Help with Bow Setup please!

[Witchie Poo Cat]

Hi Guys

I wonder if you can help me please. The various parts of my first bow have just arrived and I have been trying to assemble it with no luck. I have a Hoyt GM riser and some Samick limbs (with international fittings).

Please can someone tell me if the limbs should just slot in easily into the riser. I cant get them in at all. I line up the little button in the groove inside the pocket but it will only go in a little bit. I dont want to apply force 1 - because I get the feeling something is wrong and 2 - dont want to twist the limbs or break them.

At the bottom of the limb pockets there is a grey plastic thing which the end of the limb fits into. This is positioned at the side opposite the groove rather than flush against it. Could this be part of the problem?

As you can tell Im totally new to this, Ive never seen someone set up a bow in my life before so please excuse my ignorance here.

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

Witchie Poo Cat

[Kae]

The plastic grey bit is the weight adjustment. At the setting it is now, it will be the lowest setting, so doesn't need to be changed. The limb has to be angled as your putting it into the slot, so that the bottom of it clicks into the grey bit at the base of the riser.

There is a knack to it, and sometimes its easiest to let an experienced archer show you the first time.

[Thunk]

Originally Posted by Witchie Poo Cat

Hi Guys

I wonder if you can help me please. The various parts of my first bow have just arrived and I have been trying to assemble it with no luck. I have a Hoyt GM riser and some Samick limbs (with international fittings).

Please can someone tell me if the limbs should just slot in easily into the riser. I cant get them in at all. I line up the little button in the groove inside the pocket but it will only go in a little bit. I dont want to apply force 1 - because I get the feeling something is wrong and 2 - dont want to twist the limbs or break them.

At the bottom of the limb pockets there is a grey plastic thing which the end of the limb fits into. This is positioned at the side opposite the groove rather than flush against it. Could this be part of the problem?

As you can tell Im totally new to this, Ive never seen someone set up a bow in my life before so please excuse my ignorance here.

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

Witchie Poo Cat

Yes Witchie, the limbs should 'click' in to place without too much pressure. They need a bit of a push to get them in, and then click in so that (theoretically) they don't fall out under their own weight.

The 'plastic' thing you can see should be metal (!), either a ring or a box structure (depending on which model GM you have acquired) and should be at the end of a rod running through the limb pocket. It should indeed be on the opposite side of the pocket to the groove. The cutout on the riser fits over the rod behind that metal ring, or into the 'box'. When this is done, screwing the rod round from outside the riser moves the metal ring or box back towards the groove, the limbs pivot on the little button and the tips move forward as a result - this is how you wind up the poundage to increase the draw weight of the bow.

If you can't get the limbs over the rod without excessive force, something is probably obstructing them. Get someone at you club to help, or come to Chiltern on Satuday and we'll sort you out soon enough!

[Thunk]

Sorry Witchie - I've just realised there is more than one Chorley! I assumed (being a big soft Southerner!) that you were in Chorley, Hertfordshire - but I'm told it's more likely to be Chorley, Lancashire? If so, it's rather a long way to come just to get your bow set up!

If you are still having problems, get back to us. Either I or someone else will take some piccies to help show what you should be doing.

[Witchie Poo Cat]

Hi guys

yes, its chorley lancashire im with but thanks for the offer of bringing the bits and bobs down to chiltern anyway

In theory I know what im supposed to do, i can see how the limb fits into the pocket, I just cant get the stupid thing to go in! it goes in a little (both limbs) but wont click down fully into place. Doesnt look like anything blocking the way, must be the angle thats not right although I seem to have tried everything and stopped short of throwing the whole lot out the window! lol

Any help, or tips, to get these limbs in would be greatly appreciated.

[Tarkwin]

Originally Posted by Witchie Poo Cat

Hi guys

yes, its chorley lancashire im with but thanks for the offer of bringing the bits and bobs down to chiltern anyway

In theory I know what im supposed to do, i can see how the limb fits into the pocket, I just cant get the stupid thing to go in! it goes in a little (both limbs) but wont click down fully into place. Doesnt look like anything blocking the way, must be the angle thats not right although I seem to have tried everything and stopped short of throwing the whole lot out the window! lol

Any help, or tips, to get these limbs in would be greatly appreciated.

If it's new, the paint might have been applied a little liberally. I was shooting a pair of limbs that needed pressure from the bow being strung for them to click fully into place...

T.

[geoffretired]

To keep you from going mad before someone else has a look at your bow, you may try this.
Cut a piece of thick card (Cereal packet or thicker) into the shape of the limb ends. When you cut out the small piece from the bottom edge, do it carefully, a little at a time so you don't cut out more than the same amount as on the original. Then gently try to push the card into the limb pocket. If the cut out is too small you can make it bigger with knife or scissors until it just fits over the bar at the bottom of the pocket. When it fits, see if the cut out on the limbs is the same size or smaller. The other possibilty is that the limbs are too wide at the end. Again, use card that just fits inside the box at the bottom and see how the card compares to the actual limbs.
If it seems that the sizes are fine, it may just be that you are too gentle with them.If the card is not a good match to the limbs, it could very well be, as Tarkwi said, the varnish or paint build up keeping them out.

[Witchie Poo Cat]

aaarrrggghhh!! This is driving me nuts! lol

Ok, just so you know, the riser is the one that RadarUK had advertised on the board, I bought it from him. The limbs are new samick ones.

Fantastic idea about the cardboard template, did that and the template fits like a glove and is an exact match to the riser in width and shape of cut out. However, am wondering about the paint on the riser end, maybe thats it?

Got hubby to have a go trying to put the limbs in but he cant get them in either so its either a technique problem, a paint problem or we are both weaklings

Have my archery lesson tonight so I might just accidently put my bag of tricks in the car and ask a nice coach to show me how it should be done before I ruin these nice new limbs before Ive had a chance to use them!

Thanks for the advice, any more thoughts still very welcome!

[Thunk]

Originally Posted by Witchie Poo Cat

Have my archery lesson tonight so I might just accidently put my bag of tricks in the car and ask a nice coach to show me how it should be done before I ruin these nice new limbs before Ive had a chance to use them!

That's the best idea yet!

When he's got the limbs into the riser, ask him sweetly about setting the bow up for you - it's not quite as simple as plugging in the limbs and putting a string on!

Let us know how you get on, Witchie!

[geoffretired]

Just a thought. Have you shone a torch into the limb pockets? There is a small chance that a flake of metal is still inside the boxes that could be keeping the limbs out. It may not show up under normal lighting but the torch will probably cause a shadow to be cast if there is a flake around.