Wear sign on xbow cable

[Jal5]

I noticed a slight wear point on one of the cables on this Horton compound xbow this week...1/16th in. maybe where the black coating material is wearing away from rubbing and exposing the metal of the cable.

Can I get away with using it this season or should it be replaced? Anyone know how expensive they are to replace as I will have to bring it to my archery shop to do it. thanks.

Does not seem to affect anything, it is still as accurate as ever.

Joe

[bilmac]

JA

Are you related somehow to JBLK who just posted a Question concerning a C5 Wildcat? I have a C5. Have to replace the "cables on it after shooting about 100 shots.  On the C5 the "cables" are actually bowstring. I was up on the mountain hunting and noticed one strand was loose, so I had to abandon my plans and go home. Called Barnett and they were nice enough. Even though the cables aren't under warrenty, they offered to give me a set if I bought a set. 37.50. At that price I may have to learn how to make bowstrings if the crossbow eats them up at that rate. Maybe the bow has been shot a lot more though. It may have been a demonstrator in Cabellas bow room. No one would wait on me when I bought it, it was hanging on a rack with a price tag, so I just put it in my cart. I noticed it had some what looked like wear on the "cables" then.

Haven't received the new strings yet, when I do I am going to check to see how much the local shop will charge. If it is too much, I will try the job myself. Looks like I could build a jig to compress the bow enough to change them out.

[Jal5]

No relation to the other post.

Mine is on an old Horton, and the cabling is definitely some metalic strands with plastic I guess black covering material. Definitely not like the bowstring.

You will need to fashion a vise or jig or something to compress the limbs enough to replace those cables and string on your xbow. If I replace them this year I will let the local gun/archery shop do it.

[bilmac]

Yup looks like it will be a job. I'm not sure the locals will tackle it the bow has split limbs to complicate matters. looks like these compound crossbows may be pretty expensive to shoot much. I was planning on making a bunch of wooden bolts chiep and shooting carp with them next summer. Not even bother with a string, if I miss the bolt floats and I can retrieve it. If I hit, dead carp, but no great loss of the bolt. Maybe this crossbow will be too expensive to shoot that way.

You know compound bows rub the plastic off the cables where they cross. It didn't look like the steel was wearing much so I just kept on shooting it. I wonder what happens if a cable lets loose? Could be the cams just rotate a ways and then the bow string stops it.

[Jal5]

Yeah the bolts aren't cheap, but they are accurate. My last two deer were shot at about 35 yds, complete pass through, and dead deer not too far away using expandable broadheads, 3 razor points type. Oh yeah...leaving a blood trail a blind man could follow!  My biggest buck a 10 pt. was taken with it too a couple of years ago. Did I mention I am sold on xbows!!

This wear mark is at the point where the cables cross each other too.  I am going to discuss this with the local sporting goods store owner, I trust him and he won't be ripping me off.

Joe

[smokepolehall]

making it thru season with cables wearing! keep close eye on them if they start wearing thru the metal change them out

[Jal5]

i will keep a close eye on them, don't want to take any chances. Any idea how expensive these are to replace?

[smokepolehall]

you will have to go to the companys site and ck price unless BHSS may carry them for your model

[Jal5]

I had my local archery shop check over the wear on these cables. According to him they don't look like they need to be replaced yet. But the bad news is since the cables are old style for Horton on this SuperMag bow, I would need to send it back to Horton and they would likely replace the limbs, pulleys, and cable around $200 with shipping! I think for that kind of money I will just use it for the rest of the season and replace the bow for next season.

Joe

[Casull]

 

was planning on making a bunch of wooden bolts chiep and shooting carp with them next summer.

I don't think I would try that if I were you.  You might end up with a face full of splinters.  At least I know that you should NEVER shoot wood arrows through a compound bow, so I assume the same is true of a compound crossbow.

[bilmac]

I got the new cables and had them replaced at my local sporting goods store. $10.

[bilmac]

Casul.

I have already shot a homemade wooden arrow a few times. When I was hunting this year, I could never come up with a way to decock the bow at the end of the day, don't have room to haul a target, so I made a few wooden arrows out of 3/8 " doweling from the lumber yard. 38 specials for blunt points. They were well worth the trouble to make, just for that purpose. I thought that they would break pretty often on impact so I made a few, but the same bolt survived 4 or 5 unloadings. It hit the tree hard enough that my 38 case would imbed in the bark, so I had to replace it.

I figured that the back of the bolts would be vulnerable to splitting so I reduced the diameter of the shaft there a very small amount, and then whipped the area with thread. Then I coated the whipping and back end of the bolt with epoxy which I trued up on a sander when it had hardened. It is a lot of work to harden the bolt knock like this, I am hoping to find a source of plastic nocks for wooden bolts.

Ancient crossbows were said to be very powerful, and I assume they shot wooden bolts. They had the knowledge to make the nocks safe.  I think mankind has lost lots of useful technology.

[Casull]

Glad to hear that bilmac.  It wasn't the power of the crossbow that I was worried about, but rather the way a compound bow (cross or vertical) accelarates the arrow.  I had always read that you should never use wooden arrows in a compound bow because the accelaration could cause them to shatter.  Maybe the crossbow isn't as much of a problem because the arrows are shorter and therefore stiffer.  Anyway, I guess you can't always believe what you read.   

[bilmac]

I suppose it has happened, but then look at the safety warnings cluttering up your newer guns. You can't hardly separate fact from lawyer talk anymore. I wear glasses and figure most of the splinters will be headed away from me if one does decide to let go.

[awshucks]

I suppose it has happened, but then look at the safety warnings cluttering up your newer guns. You can't hardly separate fact from lawyer talk anymore. I wear glasses and figure most of the splinters will be headed away from me if one does decide to let go.

One problem you may face is being under weight w/ wood arrows.  Not good for the bow if true.  I had a compound xbow disintegrate while bench rest shooting once, trust me you don't want to go there!  Have fun!

[bilmac]

I'll keep that in mind awshuks, I haven't weighed them yet, but I imagine they are plenty heavy with the 38 special for a blunt. My idea about shooting carp with them without a retrieval string may not work though, because I am thinking that I may not be able to find a point light enough that the shaft will float it. I was thinking of using the simple glue on points that are put on kids wooden arrows, and I found a source on the net, but they weigh something like 125 grains, and I bet that a 20" 3/8 dia shaft won't float them. I was thinking about maybe just making a firehardened wooden point. You just reminded me of something I had forgotten about, that the total weight has to be maintained.

[bilmac]

I did some weighing.

                            Carbon bolt w/125gr pt           416gr
                            Homemade w 38special blunt    490
                            Homemade mahogany no point  438
                            Homemade birch no point         415

Based on this I could just sharpen the wood and shoot them, well the birch shafts would be a little light. What I am thinking about is drilling the center and epoxying in a small nail and then pointing the wood. Reinforce the point a bit with epoxy. I think I can make something like this is light enough that bolts that don't hit a carp will float.