How To Extend The Life of Your CROSSBOW!

Hi, I'm Chris with Afflictor Broadheads and today we're going to talk about some tips and tricks to extend the life of your crossbow. Stay tuned. So if you followed our channel very long at all, you know that we use crossbows for a lot of different things. We like anything that is archery related, of course. In fact, I typically like to start my season off with my recurve, move into my compound, and then as things get cold and I have to layer on the clothes, I really switch to the crossbow for the rest of the season. It's just another method for me to harvest and I love it. But saying that, the crossbow comes with a little bit of care and today we're going to talk about some tips and tricks to help extend the life and also ways to look for issues before they happen. So when we look at the whole crossbow platform, there's a lot going on here that you should typically look at before season and even during season just to double check that everything is sound. You know, inspecting your strings, your limbs, your whole scope assembly, your trigger box, your AccuDraw if you have one, or whatever drawing system you have. You should take a quick look at all that to make sure that everything is in good repair. What I typically like to do for my maintenance schedule is before season and a couple times during season and after season, I will go through and I will check every bolt. I'll take an allen wrench. I'll make sure that everything is tight and secure from one end starting at the stirrup all the way to the back end for the butt plate and the screws that hold my AccuDraw and this crossbow in place. Checking them all to make sure that they're good and tight. I also like to make sure that my scope is tight to the rail in case it got bumped or moved or anything else. I really like to make sure that this is very secure so I'm not knocked off zero at any time during transport. So it's a really good idea to double check your scope mounts as well. But let's talk about just looking at some general things that you should do to extend the life of your bow. This is the Titan M1 from TenPoint. This has seen over 1,500 shots and I have not changed any strings, cables, no limb issues or anything. One of the first things I'd like to point out is I shoot a heavy arrow. I think if you are shooting a heavy arrow, you can extend the life of your limbs, stay within the parameters of your manufacturer. But if you go a little heavy, you're going to give yourself some momentum. You're not going to notice any massive drop until you get out after 40 yards, but you're also going to save your limbs a little bit of wear and tear. You should frequently inspect your limbs. Check them for any cracks, anything that might have some delamination. And a good way to do that is if you would just take a makeup pad, a cotton pad or a cotton swab. If you take these pads and you open them up and you get the fuzzy side, if you just rub down the limbs all over, if there is anything that's delaminating or coming apart, it will catch in there and you will see it real easy. So sometimes with a visual inspection, since it's camouflage, you could have something that is coming apart on you that you didn't notice, but it'll catch in the cotton. So you can always do this with your limbs. You can do this on your compound as well to double check to make sure that you don't have any issues with your limbs that aren't really highly visible. So it's a good way to check that out. One of the things that is of the utmost importance I think for longevity of the crossbow, the string and the cable is a really good lubricant. Now I do like 10 Points Premium Lubricant. It has a scorpion venom in it. I like that scorpion venom. It really does a great job. When you are lubricating, there are several things that I like to make sure I lubricate. I am going to do the serving. I'm going to do the exposed string portion here. And between the cables, I'm going to do the exposed string portion here. And I'm going to make sure that I get it on there very liberally. And then I'm going to take my fingers and I'm going to work it in the whole way, making sure that I get underneath the whole way down. Same here. I'm going to make sure that I get that as best I can and keep that well lubricated. I'm also going to do the connection points or my loops in my cam. That's a good place to put a little bit of extra in there. You can get in there with a cotton swab if you can't get your finger in the groove. And it's just a little tiny amount. You don't want to have any of this excess or pooling up at all. You just want to keep it nice and evenly spaced as you go around and do that that portion. Rails as well, of course. Now I like to start with a big splotch on the middle of the rail and then I will work that all the way down with my finger. And then I'll go ahead and put a little bit more on the rail here and I'll work it all the way up. You should do this every time that your rail looks or feels dry. But I like to do it when we're shooting a lot and doing a lot of testing. I like to do this every six to ten shots. And I really think that it helps keep everything lasting longer, especially the serving and the string. This is usually the first thing that starts to fall apart is the serving. Especially on a lot of crossbows where you have these tiny axle to axles and they're going back into that trigger box and locking on that small little trigger mechanism. You can start to see fraying here and that's normal. But you can see there is no damage here and this is the original. And of all those shots we haven't had a single issue. But I am religiously applying this six to ten shots to make sure that I'm not having issues there. Another place that I really like to use the Scorpion Venom or the Rail Lube is here in my Accudraw. You can see the areas where this Accudraw really gets some wear. And I've had really good success using this along there as well. Especially those fraying looking areas. You know they get a little bit of wear on them and working that in to that whole thing. And I really haven't had any issues at all with any breakages or any excess fraying. And I think that having that on those strings as well has made a huge difference for me. And has really provided a lot of longevity. Another tip that I found really helpful is if you found yourself in a situation where you've gotten caught in heavy rain and your crossbow has gotten really wet. Or you've had a drastic temperature change and things have gotten real sweaty on your crossbow. When you get home hit this trigger box really quick with a blow dryer. And if you have an Accudraw or another draw system just pop the cover off real quick. Don't touch anything else inside. And dry that off really good with the hair dryer too. That'll prevent any rust or issues and get you a lot farther along. In these two areas you also want to follow your manufacturer's recommendation for oiling and what to use there specifically as well. Make sure that you don't ever use any other oils or any other lubricants on your rails or anywhere else other than suggested by the manufacturer.