Learning to tinker

[Bwilson]

I am a maintenance man for a living and when i cant figure out somthing on stuff at work i just rip it all the way down and rebuild. I think its the best way to learn and figure things out for yourself. Well i want to learn all the little things with my compound bow. I have been like this since i was a kid My dad gave me a BB gun for Xmas two weeks later it was in about 80 pieces and unusable. two months later i killed a rabbit with it. It is just one of them things i like to do and understanding how your equipment works I think is important.

I have seen numerus times in deer camp somone pulls out thier bow and goes ahh hell i forgot to have such and such a thing to have done. Yes these are those "hunters" that think drinking at camp is as important as actully get in the woods on time. I dont really care for this type of group to hunt with but location to hunt is limited and i cant afford to lease land for the season.

I have recently picked up a parker buck hunter Xp. no i am not really willing to go and start ripping it down like i would at work. simply for the reason of safety. I grew up shooting a recurve and this is my second compound. So if there is any location i can go to in mid michigan (prefer close to lansing) that i can take a leason or just simply watch. I not much a reader just a hands on kind of guy but if it comes to that i my only option ill gladly do so.

Thank you for you help
Brandan

[Kelly Johnson]

Welcome Brandon,
I don't know if any shops in your are but I learned much like you will probably so I can offer a few tips that helped me.

First off....http://www.huntersfriend.com/bowselection.htm#axle

You mentioned not being much into reading...this one is worth it.

From there you can still rip it down and rebuild it with a few precautions.

1. Take pictures of the bow, especially the cam and string configurations before you do it. Make notes on what went where or whatever you need to put it back exactly. The wrong cable to the right post and terrible things can happen.

2. Take measurements. Measure the brace, tiller, axxle to axle, string lengths, draw lengths, peep distance to top axle, nock point etc. You can adjust ALL of these at will after a few times but for starters you just want to put it back together precisley as it was before you took the wrench to it.

Far and away the most concern you should have is the string to cam configuration. All the rest can make and arrow fly a little goofy maybe but this one is the dangerous part.

Good luck and welcome again!

[michigan head hunter]

kelly you the man , i second that

[Bwilson]

Wow that is alot of info i wish i would have stumbled across before i purchased a bow. I have a nice bow and it works fine and fits me well but wow. I knew there was a whole other world to the bow and shooting it. I had to read that page twice to for everything to be comprehended properly. As i read it the second time I ended up pulling my bow out and was going though and measuring things taking pictures and what not.

At this point my wife was looking at me all crazy like since i had my bow, tape measure and allan wrenches out. I had everything sped out on the living room floor and allshe could say is "You arent really taking your bow apart are you?" mind you she did give me a check and a card at Xmas that said GO GET A BOW. love your very understanding wife. so her giving me this look and saying that made me with hold taking it apart. Now i atleast understand so much more about it and what i may want to get in the future.

My last question would be how difficult wouldit be to switch out duel cams to a hybrid or solo cam system. would that even be an option. parker buck hunter xp.

[Kelly Johnson]

With some bows, yes. You can change cams and limbs and have a ton of options.

Can you on the Parker? Probably not without really knowing what your doing.

I have a Rytera Bullet X and have 2 sets of cams and 3 ways to set it up.
As a standard dual cam with a cable gaurd, as a shoot thru or "X" System with the Nitrous cams and as a single cam with the Vipro cam setup.

Martin is about the best in the business for "interchangeable parts" and having options to choose from all the wy from cam configs to limb options.

PSE is pretty good as well.

Now there are people that make "Frankenstein" bows...mixing cams, limbs and riser setups. But even than a few "rules of thumb" apply.

They generally stick with the same bow company for parts...their not all interchangeable.

Their also generally making their own strings as string and cable lengths area huge part of making them work and a lot of that can be trial and error.