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Equipment & Gear => Archery Gear => Topic started by: smithkl42 on June 16, 2018, 01:09:34 PM

Title: Bow creaks during draw and other questions
Post by: smithkl42 on June 16, 2018, 01:09:34 PM: I'm a newbie archer, and for my first bow, I bought a Hoyt PowerMax last August (I got a reasonably good deal on it). I know that it's not a very high-end bow, and I'm certainly not terribly accurate with it, though I suspect that's more the fault of the archer than his equipment.

My bow does seem to be behaving in a few odd ways, though.

One of them is that when I pull back, starting about halfway through my draw, the bow creaks (I originally said "squeaks", but it's definitely a "creak"). I haven't been able to track down exactly where it's coming from, but it seems like maybe from the cams, and maybe more the upper than the lower. Is it an indication that something is out of balance, or loose or something like that? Anything to be worried about?

Related, when I look down at my cams, and try to line them up with my arrow rest, it seems like my bottom cam is perfectly aligned with my arrow rest, while my top cam is slightly off - maybe only 2-3 degrees off, but enough that it's noticeable. That ... doesn't seem right.

Another weirdness - and again, this may be more the fault of the archer - is that about one out of every four arrows I shoot seems to go off in a weird direction. It hits within maybe 5" of my other arrows, but it seems to enter the target in an odd direction. If all the others are pointing back straight to where I was standing, these other arrows will end up pointing out in a slightly different direction, like the arrow was spiraling in some weird way when it finally entered the target. If it's only happening some of the time, is this likely some problem with my shot?

My assumption is that I need to go get my bow tuned (I bought it at the Nock Point in Mountlake Terrace), but I'd like to go in with as much information as I can get. Plus, I just replaced the strings on it a month or two back, and it seems like it shouldn't have gotten out of tune so quickly.

Any advice or suggestions?

Thanks for all your help for a newbie ...
Title: Re: Bow squeaks during draw and other questions
Post by: Wolfdog2314 on June 16, 2018, 01:56:49 PM: I’d have a shop look at your first few issues and have it tuned there.

I had a Hoyt spider that would squeak upon draw. It would do this when it was dirty and the string wasn’t waxed well.

As far as the arrows:

Mark each arrow with a number. If the arrow is the same one that is a flyer each time, you know it’s an arrow problem. Discard it or figure out why it’s flying wrong. Could be insert. Fletching. Not spinning true. Ect.
Title: Re: Bow squeaks during draw and other questions
Post by: rtspring on June 16, 2018, 02:03:23 PM: Go see Denton at Rock Creek Archery! Not only will he fix your bow, he will teach you more about bows in 30 mins, it will save you time in learning! I was a newbie 5 years ago and his knowledge in a visit it priceless!!!

He is in enumclaw
Title: Re: Bow squeaks during draw and other questions
Post by: Greg Mullins on June 16, 2018, 04:10:26 PM: My RX1 did the same thing but it was my rest.
Title: Re: Bow squeaks during draw and other questions
Post by: hogslayer on June 16, 2018, 04:50:23 PM: I had this happen on one of my bows. It was some dry contact between the limb pockets and the coating sticker they put on the limbs. I had to put some lithium greese on there and it went away. Super annoying. Especially since i had the bow tuned and they had to pull the bow apart.
Title: Re: Bow creaks during draw and other questions
Post by: smithkl42 on June 17, 2018, 09:42:10 PM: I tried to paper tune it - and holy crap, it's way out of whack. Moving the arrow rest around hasn't resulted in any noticeable improvements. I guess it's back to the bow shop. I just had it tuned a couple months ago, when I got new strings - not sure how it's gotten so badly out of tune since then.
Title: Re: Bow creaks during draw and other questions
Post by: Crunchy on June 17, 2018, 10:23:09 PM: What kind of arrow rest are you using. If it is a drop away you might have a timing issue.
Title: Re: Bow creaks during draw and other questions
Post by: smithkl42 on June 17, 2018, 10:49:49 PM: Whisker Biscuit. I've tried adjusting it up, without any noticeable improvement so far.
Title: Re: Bow squeaks during draw and other questions
Post by: Drewski on June 18, 2018, 07:05:42 AM: Quote from: Greg Mullins on June 16, 2018, 04:10:26 PM
My RX1 did the same thing but it was my rest.

This just happened to me yesterday.
Title: Re: Bow creaks during draw and other questions
Post by: Karl Blanchard on June 18, 2018, 07:23:27 AM: Check your limbs thoroughly. My alphamax started creaking and accuracy fell off. Turns out it was due to broken limbs. Amazingly they never failed. Hoyt wouldn't warranty them so I had to buy new limbs :bash:
Title: Re: Bow creaks during draw and other questions
Post by: dvmagernbk on June 22, 2018, 07:45:03 AM: DO NOT GET YOUR BOW SERVICES AT NOCK POINT. I have horror stories- so do some of my friends and neighbors. Take 20 minutes and drive that bow up to Van Winkles in Everett.

Feel free to PM me for details on what happened to my with my first bow at Nock Point. If they know you are a new archer and don't know much, they will take advantage.

Nock Point is a decent place to buy arrows and parts if you don't want to do it online. That's it.
Title: Re: Bow creaks during draw and other questions
Post by: smithkl42 on June 26, 2018, 01:55:55 AM: Just to follow up on this - I took my bow back to the Nock Point, and they helped me get it tuned. I think that pretty much all my problems were likely the result of the (new) string having stretched a bit. They helped me paper tune it, then broadhead tune it, and it's no longer creaking. It's certainly still not shooting perfectly, but that's likely the fault of the archer, not his equipment. At least my arrows seem to be entering the target at pretty much all the same angle, and I no longer see 'em fishtailing on the way.
Title: Re: Bow creaks during draw and other questions
Post by: Greg Mullins on July 12, 2018, 04:58:07 PM: I had the same issue . I took off my QAD and put a Smack down pro on it and all the noise went away . So I’m also guessing the rest
Title: Re: Bow squeaks during draw and other questions
Post by: Calvin Rayborn on July 14, 2018, 10:25:20 AM: Quote from: hogslayer on June 16, 2018, 04:50:23 PM
I had this happen on one of my bows. It was some dry contact between the limb pockets and the coating sticker they put on the limbs. I had to put some lithium greese on there and it went away. Super annoying. Especially since i had the bow tuned and they had to pull the bow apart.

:yeah: Seems most likely culprit to me.