Dry fire

[DC]

Can a dry fire cause a crysal? I did something stupid and now I have a chrysal, i think.What lind of damage can a dry fire cause?

[Joec123able]

I would imagine it's possible. When you dry fire the energy that would be imparted to the arrow goes back into the limbs and sends a more devastating shock through them than if the arrow had absorbed most of the energy. It can cause the limbs to break or splinter or split your nocks.

[mwosborn]

I wouldn't think a chrysal.  A crack or break or delamination or sheared off tip overlay, etc.  A chrysal is caused by compression.  But I am just speculating!

[DC]

I haven't seen a lot of chrysals but this looks like one and it happened right after I dry fired it. It's pretty hard to deny the coincidence though. All I can find on the net is "don't do it" and "It causes damage to the bow". I guess a chrysal is damage but it doesn't strike me as the right damage for the situation. But what do I know

[Marc St Louis]

I seriously doubt a dry fire would be the cause of that chrysal

[DC]

 Is this definitive?  I sanded it a bit and CA'ed it and now I can feel it again. Just coincidence that it happened at the same time? It's going right through the middle of a small knot. It's fumed OS, if that matters

[mullet]

What kind of string were you using. I'm thinkinking if it was B-50 it might have cracked from the sudden rebound with no weight from the arrow. Heck, even Fastflight stretches a little. And, that pin knot probably wouldn't help any.

[DC]

Fast flight. I rasped and sanded until it disappeared and epoxied in a piece of OS(ala Del). The chrysal went in at least 1/8".I made it 8" long. The patch isn't fumed so it's going to stick out like a sore thumb. It will be a test of patching. It's funny, I was just remarking yesterday that I had 13 bows and was going to have to build one or dump one

[Dakota Kid]

Make the next one a penobscot  bow. You skip right from 12 to 14 with that little trick.

[Selfbowman]

Looks like compression to me. Your buddy did not pull it back another 2-3 inches did he. Arvin

[PEARL DRUMS]

The bow slammed too far forward and that separated wood at the knot, not compressed. So no, not a chrysal. Its a tear. IMO.

[Blayne]

That is the same thing that my OS stave had that I showed you. I never dry fired mine...

[wizardgoat]

I've seen a lot of those on OS bows, always around belly pin knots.

[SLIMBOB]

My guess is that PD is right.  The shock broke it right at the pin.

[DC]

I'm going to go with- The bow was probably going to crack/chrysal there eventually and the dry fire just speeded it up. That's fairly diplomatic and as close as I'm going to get.