Warming a bow up in freezing temperatures necessary?

[ajbruggink]

Greetings,

I have a question regarding shooting wooden bows in freezing temperatures. Do I have to 'warm' up my bow by giving it a series of short draws when I'm shooting in freezing temperatures to prevent it from breaking or is this a waste of time? I use to give my bows a couple of short draws in colder weather but then I stopped doing it and had no problems but while hunting on a cold morning in October I had a bow make cracking sound when I pulled it back to see if the cover in the spot I was in would interfere with my raising and drawing my bow in the event that a deer would show up. I heard a similar cracking sound on a bow that broke on me two months before right before it blew into two pieces so I feared for the worst. I looked for any signs of breakage and I ended up taking the handle wrap off to look there as well and I saw three deep hairline cracks that went across the belly and the deepest one went half the thickness of the bow. I would call these cracks crysals as I have seen similar cracks on badly tillered bows I have made but this bow wasn't made by me and had been shot continuously for a year, had textbook tiller for an ELB, and hadn't had any problems before then so I figured it was well made so I'm hesitant to call them such. The only design flaws I could say it had was that at 1 1/8" wide at its widest it seemed quite narrow for a 53 lb hickory bow that is 72" long and it had over 3" of set but maybe I'm wrong, maybe these things cause a bow to break over time. I ended up going home instead of pulling it again to find out if would blow. This whole episode has made me leery of not warming up bows in cold weather again and now it is that time of year for cold weather so I'm trying to figure out if this bow's breaking was caused by the cold weather or not. It also got rained on while I was hunting the weekend before but I practiced every day of the week afterwards with no problems and I used it on a bear hunt in September and it got rained then as well and there were no issues except my fletchings got wet but luckily I was relatively close to the bear when I killed it so it ended up not being a issue at all but I mention it because I don't know what wood that suffers only from water damage looks like so I won't rule it out. I apologize for getting off the original subject but I'm trying to figure out why this bow broke and how I can prevent it in the future. Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Aaron     

[George Tsoukalas]

I don't do partial pulls but I leave the bow strung in the cold for a few minutes.
It is unlikely that water damage would cause a problem.
Your bow probably bends too much in the handle in relation to the rest of the limb.
What wood is it?
Jawge

[PatM]

The warmth gained by flexing a piece of wood is negligible.

[ajbruggink]

I don't do partial pulls but I let the bow strung in the old for a few minutes.
It is unlikely that water damage would cause a problem.
Your bow probably bends too much in the handle in relation to the rest of the limb.
What wood is it?
Jawge

It is a hickory English Longbow made by Rudderbows. I did not make it. I will attempt to post a picture of its tiller.

[PatM]

That may be the answer right there.

[clewis]

That sucks, hope it works out for you. This may have been asked many times over but how cold is too cold?

[ajbruggink]

Well I got to full draw on the tillering stick. I was expecting it to explode. It didn't, so I don't know what's going on with it. I provided a pic of the tiller and handle where that crysaling is going on. The tiller is not as good as I thought it was, not textbook, all the bend is in the handle.

[PatM]

Oh my.

[clewis]

Was that a U-finish stave or complete bow?

[ajbruggink]

Was that a U-finish stave or complete bow?

Nope it was a completed bow. I bought it a year ago, I have built bows but I wanted a 55 lb bow and I knew to build one myself would probably take me 2 years to get it done right, the current bow I'm working on is my ninth attempt because I've been either breaking bows or making them 30 lbs too light but I shouldn't make excuses.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Oh my.

Exactly what Id expect from them. Aaron, I cant believe your teeth aren't chipped

[PEARL DRUMS]

Not sure where Oostburg is, but if you come to Marshall, Mi next spring for the rendezvous I will personally promise you a GOOD 55# bow when you leave. Just bring a decent stave.

[PatM]

Someone needs to be told that the handle is supposed to give at full draw, not give out. 

[PEARL DRUMS]

They just saw it out and sell it. At that price they can send out 3 or 4 per buyer and still be ahead. One might just stay together. I had one run in several years ago with them and wont even think about using them for anything. They sent me a "straight grained" POS hickory backer I wouldn't make a measuring stick with. I called them and they said they use them all the time......really?

[Ed Brooks]

Is it just me, or does this bow appear to be off to the left in the tree? not pulling strait back in the handle.