wheel and cam but nothing broken on the bow.  Restring and good to go.

I'm glad that you didn't get hurt - I think it's pretty easy to see why you didn't have an arrow on the string.  With your finger locked behind the trigger you'd have no expecation of the bow going off.

[MLBowhunting]

Atleast noone was hurt.  Couldve been bad

[Dirty Mike]

Happened to me yesterday release came off my wrist but I had arrow nocked so nothing happened so i was able to keep shooting

[10thmountainarcher]

I shoot that exact same release and have for two seasons, I to thought that the little ring looked like it may cause problems so I found a way to counter it.  I grab the shaft itself with my thumb, middle and ring fingers thus taking a lot of the pull off of that little ring.  I love the release other than that, but I could definitely saw that as a problem from the get go.  I havent shot my bow in a year because of a deployment, but thinking back I'm pretty sure almost ALL of the pull is off of that little ring by gripping the shaft the way I do, it not only eliminates the possiblity of the ring coming apart as yours did, it also pulls my trigger finger behind the trigger as to not have a negligent discharge lol.  Tough luck on the bow man...  Mine is currently sitting with the string off the upper cam because I was an idiot lol.

[let.it.fly]

dude get on the phone with true fire, they should cover your bow. i had a winners choice string come apart while my bow was just hanging on my bow rach. cracked limbs and the whole nine. i through a *censored* fit since the strings were brand new, so winners choice covered my bow. raise hell dude.