Caution to All; No matter how many years we've been at this, one slip... and POW... We had a bit of a mishap here at TradTech/Lancaster Archery on Friday... Lee, our lead traditional archery Techxpert had a run-in with a recurve limb tip when stringing a bow via push/pull method... seems the string wasn't in the bottom limb tip notches and "popped" him....

We all have done it(many times) but this serves as a warning to me and all others to take the utmost care or better yet, ALWAYS use a bowstringer to avoid the 6 stitches, pain and risk of permanent injury. Thanks to our staff here, the hospital, workman's comp. and him just being a tough ole' bird, Lee's vision is returning and he should be fine, but he's had a tough weekend, wish him well!

Thanks, Rob Lees Eye on Monday (Small).JPG (20.56 KB) Viewed 255 times Attachments Lees Close Look at a Recurve Limbtip (Small).jpeg (23.3 KB) Viewed 256 times Anything Archery, President of Lancaster Archery and TradTechArchery.com RobK Posts: 33 Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:05 pm Private message

I had a selfbow come out of a stringer once, dang near broke my nose. Learned to make sure the tip of the bow was all the way in. That don't look like it feels to good.

Another Pic from 24 hours after the accident: Here's another pic taken about 24 hours after Lee got hit; Again... USE A STRINGER! Between us over 70 years time, Lee and I have carefully strung 1000's of bows via the in-line push/pull method without torqueing a limb or even a slip of any kind.... It only takes once to nearly ruin your archery career with your chosen eye!... USE A STRINGER!

Thanks, Rob Kaufhold President/Founder Lancaster Archery Supply & TradTech Archery

ouchouchouchouchouch!

Rob, thank you for the reminder! Dang that looks like it hurt like heck!

Lee, bro, ya shoulda known better! I hope you have a complete recovery!

I have used the the step thru method for 40 years on the same bow. If done right and checked the limbs will stay straight and its safe and easy to do. IMHO

Rob -

You really gotta keep an "eye" on that boy ... Ouch.

A friend of mine wasn't so lucky about 15 years ago.

Viper out.

Daggone, that was close. Get better Lee. Truthfully I have had one whack me in the side of the head and I still dont use a stringer religiously. I need to start.

My Dad always told me when I was a kid, that would happen if I looked at nekid ladys in Playboy.:-) You sure it was a bow Lee? :-) Bill G.

Dang, don’t ever do that again!

All I can say is that if the diagnosis is correct, Lee is one VERY lucky guy!

Jim...

I bet he won't say that to a women again, sure it was a bow.

I've heard stories of a local man here in Columbia Mo that was killed doing the same thing Lee did. It happened before I moved here but the local guys that have been in involved with archery along time talk about it.

Limb tip penetrated his brain and he died instantly.

Why risk bow damage and most of all human injury by being in a hurry. Use a stringer.

Thanks for the reminder.

Trap

My cousin did the same thing about 38 years ago. He is right handed and now is left eye dominant. He gave up shooting a bow because he couldn't see that well out of his right eye. I have recently tried to convince him to try shooting left handed, still working on it. I am left handed and have two LH recurves and four LH longbows. I would be willing to give him a bow or two if I could convince him to try shooting again. He had taken two nice whitetails with a recurve before the accident. We didn't even know about stringers back then and I think he is "bow"shy about using a bow again after the accident. I live in NM and he lives in OK. I will try again when I see him at Christmas.

I always use a bow stringer. Wish Lee a speedy recovery.

And here we all thought the DAS/Titan feud was in cyber spase man were we wrong!

It does look like an improvement though..LOL..Just Teasing.

Get well soon.

Yikes, get well Lee!

I use a hybrid that I made, a large pocket for the lower

tip and a smaller leather cup for the upper tip.

Stringing a recurve up in the dark @ 10º above... Stay safe.

Get well soon. I always use a stringer.

Yes your lucky. I made mine out of real thick leather.

Easy for us to say we ALWAYS use a stringer and we are ALWAYS very carefull, but that guy proberly strings more bows in a week than most of us do in a year, so odds are......

I have always used a stringer. Thanks for the reminder and warning to others.

OUCH!!!!!!!!! Hope he makes a full recovery. It's no joke when eyes get injured.

"Life's tough......It's even tougher if you're stupid."

"You can expect to blow it at some point, you are human after all."

I hope you don't work with anykind of power tools. I've worked in a wood shop all of my life and the first rule is....You can never, ever let your mind wander from the task at hand while the tool (table saw, jointer, whatever)is being used. No day dreaming, ever! If I ever felt that "at some point I was going to blow it" while on the table saw and spend the rest of my days going by the nick name "Stumpy" I would never use the saw. If a guy can work on cutting machinery all day every day and still fill up all the fingers on his gloves at the end of the day, it's hard to believe a guy can't concentrate on what he is doing for 10-20 seconds while he is stringing his bow. Keep your thumb over the limb and work the string with your index finger and your hand can never slip off, ever. If you can't concentrate for 20 seconds..... well they do make medications for that.

