Advice on...
Bad Design

We have decided to start a page on archery products that we consider to be either bad or dangerous or ill-conceived.
However, unlike so many other articles you may read elsewhere I will try to give logical and in most cases, scientific reasons for my opinions.

Limb Savers:

We do not sell limb savers for the following reasons...

It seems absolutely ridiculous that when limb and string manufacturers have worked hard for many years to reduce the weight of the working parts of any bow, for someone should even consider adding lumps of weighted rubber to reverse all this good work!

It you want to make the bow quieter then try balancing the limbs/cams of whatever bow you have and if all else fails, buy yourself a couple of ear plugs which reduces the noise dramatically!!! ;-)
These ear plugs will not only reduce the noise, but also will not affect the grouping ability of the finely tuned equipment as it was intended to be.

We consider these Limb Savers to be the most stupid gimmick produced this year.

Portable bow presses, particularly the Detowis:

Many of these compound bow presses rely on the user getting small notches properly engaged before use. I have heard of some accidents and quite a few near misses when these presses have slipped in use.
We will not sell these presses as we prefer our customers to have all their fingers.
It is not good enough to say that if used properly they are quite safe, inevitably someone somewhere will get caught out, As there is so much stored energy in a compound bow, all equipment of this type should be totally fool proof.

Glow dots for scopes:

When you aim, your focus should be on the target... If you imagine driving a car and you focus on the bonnet, you will find it difficult to even drive in a straight line.
Whilst this is not a true analogy, it does serve to demonstrate the principle. The glow dot will always try to take your attention away from the target and you will look at the glowing dot. Aiming will become more of a conscious thing instead of a subconscious thing and, as it has done with so many archers, it will lead to some degree of target panic or gold shyness.
Equipment manufacturers have jumped on the band wagon and fed the market with a gimmick that is all too readily swept up by gadget minded archers.

Split Limbs:

For the majority of compound bows these split limbs are nothing to do with good bow design but are purely a fashion fad. Without a shoot through cable system they are far less stable than a one piece limb. They are no lighter. They are no quicker. They are no quieter.
They do twist quicker, they do cause limb and cam flutter when shot. If used on a one cam rig with a short bow the bottom limb twist becomes very noticeable within a very short time. True you can , with the soft yolk system, straighten the limbs, but with time the whole limb starts to lean over.

Large or very Big scope bodies:

It has almost become a race by manufactures to produce bigger and bigger bodies for their scopes. Whilst I have nothing against big scopes as such there are a few thing to bear in mind...

Even with a small scope it is difficult to get enough windage on most sights, The bigger the scope the worse this becomes. There is very little improvement in the image between the smallest scope and the largest, provided that it is a good quality lens and it is clean with no scratches, Remember a coated lens will not last for ever. It lives in quite a harsh environment, and constant cleaning will put micro fine scratches on the surface.

When you look through the peep the subconscious should centre the scope in the peep. If you cannot see around the outside of the scope this will not happen. If the outside of the scope is not round, this will not happen, Also steer clear of totally clear bodies as you can get internal reflection. Remember the reflection that you see in the lens is your head, If you want to see more of the target and less of your head. a really good anti reflective coating is what you want. The rest is just fashion and yet another way for the manufacturers to get you to part with your money.