Accidental Dry Fire

[jdonaldson]

I accidentally dry fired my brand new Phoenix. I have the S5 system on it and not sure if that helps or not. I have checked for cracks and there are none. I even passed a cotton ball on it. No loose bolts either. The string did fly off and appears to be fine. It was a brand new Dyna FLight string that was not even fully stretched yet. I put it back on and it appears to still shoot fine. Although it could be my imagination that it is easier to cock. I hope I did not do permanent damage. I have been shooting guns my whole life and this is my first crossbow. I feel like a moron.

[Normous]

Lesson learned and no harm done. Just continue shooting after the inspection.

[strum]

Welcome to the club.. ..sounds like your in good shape..keep on shooting..I think the new term is PAD some one will correct me if im wrong
Projectile Absent Discharge
or maybe ERS
Empty Rail Syndrome

On the serious side..im not sure i would keep shooting that string..

[gerald strine]

First off welcome to the forum.
You are in good company in the dry fire club the S5 does offer some protection during a dry fire be sure to check the disapater bars if you have them to see if they are bent and keep an eye on the string.
Now pat yourself on the back for buying an Excalibur recurve because if you had bought a compound bow you would be with out a bow to shoot on opening day that is the bright side of this Excalibur takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

[shafferm]

One other thing to check would be to go over all the fasteners on your bow to make sure that nothing was able to work it's way loose with the dryfire. Dry firing gives the bow a pretty good shaking.


hankenhunter - How much of a jolt would you like to remind you to load an arrow? Wouldn't be that much more difficult to add the zapper function.

Here would be the first half of the circuitry that I built a couple of years back.

http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/phpBB2 ... =1&t=23446

[jdonaldson]

The dissipater bars are in perfect shape and nothing is bent. I am thinking about replacing the string. I have noticed a few small bumps on the limbs but that could be from when it was made as the cotton ball did not grab a thing.

[Dereck]

Been there done that and I am sure somewhere you could find a T shirt.

I would have to say your S5 saved you.

Develop a routine to your shooting a stick to it.

[new2xbow]

OK Bill if your watching this you need a shirt that has a dumbfounded xbow hunter with a string flying through the air that says "Me and My Excal survived" on one side, and on the other it should say "Not So Proud member of the P.A.D. Society! But at least it was an excalibur!"

And of course somewhere it has to have the line from the commercial that says "Try that with a compound bow and you will be the proud owner of a hundred little pieces"

[Dash]

[quote="jdonaldson"]
The string did fly off and appears to be fine. It was a brand new Dyna FLight string that was not even fully stretched yet. I put it back on and it appears to still shoot fine.

Its a hard lesson, the haunting sound of a dryfire. But one you don't forget. When I dryfired mine with a flemish superstring, the string flew off but after I checked it closely it was fine. Although I kept a close eye on it, it was reserved twice more with no problems. But I've seen a photo of a dryfired excel string from an excalibur and the loops had opened up due to stretching of the loop serving from the shock. Just give the string a thourough check and don't use it if there's any sighn of damage.

[Louvp]

here is a device you can buy & install to prevent dry fire

http://stop-dry-fire.com/

[Xbowkiller]

here is a device you can buy & install to prevent dry fire

http://stop-dry-fire.com/

Cool. Anyone ever try one. Looks like a good idea.

[Louvp]

@ Xbowkiller I havn't tryed it, I just happen to stumble across this product a few days ago,but it does look like a great idea.Looks like a product Excalibur should offer as an option.

[Cossack]

Welcome, on all counts. Been there done that TWICE, my Phoenix no worse for wear, was using home made STS at the time. String is likely no worse for wear unless you notice broken strands .
Now have strict shooting routine: Cock bow, SET SAFETY, pick up bow, insert a arrow, etc. EVERY TIME. No distracted shooting (cell phones, visiting, beer) to distract the routine. The best ADF is right between our ears, just have to use it.

[Bill T]

I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but why have an anti- dryfire device on the crossbow to get in the way of uncocking it when dryfire damage is so uncommon? Never sacrifice simplicity and utility for a problem that doesn't exist!

[Raymond]

Well said Bill T. I dry fired twice in a row with an NGSS on my Equinox one day. The first one was because I was distracted with something else and the second was I was still overexcited from the first one. Ruined two strings but did nothing to the crossbow so that speaks volumes about the quality of Excalibur Crossbows and the NGSS. By the way welcome to the best forum on the web.