Hoyt Axis - limb conversion with household objects!

For the uninitiated, the Hoyt Axis does not take international fitting limbs, it has it's own proprietary hardlock system. (Unless you have converted it, such as this Aussie.)

So, we have this:

and we want this:

(apologies for blurring)

Tools:

The spiky thing is actually the base of a bow stand. A 6" nail works equally well and reduces the chance of you smacking your hand slightly. The others are self-explanatory: hammer, vernier calipers, Sharpie marker. And a roll of masking tape helps.

So, unscrew the cap on the top of the limb with the ILF system and remove the spring and pin, so you're just left with the limb containing the bit on the right.

Now, this is fairly well embedded in the limb, but unless you've been cursed and bought some second hand limbs where they've played about with this, it's not glued in.

Notice how the nail-type thing looks like it would fit?

And it will in fact stand up in it like a little inkwell - isn't that cute!

So, either side of the remaining bit of metal in the limb, we wrap something. Socks work well.

Do this bit sitting down... for obvious reasons, there's no photos of me doing this bit!

Place the limb on your knees as above, with the detente fitting (bit of metal) between your legs. You only want an inch of gap between your knees, if that. Now go up on tiptoes. This has the effect, combined with the socks, of softening the effect of what you're about to do to the limb, as there'll be a bit of give from your calves cushioning it. (This might be total rubbish. I have yet to knacker a limb doing it this way, so I'm going to keep doing it, thank you!)

Put the nail in the detente fitting and use the hammer.

Repeat till it falls out.

Now to put the Axis fitting in:

As you can see, the female part of the hardlock system goes in from the lower side of the limb.

This is easy, just place the middle piece of metal in the above picture underneath the limb, and gently...

Just hit the fitting itself, they're fairly sturdy things and you won't damage it seriously by hitting it a few times with a hammer.

If you get this wrong, and smack it at a funny angle, you can really kill your limbs because you'll force an edge in between laminations or something. Just don't do it. Get it straight, and go gently. (On this pair of limbs, one took three attempts to get it right and about five minutes with the hammer. The other limb took one attempt and about six gentle thwacks. Go figure.)

You now have a pair of limbs that fit your Axis! Job done!

Part II: Removing the Axis hardlock system!

Why would you want to do this? Well, suppose you're trying to flog an old pair of limbs? They won't fit anything but an Axis, and you've then given away a precious set of limb fittings.

It's much the same as taking out an international fitting - unscrew and remove everything you can.

But, you can't just use a nail to get the hardlock bit out! The hole in the middle is too big!

However, the female part of the hardlock system is a multipurpose tool!

See, by putting it in the top of the limb, the way we want to apply force to remove the fitting, it narrows everything enough to give us our little inkwell again!

So, now your nail (AxisFittingRemovalTool - patent pending!) fits the thing, wrap it in socks, rest on knee, and once more, with feeling:

You get the idea by now.

Part III: tidying up

Soo, why did we have the vernier gauge? Because after you've done this, you will want to check your alignment. This is where it becomes painfully clear that the accidental smack that missed the nail/limb fitting and clobbered the limb was in fact a Bad Thing (TM).

So, shove a bit of tape on the limb and then measure exactly the width and make a mark.

Like, for example, the middle of the O of Hoyt. You can do this at as many places as you like and then just stand behind the bow and line them up:

Don't have it resting on anything, if you can - failing that, just don't let it move the limbs when you lean it against a doorframe.

Adjust as necessary, remembering that with an Axis, when you adjust tiller etc you HAVE to loosen the limb alignment system otherwise you bend the thumbscrews.

I was lucky, my new set of limbs worked first time and needed no faffing.

Disclaimer: I am in NO WAY affiliated with Hoyt USA or any of it's related companies besides having shot their bows for several years. I cannot be held responsible if you bugger your nice new set of limbs because you followed any guidelines on this webpage, or for any injuries incurred when you discovered your target panic does in fact migrate to a hammer and you flinched the hammer away from the limb and shattered your kneecap. If you find a quicker and easier way of doing this, which still only requires objects that can be found in the average home, I would be interested to know. If you want to tell me that it's safer to do it using a vice and two bits of wood to press the bushing out gently, you can f**k right off. If I had a vice, don't you think I would have used it?

I just know I've done it this way several times now, and am still shooting the most awesome bow on the planet.

Hoyt Axis FTW.