Thanks to all for the responses. It was a stupid thing to do...Like Rob said, I have strung bows thousands of times this way, and got careless. About 20 minutes before, I had taken my contact lenses out and put my glasses on. The glasses absorbed alot of the impact, and redirected the tip. If I had my lenses in, well.........

Six stitches, a tetanus shot, and a cat scan has convinced me to use a stringer....I just had the stitches removed, and although I still have blurred and double vision, the eye is geting better each day. The cat scan did confirm that I have absolutely nothing going on above my neck!! I plan on hunting our second archery season, but if I still have some double vision, my only concern will be if I see a deer, which one do i shoot?

Seriously, thanks for the well wishes, and please use my incident as proof to always use a stringer.

Lee@TradTech/Lancaster Archery Supply

That is painful to look at. Hope your vision returns to full function. Lesson learned! Bow tips impact quicker than flying shoes.

ttt

just as a reminder. It can happen at any time. use a stringer.

There's another post about this very same thing.It happened to me a few years ago and it's not something I ever want to experience again.My vision is still not the same and never will be.I'm lucky I didn't lose the eye completely.Use a stringer,the consequences aren't worth the risk! This picture was the day after the accident,after the swelling went down a bit.I wasn't in the mood for pictures the day it happened.

Here's another.

man iv seen a lot of gore.. even seen my own bone sticking out of my leg and just looking at your guys eyes make this man cringe. glad you are alright lee.. keep us informed.. and i would agree you glasses saved your eye thank goodness.

chris.

marlon: i use one of them to long tiller a bow. lol.. :)

would suck for one of them heavy bows to wack ya. chris.

John Schulz's brother lost his eye stringing a longbow. He documented that in his book. A bow stringer is definetly the way to go.

Gil

I'm glad your ok Lee.

I see this was posted awhile back. I wish I would have seen it then but like I said in my post(importance of a proper stringer pic) I probably would of still had to learn for myself. I hope you guys are smarter than me.

And John sorry to here that you didn't make a full recovery but thanks for backing me up on my thread. I get the feeling there are still a few that think it will never happen to them because their careful, well I hope their right.

As stated before, I had strung bows thousands of times with the push pull method here, and never gave it a thought.

Like Johnnyrazorhead, my vision is getting better, but is not the same as before. I still have occasional blurred and/or double vision, and when I get tired, that eyelid tends to close. When I wake up in the morning, it is slow to open and focus for a while....some days I cannot get my contact lenses in and comfortable, so I have taken to wearing glasses more than before. When I do alot of computer work or reading the eye gets tired quicker than I ever remember. Probably will never be the same as it was before, so it is a constant reminder to me.

I now use a stringer on any weight bow, even if it takes a little longer. I don't ever want to go through something like that again!

Hope you guys are OK, and everyone else sees this as a learning experience.

Lee @ TradTech Archery

I'm sorry Lee I meant to tell you also that I'm sorry to hear about your accident and I feel your pain.(literaly) I also wear contacts and I just got back from another visit to the doctor and she said everything looked real good considering. But untill I can put a contact back in I wont really know. I never could see very good out of my glasses they are real old perscription. Well I just tried my glasses and everything seemed good except made me feel alittle dizzy and strained my eye muscles. I think I got lucky and I wish you guys the best.~Judo

Im leaving my bow stringed......

That would be strung Jets but thats good one.

Showed my son so he won't forget to use his stringer!

Lee- You made a good point and I feel the same way.Every day since the accident happened,and it's been a few years now,I am reminded of my stupidity.My damaged eye waters more often than it used to,it gets tired,vision gets blurry at times,it's harder to focus on things.Doctors treating me at the time told me I was very lucky that I didn't lose the eye completely.I was told the limb tip did hit my eye and was stopped by the intersection of my eye socket and nose.I fractured my eye socket from the blow.It happened so quickly I didn't realize what had happened at first.Between you,Judo and myself,hopefully the story and pics of our mishap will help prevent it from happening to someone else. Hard to tell from the pics,but I was a very handsome man before the accident.At least I have an excuse now.LOL

Jeez Thank you guys for sharing your experience's (Mike,Lee,John) I am another that always uses a stringer, Ask the old timers how they knew someone was an push/puller,missing teeth,and eyes,lovely zipper scars. No brainer use a stringer Kurt

Sorry for your pain, but thanks for sharing as it is a good lesson for others to see:) You'll always find in my posts on stringing a bow while using the push-pull method, I preach that you must make a habit of turning your head away. String the loop into the nock groove by feel, never look or you will surely pay in the long run.

Good luck on your recovery:)

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