Wow glad your alright.

 

Stringing and un-stringing a bow is serious business. I cringe at big events when I see our elite shooters use push/pull to string and un-string their bows. All the youngsters want to emulate them and do the same thing. It's a giant accident waiting to happen.

 

Ditto on being glad you're OK. I have a "rest on the limb" type but still, each time I string/unstring a bow the thought crosses my mind that there has to be a better way. Looking through the catalogues, they're all basically the same devices so they do work, but I keep thinking someone should build a better mousetrap. On your warning, I read somewhere here or maybe elsewhere about stringers with hard plastic cups/pockets cracking and failing with similar results.

 

"I cringe at big events when I see our elite shooters use push/pull to string and un-string their bows."

Could someone explain or send a link to a picture/video of this method?

 

There are many examples. Search archery push-pull method on Google. You'll see videos.

 

Those little cloth pockets are tough to get to sit and grab the limb completely unless you are very careful. I much prefer the saddle on limb version as well for portable stringers.

At the JOAD we use a box stringer. Eliminates most of the danger to person part.

 

Find me a Korean archer with a stringer.

There are pros and cons with each method. With or without a stringer. For may years, what happened to the OP, was something I feared could have happened to anyone.

Which is why I have always stressed to younger archers the proper way to use a stringer (yes, as much as possible, always use a stringer), and to keep one's face a distance from the limb tip, and out of the bow's plane.

And as soon as I turn away, everyone forgets.

So I gave up.

 

Toxoph,

You were very lucky to not have suffered a serious eye injury. Many years ago I had a similar mishap while stringing a bow, I was also lucky. Thank you for sharing your story.

 

This is the safest method I have found with the potential energy directed away from the archer. A wall stringer is similar, safety wise

 

This is the safest method I have found with the potential energy directed away from the archer. A wall stringer is similar, safety wise

Yup. We have a wall stringer at our range as well as our box stringer. All direct energy away from the archer..

Advantage of the box stringer is it is more portable than the wall. 😜

DC

 

I've seen the same thing happen more than just a few times...happened to me a couple times- though never hit in the head- smacked the shoulder.

I quit using the stringers for anything under say 50# many years ago...stringers can be such a pain sometimes. Also, just another piece of unnecessary equipment to keep track of and by the time I would have just got the stringer out, I'd already be strung up. I ended up just going back to what I was taught 30 years ago...step through or push/pull

 

One note on the push-pull method... I have seen the top limb get pushed out of the pocket when done on an ILF bow, particularly ones with a light draw weight. I got smacked in the ribs that way once and learned my lesson.

I am not a fan of the two-pocket stringers and prefer the ones with one pocket and a friction pad. I always keep spares and freely give them away to those who do not have one.

Dchan, could you please post photos of your wall and box stringers? I like that idea.

 

One note on the push-pull method... I have seen the top limb get pushed out of the pocket when done on an ILF bow, particularly ones with a light draw weight. I got smacked in the ribs that way once and learned my lesson.

I once fired a 36lb limb across the range when it climbed out of the pocket while stringing with push/pull. I'll unstring takedown bows via that method since, but not string them.

I am not a fan of the two-pocket stringers and prefer the ones with one pocket and a friction pad.

I quite like the Hoyt style stringer with the saddle for the top limb, it grips very well. it can be fiddly on wide limbs where it fouls the loop sliding it onto the limb, just put the saddle on first and feed the top string loop through.

 

http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2622026

This particular box stringer is good up to about 25 lb bows. Since we are a joad and most of our club is shooting low poundage at the moment, its perfect for us. If you wated one that could handle heavier weights, you would just have to build it out of sturdier material and probably not adjustable for different lengths. 2x3s and drill a hole thru the end supports for a pipe that the limbs to be pressed against.

Don't have a picture of our wall stringer. Will have to get one but it is basically 2 ea iron 1/2" wall/floor pipe flanges and 2 ea 1/2" dia x 8" iron pipes attached to a wall at so you can lever the handle and one limb in it. The pipes are padded with rubber hose.

DC

The

 

Thanks all. The welt is still under my eyebrow, a good reminder!

After thinking a bit, I'm going to buy safety googles to have people wear when stringing in my classes, in this sue crazy society, cant be too careful. Anyone have a waiver form to share? :embara:

The suggestions above are great! Think I'll build a box stringer. Also, for the wall stringers, I've seen some made with rubber boat trailer rollers which are "V"ed and work quite well.

 

I made a wall string with 3/4 galvanized pipe and and a couple of elbows and flanges with this patent as the inspiration.


https://www.google.com/patents/US3000628

 

simpler are two pipes sticking out of the wall at a proper spacing. use 2 flanges to mount the pipes.. don't need any elbows or swivels. just the 2 pipes and 2 flanges and some rubber tubing or retasked garden hose to "pad" the pipe. 1/2" galv or iron pipe is plenty strong.

DC

 

The elbows are to accommodate bows of different lengths.

 

I find double pocket stringers better, but that's just me. The pocket and saddle type stringers can be scary when the saddle slides up the limb, especially so in rainy weather.

