# Mathews Harmonic Damper Help Needed



## McGunner (Jul 27, 2004)

Yesterday morning I took a shot at a doe and apparently right as I dropped the string on her my arrow fell off the string.........WHACK, first time I have ever had this happen ordry fired a bow and it made me SICK as I have had the bow for one year and one week. It is a Mathews Switchback XT and I have been very pleased with it.

So this morning I take it into the dealer and have him give it a look over and he tells me that I am lucky as there is no apparent damage to the bow. He said the limbs look fine, cams are good, timing was still good, but suggested that I change out the string sometime after this season.

I was planning on going out this evening and went into the back yard to check it out and see how it shoots with some practice shots. I shot about 12 arrows and noticed that the sights are off now. I am shooting high quite a bit. I assume this is due to the shock the bow sustained? My problem is this; I went to shoot my last arrow before attempting to make the sight adjustments and as I came to full draw the harmonic damper in the top string suppressor fell out on the ground. I have not shot it since thuis occurred as I don't want to hurt anything on my bow until I get some advice. I inspected the piece that fell out and it has a pronounced crease along the face of it and the brass center has fallen out of it. 

Was this caused from the dry fire and can I replace it with another damper? If so, where do I find replacement dampers? Is it safe to shoot without having this in place?


----------



## X-Tech (Nov 13, 2008)

I'm not familiar with the string supressors Mathews is currently using but if it is the same/similar design as the riser ones, it just the rubber with the brass/aluminum weight floating in it. I've never had one of these come out of the riser and it takes some gentle persuasion to get these out.  

In should be shaped like: 


llllllllllllll__llllllllllllll
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
lllllllllllll.....llllllllllll


I think the crease you're refering to is what wedges into the rubber lip (the pic isn't working it should look like a fat H).

If this is the peice, just wedge it back in there (a little Windex will help) and you should be ok. It the dealer looked it over, I wouldn't worry about these. They do help with the vibration dampening. A dealer should be able to order these, but there pretty tough.

Maybe post some pics if this isn't what you're talking about.


----------



## PA.JAY (May 26, 2004)

couple things #1 your dealer just looked over your bow said it was still in time well BS your top string suppressor wouldn't have a big cut in it if it was in time. #2 he should of replaced it when you were @ the shop. # 3 your probably shooting high because your string is stretched lowered your nocking point. take it to a good shop or learn to do it your self you would be better off. their the easiest bows to tune with the right equipment . o-ya take the other out & you can still shoot it.


----------



## X-Tech (Nov 13, 2008)

Are you talking about the rubber bumper in the string supressor or the actual harmonic dampner?


----------



## McGunner (Jul 27, 2004)

Here are some photos of what I am talking about.


----------



## McGunner (Jul 27, 2004)

I went out in the back yard this afternoon and shot it once again and adjusted the sight to where I was hitting at 20 yards. 30 yards and out was a different story however and I thought this was unusual given my sight.

I plan to restring the bow as soon as possible, but I am curious as to whether or not I can replace the harmonic damper (see photo) that fell out of the string suppressor (see photo with hole in it where the damper goes).

Unfortunately I couldn't get the small slice to appear in the photo, but it is there (an indention that when you manipulate it you can see where it is split).

I went ahead and shot it with the lower one still in and it didn't seem to make any difference, but I am not 100% pleased either with the lack of time that was devoted to my problem while I was at the bow shop. I felt good with his answer (hopeful), but now have different feelings after having read the responses here to my post.

Any more advice would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## X-Tech (Nov 13, 2008)

You should be able to get the new rubber peice from any Mathews dealer. 

You can still shoot the bow without this peice in it. Shooting without this probably won't make much of a noticeable difference; but in all theory, you may notice slightly more shock.

As for the timing of the cam, these things don't have anything to do with that. They just sit in the extensions and absorb shock. I'd be concerned if the rubber bumper that "catches" the string was messed up, but not these.

Mathews used to put two small holes in their bottom cam so you could take a straight edge across these and it should be parallel with your string if timed/rotated correctly. Not sure if they still do this or not, but this is probably what the dealer checked. You can probably spot these if there still there. They look just about the same size as a threaded module hole but there not threaded, so they'll look a little out of place.

Do you have any of your own measurements from the bow pre-incident such as peak/current poundage, nock height, etc...?

I'm sure it will work out. I see this quite a bit. If you trust your dealer, take the bow back and let them know that something is not right and explain what you're experiencing when shooting.


----------



## McGunner (Jul 27, 2004)

I called a friend of mine and got to talking to him and he reminded me that an old archery pro shop owner that we used to have in my area had re-opened in another town. I looked him up and found his website, called the number (only open part time now) and got referred over to his cell phone which he answered. Long story short, took it in to him, he checked it out and everything is good to go. The reason that I was shooting high was because the kisser button was not mounted back in the original location when it was replaced. I have the harmonic damper replaced and have the pins set back up and am back to shooting some good groups back to 40 yards and it is just as quiet as before.

I am going to go back out this evening and try to find a doe to redeem myself (already filled my buck tag) if I can. Went goose hunting this morning and we had light snow mixed with some light rain as part of a cold front that's moving through the area. I'm hopeful this gets the deer moving this evening. I'm still going to replace the string at the end of the season just for my own peace of mind though.

Thanks for the help guys. I am both happy and relieved.


----------



## X-Tech (Nov 13, 2008)

Good to hear the bow is up and going again! Hope you found that doe!

Save yourself some grief and measure your peep and kisser button distance from you nock as well as your nock height. This way you'll be able to get back in the game quicker. Just jot all this down on a 3x5 and stuff it in your tool box.


----------



## McGunner (Jul 27, 2004)

I guess for once I was just lucky. Good advice on taking and saving those measurements. I will do that. Lesson learned and hopefully I won't ever have to deal with this dilemma again.Thanks again to everybody for the assistance.


----------

