photos or video of self bows at moment of failure?

[Jim Davis]

I hear and read of a few people who have been injured when a bow broke at full draw. If anyone has a photo or video of that moment, would  you please post  it here?

I have had maybe three bows  break at full draw or on  an  accidental dry fire (broken nock, for  example) and have never had so much as even a small  piece of the bow hit  me. All the parts went  forward or just fell to the ground still attached to the string at the nock.

I don't  understand what force might be at work to send bow parts toward the archer.

Photos anyone?

Jim Davis

[JW_Halverson]

Would Del's video of the warbow going BOOM help?  You can find it on his blog.  I think it even has a slo-mo clip of the instant of detonation.

[Jim Davis]

Sounds like a good chance it would be illustrative.

Jim

[Jim Davis]

Been searching for Del's video for over an hour without finding  it. Found lots of his other stuff, but not that. Anybody have the URL?

Jim

[Weylin]

I watched a bow explode and whack someone good on the head. Didn't get it on tape though.

[Crogacht]

Been searching for Del's video for over an hour without finding  it. Found lots of his other stuff, but not that. Anybody have the URL?

Jim

Thar she blows

http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/warbow-explodes.html

[mikekeswick]

tick CARACK BOOM!!!!!!
Del - I love your reaction  Top man! I don't think those are the words that would've come out of my mouth!

[Marc St Louis]

Can't say I've ever been hit by one but I've had several go boom, even caught a few on film.  One of them let go in the house and a fragment speared an Apple, it was an Elm backed Maple.  This picture is the best I have of one as it let go, it was a Bamboo backed Bloodwood.  I kept finding fragments of the bow for several weeks after

[Del the cat]

Easy to work out why they hit you on the head when the upper limb breaks!
Imagine a clean break mid limb on the upper limb...
The two ends of the break will move rapidly away from the archer. ...
BUT... The top of the upper limb is held in it's original position by the string, and will tend to stay where it was due to inertia (as it was stationary at full draw)*.
The broken end swings up and over the top pivoting about the nock...
And...
Thwack on the head  .
Del

*Adding to this effect, the string tension will be pulling the upper nock down, which will help to impart more spin to that broken limb tip, as it pivots about it's centre of mass.

[Jim Davis]

Del, your explanation makes sense for certain kinds of breaks. The one shown in Marc's photo seems like it would behave differently.

I've only had one explosive break and didn't get hit. The other  few have sort of cracked and just wilted.

Thanks for the link.

Jim

[Badger]

  Jim, I have exploded plenty at full draw over the years, seldom I have been hit. Most of my hits were in the stomach area. I had a riser break where I cut in an arrow shelf that busted my lip pretty good. Outside of an eye injury I don't see any real risk of serious injury. The ones that don't make sense to me are the ones that just disintegrate almost and you have like 13 pieces the size of your hand. It would seem as soon as the first break occurs the pressure would be relieved but in reality it doesn't work like that. 4 piece breaks are common.

[bubbles]

I had an upper limb break on me at full draw,  maple board. Split clean from around the handle fade to 1/2 way up midlimb. Probably would have been fine, except I hadn't rounded the tips yet, they were still square and sharp.  Caught me in the forehead really hard and tore a big chunk of skin out. Lots of blood.  I used to put weights in a bag and attach that to the string to check draw length and weight before I had a scale.  I had a two blow on me doing this and both times the tip limb flipped back and smacked one of my fingers holding the bow . That also sucked. I seem tohave bad luck for bow limbs hitting me

[J05H]

I had a Red Oak board bow break once and the upper limb whacked me on the back of my right hand. I think it pivoted around the nock as Del suggested but it somehow managed to miss my head.

[Tuomo]

Please, see my slow motion videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdTK26j3WdM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Keta_nRnI

[George Tsoukalas]

I've had several breaks. Some while on the rope and pulley and some while at full draw.
The ones at full draw resulted in a good whack in the face and some blood loss.
No videos. Here is a picture.
Here's "Broken Bow Garden".

Jawge