I try to make sure I don't let the sling go slack, and always turn my head away from the string as I pull. I start with a tentative pull to check that the pockets are secure, then slide my hand up the side of the limb until the string slips into the groove. I then turn the bow over so I can look to see of the loops are in the grooves without having the limb coming at my face at high speed.

I used to sometimes use a wall stringer which was super simple: I had a rope which went around a hook on the wall. One end of the rope was fixed and you placed the other loop around the bow and over the hook. The bottom was covered with carpet and was U-shaped with a flat recessed section for the bottom limb. The rope was fairly loose so it could accommodate long or short bows. (It disappeared when they moved the building, so I'm using a cord stringer.

I used to use push-pull, but was shamed into doing it the right way with a stringer, knowing that my students will be watching (they may not follow your good examples, but will be likely to follow your bad examples.)

 

I find double pocket stringers better, but that's just me. The pocket and saddle type stringers can be scary when the saddle slides up the limb, especially so in rainy weather.

Some are better than others. I've seen double pocket stringers where the "small" pocket barely gets hold of the top limb. You almost have to wiggle and jam that end on, to get it to get purchase. Then I've seen ones that slip over the top limb perfectly so that the string almost has to be wedged into the groove/notch.. This is what I would call the ideal for a double pocket stringer. I always liked the saddle type for my portable / in the bag stringer.

But since I almost always travel in my van to events and camps where I'm teaching/coaching, my box stringer goes with me most of the time..

 

I use a saddle stringer with leather saddles. However i replaced the string with d loop cord material that can take 300 pounds or more. I had a string break on me once when stringing that was the string they come with. Those strings can wear down and fail. The d loop compound cord is super tough.

I also make sure to never let the string knot up.

Chris

 

We used a wall stringer at the range where I grew up. A swinging dowel at the pivot was implemented, just as in the patent drawing. Nobody ever messed up using it!

 

One club I shoot at decided one day, after shooting started, to take away the stringer box, and make the JOADS use their stringers, because there are not stringer boxes at our outdoor range, or at tournaments. Not a smart idea IMO, but I don't run the club.

At the club I own, I use the step thru method for my club bows and for student bows if they need help. I use step thru on my personal bow also. I did make a bow box like DChan but the kids can't seem to figure out how to pull it out of the closet and put the legs on. I have never used push/pull method and decided to never try it after seeing a pic on AT of a beautiful black eye from an oops using that method.

For string type stringers, I prefer the cup and saddle type, over the two pocket type. I did see a stringer string break because there was a knot in the string. Knots can weaken a string 50% or more.

 

One club I shoot at decided one day, after shooting started, to take away the stringer box, and make the JOADS use their stringers, because there are not stringer boxes at our outdoor range, or at tournaments.

IMHO, this makes no sense whatsoever.

By all means teach the JOAD kids how to be self reliant. Teach them how to use their stringers YES.. but when you are at the club, why not use whatever means makes it easiest for everyone.

Unless I travel with my stringer, I leave all the legs on.. It's actually sitting on top of all our bales that we roll out every weekend so someone has to move it anyway so it gets moved out to the range were it will get used..

It's almost always the last piece of equipment that gets put away because it's storage location is "sitting on top of the white tail bales"

DC

 

Could one not take a couple of boat rollers with long landscaping stakes and drive them into the ground outdoors and make a horizontal "wall stringer"?

 

At the range my club uses and manages, the bow rack for the beginner bows (made of metal with added weight at the base) has a stringer on the side that most people in the club use.

One or two people have had problems using it when their bolts were in the farthest out position, though, because it seems that you end up bending the upper limb more than the limb hooked on the lower pipe, and with bolts all the way out it was enough to pop the limb fork out. Thankfully this kind of failure (which I can recall seeing maybe twice) just results in things falling on the floor rather launching into your face, though you yourself may fall on your face if you're not paying attention.

 

At the range my club uses and manages, the bow rack for the beginner bows (made of metal with added weight at the base) has a stringer on the side that most people in the club use.

I like that design. simple and works for righties and lefties.

if the tiller bolts blow just bringing the bow just past brace to slip the loop into the nock then they were always going to blow, and far better than while drawing the bow.

 

Not to steel the post but all should be aware of "No-Glove" wear, in particular splits in the rubber. Upper no glove in particular, when torn will fail catastrophically after release at brace height becoming dangerous projectiles. When they hit the eye ball it sounds like a large raindrop hitting a taught umbrella. No need to go into the resulting pain. Please inspect "No Gloves" condition as part of a equipment PM check and replace any torn ones immediately.

 

Not to steel the post but all should be aware of "No-Glove" wear

How does this have anything to do with stringing bows?

Thank you for the reminder but please post a new thread rather than hijack this one.

 

Glad you're OK OP. I did this decades ago with a 50# recurve and it got me right across the face. Knocked me on my can and I saw stars for a few minutes and had a red mark that lasted for a few days. Frankly, it too me a couple of weeks to restring a bow again without wimping out. It's the kind of thing you Never want to repeat.