# Mathews Monster MR5 uncorrectable tear away



## RamboZ7 (Nov 17, 2011)

Have you ever taken it to a pro and had them set it up on a lazer to line everything up. I know that sounds weird, but i think id try something like that first. Here its like 20 or so bucks.
also what rest are you shooting. I just have a hostage on mine. I bought my MR5 in 2011 and love it. I shoot carbon express blue streaks with blazer vanes also. No issue with clearance on them. 
I know thats not a good answer to your questions as ive never had this issue.


----------



## Crookedrecords (Jun 15, 2009)

This is how I replied to a similar post here on archery talk. I cut and pasted the reply. This may be your problem as well...

I had some pretty severe cam lean on my MR7. It was driving me nuts trying to figure out what it was. I first thought it was hand torque and after I installed an aftermarket torque less grip I thought it was arrow spine because I was still getting insane tail right tears while paper tuning. At rest the cam lean didn't seem so bad but after finally building myself a drawboard I found that both the top and bottom cams went from about 1/4 to 3/8" to the outside of the string (using both an arrow shaft or staightedge against the cam measuring at the nockpoint) to over 1 1/2" at full draw I instantly knew what my problem was....Cam Lean. Also, I have an old wrist injury that I thought could have been causing my trouble at first. I used to draw my bow and then take a peak up and down at each cam and they would always look way off. I would literally have to grab the grip and twist to get them to line of with the string...I knew this couldn't be good because I had no way to reproduce the same pressure for each shot and my accuracy suffered.
So, I too searched high and low for a solution. I also found that video. I also read a suggestion to "serve" the yoke on the MR7 as a way to keep it still and allow some adjustment on the limbs but I could never find a good way to do it that I would trust to last forever withought moving. What I eventually did that worked PERFECT was to shim the limbs. I bought a bowmaster bow press with the split limb adapter (yes it works on an MR7 as per their own instructions an MR7's limbs are not past parallel at rest so it works....). I pressed the bow, took off the string and cables let off the tension and inspected the limb pockets, the axles and bearings to try to find out what was going on. My cams were leaning the opposite direction of the cables and the cable guide. I think it may have been purposefully engineered that way to offset the effects of the cables and guide but over did it a bit? I don't know. In any case, I took a few plastic hotel room keys (the ones that look like credit cards but without any raised lettering) and cut out two shims that would fit snug in the limb pocket and be held in place by the limb and help offset the lean.

I put everything back together and re-tested...better but not perfect. One more layer of hotel keys per limb. Re assembled and Perfect! Put it on the draw board. Checked timing, then draw weight and finally cam lean with a straight edge at full draw and it was less than a sixteenth of an inch at the nockpoint. My MR7 is now a tackdriver shooting lasers. My centershot is now right where it should be. I can now shoot a bare shaft from 20 yards and hit within 1/4" of my fletched arrows and it goes in straight. My bare-shaft testing used to be so bad that I thought my shaft was going to snap. Broadhead tuning with shuttle T's is now perfect at 30 yards as apposed to 6" or more to the left. I am really starting to enjoy my bow again instead of contemplating suicide every day.
Finally let me say that this is what worked for me for my specific problem. I am not a trained bow tech and I am not qualified to give advice. My bow could very well blow up tomorrow and so could yours if you follow this advice. All I know is that my bow was useless to me in that shape. I was at my wits end and at that point it didn't matter to me if I did destroy the bow because I couldn't stand to shoot it any longer and there was no way I could ever sell it and pass that headache on to anyone else. I hope my experience can possibly help someone else...


----------



## highpoundage (Nov 20, 2010)

Ok, so here is the deal after all of this time...Mathews parts flat out do not fit. They are also unwilling to do anything about it. The new Creeds and Chills come with "factory shims", blue on the Chills and red on the Creeds ....talk about putting a cheap band aide on a huge problem.

Facts so far - limb pockets don't fit on some models
limbs do not fit inside the limb pockets on some
limb pockets float around on some risers, hence the new locking limb pockets I have heard about

These issues cause the bow to rattle and shift over time...center shot is all over the place.

