# life expectancy on a riser and limbs?



## dchan (Jun 29, 2004)

It's probably more about how much you shoot than how long the bow will last. If you are shooting 8-10 hrs a week, I doubt you will ever "wear out" a riser. Same with any current decent quality limbs. At 30lbs you really are not "stressing" a riser.


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## sandperson0 (Mar 16, 2015)

That's good to know...on a good week, I can shoot for a total of 3 hours


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## zal (May 1, 2007)

My current main riser was made 1998-1999 and has been used heavily by couple of shooters before me, one in particular shot a lot, always close to 50#. The colour is a bit faded, but there aren't even any large scratches and it is as straight as ever. But it's an Axis, so you can't really harm them even driving over them, as my friend demonstrated some years back with his riser.

I have some limbs from ~1995 which have been shot a lot, and are in very good shape. But I've had top of range limbs go after few days or shooting, so you never know with limbs, there are more variations in manufacturing processes.


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

Main deciding factor is the quality of the limbs and riser.

I'm still shooting my original Earl Hoyt Jr. SKY Jack Carbons that I bought from Ann in 2003. I estimate (conservatively) that both pairs have over 50,000 shots on them, and one set may even be pushing 100,000 shots by now. I cannot detect any issues whatsoever and they have not lost any weight. The old wives tale that recurve limbs lose weight over time may only be true for inferior quality limbs. It's certainly not true with mine.

Buy good quality gear and you are likely to enjoy it for 20 years if you take decent care of it.


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## Viper1 (Aug 21, 2003)

sand -

There are very few decent metal ILF risers you will ever wear out (unless seriously abused - like running them over with a truck).

Wood core limbs, especially wood/glass limbs may also outlast you.
Some of the newer high-end carbon core, maybe not so much. 
I've seen (owned) some that "destabilize" in as little as five years with heavy use. 
By destabilize, I mean loose some degree of precision without obvious cause. 

Viper1 out.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

I've got an old Golden Eagle bow (Root Archery) that was made in the 70's...still shoots very well. knowing that, I can't see where you'll wear out a modern bow.


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## dmacey (Mar 27, 2015)

20,000 years from now, some archaeologist is going to come along and dig your rig up from wherever it finally ended up, brush it off and go shoot a tournament with it. And he'll probably win too. Then it'll go into a museum as an ancient artifact until it's buried again for the next 20,000 years for the next archaeologist to find it. Same thing will happen to my Win & Win and Axiom + limbs and probably to everyone else's rigs on here too.

In other words, no, you'll never actually wear that rig out. SF is good stuff and you should be able to shoot it for as long as you want. The limbs yeah maybe eventually you might have a problem years from now, and you'll have to make a new string from time to time, but that riser and the rest of the gear, nah.... 

One of our locals shoots an old wood Hoyt Medalist from the 60's barebow. It still shoots and looks like brand new...

DM


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## calbowdude (Feb 13, 2005)

I just pulled out my 10+ year old PSE Xpressions out of mothballs to shoot. They are probably over 100,000 shots now. I just checked their draw weight against when they were new, and have lost maybe 0.1#. That difference is probably not statistically significant. 

And they still shoot, I just managed a good 50 meter score with them. 

I have never broken or bent a high quality aluminium riser.


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## zal (May 1, 2007)

I dug some notebooks from the years I was training properly, back then I was keeping quite good accounts of all things relating to training. A pair of Winex limbs that I used for couple of years as my main limbs were used to shoot about 120,000 shots (4 years, best year 45,000 shots) before starting to delaminate. Another pair of Samick Ultras was used by me to shoot about 90,000 shots, and is still being used as an hobbyist weekend shooter.

So for someone who shoots maybe 200-300 arrows / week max, I think limbs will last for quite a while.


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