Snapped Bowstring

[Kessler10]

First off this quick story Is about my whitetail deer hunt, so apologies for choosing the elk forum, but his is the one I use the most. And mostly wil lbe hunting elk, but I live in Nebraska so do hunt whitetail from time to time.

Long story short yesterday morning I had two nice bucks at about 15 yards. 1 nature 4x4 and a really nice 5x5. I zeroed in on the 5x5 and went to full draw. the shot was not 100% ideal and knew I would get a better shot if I waited. I held my draw for about 1 min and decide hold off and let the draw down and waited another minute or two. I could see the buck was about to make its move. I went to full draw again as the buck started to move, grunted once and it stopped perfect broadside at 15 yards. Squeezed the trigger on my release and BOOM!!!!! One of my strings broke on my bow and the arrow never left the rest. it made a pop noise and the bucks looked up at me for about 2 minutes before walking off. never knowing how close one of the came to being on my dinner table. there I sit in awe with a broken bow string. Nothing more than a paper wait in my hand at this point so had to call it a day.

I started bow hunting about 2 years ago after I had my fill with rifle hunting and wanted a new challenge. I shoot my bow frequently for practice. I know the general upkeep for my bow. I wax the strings regualry. But did notice they were getting worn a couple weeks ago. But never in my wildest dream did I think it would snap, much less during the one shot I had at a huge whitetail. I mean I have literally been shooting everyday for the last 2 weeks and the one shot I had at a buck is when it snaps. I assume that when I held my bow for that 1 minute at full draw was the last bit of strain it needed to snap.

Now onto my question. how regularly should I be changing my bow strings? I shoot pretty often. In season I probably put about 100 arrows through my bow per week. Another question is about changing the strings. I will take it into my local bow shop but just wondering if this does happen again and I am in the mountains on my 2015 elk hunt? Can I change it myself in the mountains if this were to happen. i suppose the best bet is to change them out before you take a trip like that, but just curious on feedback as I am still fairly new to the logistics and upkeep on a compound bow.

Also anything I should keep in mind when buying new strings/cables for my bow? Are their higher ends ones I should maybe consider that perform better? I shoot a PSE Brute X. I am willing to spend more money on new strings if it makes sense.

I learn something new every time I hunt and this was one of those tough lessons to take, but rest assured a mistake/oversight that will never happen to me again. I am just glad I could learn this lesson on my local whitetail hunt and not when i am standing 15 yards from a bull in the MT mountains in 2015.

thanks for any feedback or insight you all might have after reading this tragic story.

[Kiowa1SG]

How often you change your string is varied upon the strings. I would say always keep an eye on them if you are putting a 100 arrows a week through the bow then its something you would want to look at more frequently for wear and tear.
Did you happen to get a twig or something caught in the lower cam and then pull the bow back? That could wear out a bow string and cause this. I have had that happen to me and its why I have 2 bows. I always bring a back up bow out to the field with me and release. I choose to do this so that if I ever have a problem occur with my bow I simply pick up the other one and put a few arrows in my block to re-assure myself that I am shooting it well still and off I go.

I had a Matthews Solo Cam blow up on me scared the shit out of me. I went back to the truck picked up the Bowtech and continued my hunt.

Been shooting bows for over 30 years and I have only ever had the one blow up on me. I was checking my strings and putting bow wax on them regularly. The only reason I think it broke was because I failed to ensure there was no sticks or grass in that lower cam after walking around the woods.