Here is what has happened since my original post - the bow was sent back to mathews multiple times, once I got it back 6 pounds over weight and they thought it might have a 80 pound limb mixed in there with the other 70 pound limbs, the last time after they restored it to "factory specs" (notice they did not fix it, but moved the parts back to the correct position, just to have them shift apart again) I then dropped the bow off at the dealer and I left it there in early spring. I contacted the State Senators office after giving mathews over one month to return my voice mail message that I left there twice without a response, but it fell into a loop whole at a Federal level since it is not a fire arm even though it is a deadly weapon specifically designed to KILL. Remember that these mathews bows CAN NOT be fixed without shims and locking down the limb pockets...it is no different the buying a gun with a bent barrel...it will never shoot right. I then contacted the State firearms and because it does not explode, they could do nothing....I then contacted the State Attorney General, and finally on the second attempt from the Attorney General mathews responded with a complete and total bull **** response...Only a week and a half before their response I took the bow back because this store only had the space for about 12 other bows in the back of the store and mine was taking up a lot of space there for months. Mathews said that my bow was not there, even though when I contacted the store they could not verify whom they talked to or if they ever did call (the dealer has more then 1 location)...Thankfully the store itself sided with me since they know everything about it and refunded all of my money. 

Without further proof, the Attorney General could not continue. Mathews did and always will use "User Error" when trying to defend itself...again pay attention to returning to "factory specs"...I will repeat here...the parts do not fit, factory specs means nothing. They also went as far as to say that I altered the bow which would have voided the warranty, but of course they put new limbs on it several times per warranty...what a bunch of bull ****. 

There is also a complaint at a consumer safety division of the government that was started by the Senators office...again these bows are deadly weapons and Mathews should not be permitted to get away with ripping off all of their customers. If I was a attorney, I would have sued them since since my friend had 2 bows, I had 1, and another person that I know of that works at the store also had one and all of these had the same issues. I also made a few random calls to mathews dealers across the country and asked them to see if any of their new bows on the rack had any of these issues and sure enough a bunch of them did..this was also when I first found out about the limbs shifting in the limb pockets. I also bumped into two guys with 2012 MR6 models over this past summer, one of them had his vanes cocked off to the side on his drop away rest for clearance issues against the cables and both bows had off set strings from one cam to the other...both guys thought that their bows were shooting fine...I dont know if they are competent shooters or not but I did go into great detail with them as I will latter in the thread...Both of their bows were showing some signs of issues that might later manifest on these guys also. 

This was on their Conquest Triumph, Monster 6, MR5, the above referenced MR7, and I have no doubt, but I can not prove on all of them. 

Symptoms that your mathews bow is failing and you were also a victim of being ripped off - 
- If you look right off of the cam and follow the string to the other cam and the string is slightly off of a straight line angling either to the left or the right of the cam closest to you (this causes bad nock travel and the limbs or limb pockets have shifted)
- If one or more limbs is visually off set or cocked in or out (center shot issues, cam lean, and bad nock travel)
- If you are having cam lean when the bow is at rest (same as above)
- If you have clearance issues with a blazer vane hitting the cables (limbs have shifted position and the center shot is way off)...REALLY,a hunting bow clearance issues with the most popular Blazer Vanes for most people...REALLY!!!!
- If the bow seems very loud or unusually loud even with a heavier arrow compared to what is was before.
- If you are having serving issues right were the string leaves the cam (this is caused from cam lean and the string hitting the cam on recoil...it can be cut...mine almost was)
- If the string, right were it leaves the cam goes off at a slight angle to one side or the other
- If you put a firm hand shake grip on the limbs and feel the move
- If you can pull the limbs apart and then squeeze them back together (again, not much effort will be needed to do this)
- If the bow will not tune no matter what arrow and arrow rest combination are used.

SAFTEY here - If you do not know what you are doing...take the bow to some that knows...do not do this yourself!

My paper tuning regiment is very strict because I shoot up to and past 80 yards so if there is a tuning issue it will manifest down range as well as on paper, but I shoot paper like this, in this order -
- point blank or 30"
- 3'
- 6'
- 9'
- 12'
- etc to the final shot of 14 yards...7 shots in all with most of the tuning issues appearing at the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th shot...you should be able to have a near perfect bullet whole tear in the paper at any of these distances or anywhere in between with a good tuned bow and you will not have any on near any issues at long range shooting.

You can also do various google searches about this issue...mathews limb shims, mathews limb pockets, etc...there is a lot out there about this.

Sorry to bring you the bad news, but I felt that if you have a mathews bow or you know of someone that is looking to buy one...you might want to know about this.

