I've decided Mathews and PSE are playing games, each waiting for the other to release their top speed bow (Omen vs. Monster XLR8) so the second one can up the IBO just enough to claim top dog. If that's the case I wish they'd stop jerking around and get on with it.

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This past weekend I had an unfortunate accident with my Mathews Reezen 6.5 that I wanted to share in order to help others avoid the same. The following depiction of the events that occurred Saturday is based on my personal opinion and experience. To be clear, I am not a bow tech or engineer.

On Saturday, I stalked within range of a hammer that was tending a hot, bedded doe. It was one of the biggest dear I’ve ever had within bow range and a deer I’ve been hunting all season. After waiting him out for a while, he finally made his move allowing me a 30 yard, broadside shot chip shot. I pulled back my Mathews Reezen 6.5 and “erped” to stop the buck all in one motion. Next thing I know my bow “explodes”, pieces (believe they were the harmonic dampeners) go flying and the buck ran off. I was in such a state of shock it took me a several seconds to figure out that the string on my bow snapped, resulting in the catastrophic equipment failure.

On my way to the bow shop immediately following the incident, I began to replay the events in my mind. What I realized was that my arrow actually fell off the string a millisecond prior to the “explosion”. It wasn’t until my bow was inspected by several bow techs at the shop that I realized why this may have occurred.

According to the bow techs, my riser and limbs were actually bent, which fact appears to have caused the entire accident. My hypothesis (which was shared by some of the bow techs) is as follows: the bow’s riser had a manufacturing defect that caused the riser to be bent when I purchased the bow in April ’09. As time went on, the bent riser caused the limbs to twist and the cams to cant correspondingly. When I pulled back the bow on the hammer this past Saturday, the string popped off the cam, which was canted due to the twisted limbs/bent riser. When the string popped off, it allowed me to (again, for a millisecond) over-pull the bow, which resulted in my broad head contacting the rest and the arrow popping off the string and falling straight to the ground a millisecond before the string snapped forward, hit the Dead-Zone and snapped.

As I began thinking about this crazy chain of events, I also put together a few more pieces of the puzzle. A few weeks ago, my broadheads (Slick Tricks & Shuttle-T Loks) were hitting 2 feet right despite paper tuning the bow when I purchased it. I’m thinking that the issue with my broadheads was likely due to the continued twisting of the limbs due to the bent riser.

The reason I wanted to share my story is to help others prevent the same thing from happening. I was unbelievably lucky I didn’t sustain any serious injuries. However, I’d personally recommend that if you shoot a Mathews Reezen, you should take it to your bow shop and have them inspect the riser and the limbs to ensure everything is copasetic. While it may have been a problem unique to my bow, I’ve always believed it’s better to be safe than sorry.

My bow shop is contacting Mathews today to inform them of the issue and obtain a new/replacement bow for me. Unfortunately, this really puts a damper in my season and cost me a hammer of a deer. I love Mathews bows and this is the first major problem I’ve ever had. Hopefully, if there is a more wide spread issue, Mathews will step up to the plate and address the matter.

The millisecond the string pops off, all hell breaks loose. Since you imply you have recollection of other events between when you think the string popped off and when parts started flying, I think you need to go back to the drawing board.

Generally speaking, risers get bent from improper pressing. Have your bow techs ever put that bow in a press for you? That would be my focus.

I would be interested in hearing how they determiend the limbs were bent. They tend to be straight or broken, not a lot in between (at least when not under tension).

Not saying something along the lines didn't happen as the Reezen has a lot of reflex and is not an inherently stable design. More likely you torqued the bow at the moment of truth which caused the string to come out of the groove on the cam.

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Question: if a new bow has a 'bent' riser, how do you know that is not a component of the bow design? I acknolwedge that it doesn't seem like it should be that way, but it may not be fair to presume it is a problem without understanding that first.

Objects between the string and cam can most certainly cause this sort of thing - good point.

Torque is a function of hand position, not head position. Hand torque shouldn't *shouldn't* the string to come out of the track, but it can. This is true with any compound, the difference is the matter bow design and degree. Higher let-off and more reflex to the riser can increase the possibility (although it remains highly unlikely).

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'A few weeks ago, my broadheads (Slick Tricks & Shuttle-T Loks) were hitting 2 feet right despite paper tuning the bow when I purchased it.'

Duh!!

did the hammer somehow hit the bow or something. i am having trouble following this, but is seems like you are making up scenarios to fit the facts vs. looking at the facts.

looks like to either had a sting failure at full draw, or dry fired the bow, or something with the hammer damaged the bow.

bending that riser would take tremendous effort, very unlikely unless it was severely mishandled at some point in its short life

good thing that a missed hammer was the only outcome

the only issue with mine(6 years old now) was string not seated in roller guard after pressing, felt/shot weird after third practice shot, looked over bow and found string frayed near guard

good luck with the new one

More often than not, the bent risers are a result of the dryfire and/or bow explosion, not the cause.

I'd bet on the hand torque or stick in the string.

So lets get back to this hammer. Are we talking a finishing hammer, a framing hammer, or a sledge hammer? Cause that could really help confuse things... lol

michael

had the string pop off my top roller on my Q2XL, twice in two days.

Finally figured it out on third morning to stand on atv, going thru puddles, and water got in the groove and froze, thereby eliminating the groove.

Only carry bow cased now, instead of in a rack.

I think its obvious that you can look to your broadheads as being the culprits.

If you had been using a RAGE broadhead this would never have occured. Think it over.

Hand torque???? LOL....I would love to see form with so much torque to be able to jump a string from it's cam/idler wheel grooves.

Unless you deathgrip the bow to the point of strangulation, and have it at an angle wayyyy off line of the draw (good luck with doing that too)...you just ARE NOT going to cause a srting to jump the grooves. Now you could pull a string off the grooves if you could draw the bow off to the side of the cams on a huge angle...but good luck with that also.

Something else happened here...I think a stick in the cams....or just a boken string at full draw...during the shot maybe.

You know what I'm saying x-man...I'm not saying lighting can't strike twice....I'm saying it just doesn't happen often at all. There's a difference with a newby with a bow for the first time...and an experienced bowhunter using his own bow.

I can if i wanted to ...yank the strings right off the idler wheel or cam...I KNOW HOW TO DO IT....IT JUST ISN'T EASY TO DO.

Right Serb, I'm just saying that maybe the original poster here might not be such a 'bow ace' after all. ;) I just didn't want to come right out and say it, ... I guess I just did.

I'm still leaning towards the stick theory though myself. I'm 99% sure the bent riser came AFTER the string derailed and broke.

Do you fella's realize how often a riser gets bent?

Outside of doing something really weird like driving a car over it, or using it as a prybar to open fire doors with....it's pretty hard to bend a riser othewise. I have to date only seen 5 bent riser go throw our shop , and thats with over 900 bows sold and traded in on yearly!!! Not to mention the 10,000 archers that come through the doors for work.

Risers can be checked for bends mind you by the archer, or the proshop, you don't have to have the maker check it. Bows do need to be disassembled though.

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THAT'S WHY YOU BUY A HOYT!

Just thought I would stir the pot.

Just shot that Reezon last night- at the Hoyt night!One of the only LH bows at the shop..

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Is that beyond parallel design geometry what is making it so critical? I didn't check for cam lean....

'Another guy in my hunting club was drawing back on a doe this morning with his Mathews Reezen 6.5 and had the same thing occur. I've also spoken with several other people in the past week that all share the same story (drawing back, string breaks, pieces go flying).'

WTF??????