How to Hang a Compound Bow: Best Practices and Safety Tips

The compound bow is an intricate and highly engineered piece of archery equipment, designed for accuracy, power, and precision. With its pulley-and-cam system and precisely calibrated strings and cables, proper storage is essential to maintaining the performance and extending the life of your compound bow.

Hanging your compound bow is the ideal storage method, but it must be done correctly to avoid potential damage. Poor vertical storage can warp limbs, over-stretch strings, and throw off finely tuned eccentrics and bearings. Likewise, improper horizontal hanging fails to evenly distribute weight and stress.

This article will provide key tips and best practice advice on how to hang your compound bow for storage, ensuring it maintains optimal function and consistency. We’ll cover the potential dangers of poor storage, proper hanging technique, ideal location factors, and additional maintenance to prolong your investment. Follow these pro tips for keeping your compound bow in top working order during the off-season or between uses.

Step-by-Step Guide to Hanging Your Compound Bow

Step 1 – Selecting the Right Location For Compound Bow

Choose an indoor area to hang your compound bow, avoiding spaces with extreme temperature changes or humidity fluctuations. Pick a location that allows convenient access for regular inspections, tuning, and use.

Step 2 – Preparing the Wall

Examine the selected wall area to find studs or use hollow wall anchors. Measure and mark the desired height, accounting for safety away from children’s reach. Drill pilot holes in the studs or wall surface. Secure the hanger or hooks with suitable hardware that can support the bow’s weight.

Step 3 – Hanging the Compound Bow

With the mount ready, carefully position the compound bow horizontally on the hanger. Maintain the string and cables in their natural shape without over-tensioning. The riser should sit flat to evenly distribute force across the limbs.

Step 4 – Additional Safety Measures

For extra protection, use a bow cover or sleeve to shield the cams and strings from dust buildup during storage. Consider a reusable silica gel pack inside the cover to absorb excess moisture and prevent corrosion. Regularly inspect the compound bow before and after hanging.

Why Proper Storage Matters For Compound Bow

1. Longevity of the Compound Bow

Improper storage can quickly cause compound bow damage. Twisting limbs, over-stretched cables, and worn components shorten its lifespan. Proper hanging distributes weight evenly across the riser and limbs, preventing premature wear. It allows the compound bow to maintain its carefully engineered specs longer.

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2. Maintaining Performance

Consistent accuracy and velocity rely on the compound bow’s calibrated system functioning optimally. Imprecise storage warps limbs, damages string fibers, and throws axles/cams out of tune. Proper hanging maintains string/cable integrity and keeps components in tune for peak performance.

3. Safety Concerns

A compound bow stores massive energy when strung. Poor storage leading to misaligned components or damaged limbs/cables increases the dry fire or limb breakage risk. Proper hanging prevents internal stress and fatigue to vital components, ensuring safer operation and handling. It’s crucial for a controlled, consistent shot.

Dangers of Improper Compound Bow Storage

While a sturdy and resilient piece of hunting equipment when used properly, compound bows are sensitive to storage mistakes that can deteriorate function and consistency over time. Avoid these common storage pitfalls:

Twisting or Warping of Limbs

Hanging a compound bow vertically places uneven stress on the limbs, which can lead to twisting, bending, or warping. This throws off accuracy as the limbs will flex inconsistently upon firing.

String and Cable Damage

Improper vertical storage over-stretches the string and cables since the cams act as leverage points. This leads to premature wear and uneven stretching, negatively impacting arrow velocity, draw weight, and shot consistency.

Component Wear (Cams, Bearings, Axles)

Much like the limbs, hanging vertically applies torque and stress to cams, bearings, and axles. This can accelerate wear, twist components out of tune, and lead to inconsistent firing.

Dust Buildup

Any storage method that leaves a compound bow open and uncovered makes it prone to collecting dust, dirt, and debris. This can gum up moving components and mechanisms.

Best Practices for Hanging Your Compound Bow

When stored properly, hanging is the ideal way to keep your compound bow safe and performance-ready. Follow these pro recommendations:

Use a Compound Bow Hanger or Wall Hooks

Purchase a dedicated Compound bow hanger or use wall-mounted pegboard hooks to evenly distribute weight across the limbs and riser. Specialty compound bow hangers also pad contact points to prevent scratches.

Hang Horizontally

Always store a compound bow horizontally to keep the limbs, cams, strings, and cables in their natural unstressed positions. Gravity should pull evenly down through the riser.

Maintain String/Cable Positions

Whether using a compound bow hanger or individual hooks, ensure strings and cables sit in their default arc and twist pattern. Avoid letting them go slack or over-tensioning.

Keep Inside If Possible

Hanging compound bows indoors allows for climate and humidity control, limiting temperature and moisture fluctuations that can impact strings, axles, and bearings.

Hanging Location Tips for Compound Bow Storage

Where you store your horizontally hung compound bow matters just as much as how you hang it. Position it optimally by considering these location tips:

Keep High and Out of Reach

Even when hung properly, a strung compound bow packs a dangerously powerful dry-fire risk if accidentally released. Hang well above child’s height and safely out of bump range.

Avoid Direct Sunlight

UV light can damage bowstring fibers and cause them to stretch unevenly over time. Keep hung bows away from windows and sunlight exposure.

Insulate From Moisture

Dampness from humidity, rain, and snow takes a toll on axles, bearings, cams, and wheels. Always hang indoors in a weather-controlled space if possible.

Minimize Temperature Extremes

Excessive heat or cold can warp and twist the precisely engineered balance of wheels, cams, and limbs. Hang compound bow away from vents, drafty doors, uninsulated walls, etc.

Allow for Easy Access

Hanging compound bows in frequently accessed areas makes regular inspections, tuning, and practice more convenient. Don’t hide them away fully out of sight.

Additional Compound Bow Storage Tips

Beyond proper hanging technique and positioning, some additional best practices will keep your compound bow primed for optimal performance.

Use a Bow Case for Transportation

Invest in a hard or soft bow case and always place your strung compound bow in it for transport or storage in a vehicle. This protects against bumps, drops, or exposure to rain/snow through the windshield.

Apply String Wax and Lubricate Axles

Before hanging up a compound bow for long-term storage, apply string wax to protect fibers and lubricate axles, bearings, and moving components to prevent corrosion.

Inspect Thoroughly Before and After

Do a visual once-over of the cams, limbs, riser, strings, etc. before hanging to spot any existing wear or damage. Then inspect again before the next use to identify any changes.

Take Down for Extended Storage

For storage exceeding two months, remove the strings and cables and store the riser and limbs separately. This allows a full re-tune and re-string upon the next use.

Conclusion

Getting careless with storage invites huge headaches for compound bow owners. Thankfully, following the recommendations in this guide will help you master proper hanging technique, positioning, and maintenance for storing your compound bow.

Adhering to these best practices will extend your bow’s life dramatically while maintaining its accuracy and power stroke after stroke, season after season.

With the right storage savvy, your trusty compound bow will offer a lifetime of reliable precision in the field or on the range. And you’ll keep frustration at bay by avoiding unnecessary repairs or replacement costs from preventable storage damage.

So reference these tips next time you’re prepping your compound bow for hanging during the offseason or mid-use storage. Consistent adherence will pay off in spades with a finely tuned bow ready for action whenever you need it.