I WILL NEVER BUY A MATHEWS AGAIN....EVER, and neither will a few other people that I know because of mathews failure and not standing behind their products.

You can see how many people have viewed this thread since I first started it and only 2 people replied. The person whom had to shim his limbs was right, thank you for pointing me in the right direction to figure all of this out and to do the research that is now out there.

By the way...contacting your States Senators office for assistance is free along with the State Attorney Generals office if you find yourself in the same mess that I was in.


----------



## highpoundage (Nov 20, 2010)

I finally found some of the photos from the issues I described.


----------



## creed dave (Nov 4, 2013)

I have a 2013 mr5 with plenty of shots through it, with 0 issues


----------



## highpoundage (Nov 20, 2010)

I am glad to hear that...Maybe you got lucky...but don't hold your breath. It takes awhile before a new bow starts to wiggle itself apart. My friends 2010 Monster 6 took almost one year, my 2011 MR5 took about 7 months. After that neither bow was ever the same again.


----------



## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

I must have missed something. I mean, I saw where you were funded fully. So you bought another Monster?


----------



## highpoundage (Nov 20, 2010)

No I did not. I bought a Bowtech Insanity CPX.

However there are several different Monsters that all had the same issues that have been described here.

I first started this thread on 11-17-2012, I was trying to figure out what the problem was. I did not know that the limbs had to be shimmed...I also did not know that the limb pockets did not fit on the riser correctly. 2 people wrote back...the second person was right.

My 2nd post to this thread was on 9-24-2013.....yeah that is how long it took.

I had a 2011 MR5, a friend had a 2010 Monster 6, and I ran into 2 guys that each had a 2012 MR6 during the summer that were starting to show the signs of the bow starting to wiggle and re-align themselves after I inspected their bows visually....Neither guy had a idea, as far as they knew, their bows were shooting fine even though they twisted the arrow on their drop away QAD rests to get a Blazer to clear the cables...just like what I had in the photo - no cable clearance. Both guys were thankful that I took the time to go over everything with them and *IF* everything fell apart on them...they would know why it happened and what was going on.

So in a nut shell, I had one and I have seen 4 other people that all had a Monster...All of the bows either were suffering from all of these issues or they were showing the early signs of these issues....sadly that is 100%. These same issues also effected the Conquest Triumph, Chill, and Creed since the Chills and Creeds come factory shimmed.

You can do a google search and find a lot of other people not only here on archery talk but many other archery forums that also describe the same issues.

The continuation of this thread is now to simply help someone that is experiencing issues and can not tune their bow and watch as they completely miss a target at 20 yards with a broadhead. They watch their arrow miss the target at 50 yards and land in the field and they can not figure out why. These same people are very good shots and tuners, so they know for sure there is something wrong, but they can not figure out what is going on to cause the issues. 

Sending the bow back to Mathews is futile...they do nothing. I was soaked for $80 total in shipping charges, $20 each time...All Mathews does is re-align everything back to "Factory Specs" which doesn't matter because the parts do not fit together and after a new bow falls apart, the re-aligned bow falls apart a lot faster. Mathews also does not match limbs...my 70# bow was returned once at 76# and they thought that one limb was actually a 80# limb. What actually transpired with that I do not know. They did say to ask for matched limbs when I sent it back. 

The photos that I posted shows everything that I have described. The photos clearly show the top left limb sits higher then the right limb, the string angles to the left on the bottom cam to the left (center shot is now out of alignment), the center shot is now out of alignment - no cable clearance, the top limb pocket is angling to the left (which it always did and I never saw another MR5 to compare it to, but not a single other bow that I have ever seen has a cocked limb pocket - see other threads about this...they are here), and finally the same top left limb is crooked in the limb pocket. This was the last time I sent the bow back to Mathews.


----------



## griffwar (Nov 15, 2012)

I shoot alot and I've had no problem's I got 2 XLR8's and 2 MR5's not 1 problem.


----------



## highpoundage (Nov 20, 2010)

I am glad to hear that. 

Can you please post photos just like the series that I did of your bows so that other people can compare their bows to your bows? I would be interested in seeing your top and bottom limb pocket on the riser...Is it crooked or does it sit straight? All of the Monster 6's sat on the riser straight that I saw.

Please also describe in detail your paper tuning regiment and your maximum shooting distance like I did so other people can compare and use as a reference.

*This also includes people that are having issues*...please describe / explain and post good quality photos.

Thanks


----------

