Limb tip covers?

[Stick'em]

How many of you use limb tip covers? Do you shoot with them on? I guess I really don't get the purpose for them unless you have a thin case and run the risk of bumping the limb tips or you regularly stand your bow on its tips.

[Heathen]

I use them on my lower limbs, if I didn't my limb tips would look like crap. The 3D courses I shoot are notorious limb tip destroyers. I also rest my bow against trees while retrieving arrows the lower tip protector protects it from damage.
I'm going to put some on my 66" PSE Jackal I'm all the time hitting objects with the tips.

Jim

[DAS]

The lower limb tip can take a beating when you are hunting. I've had a few instances where the tip has hit the ground, a log, or other obstacle because I got excited and didn't realize I was too close. You can also damage the tip if the bow falls from your hand when you shoot. That happens to all of us sooner or later. If the tip gets damaged enough, the bow or the limb set is a goner!

[Bob Gordon]

They work pretty good as protection but the down side is that they add a lot of weight to the lower limb and will affect how the bow will shoot by changing the recovery speed of the limbs, top will move faster than the bottom limb and the limbs will be out of time, sorta like changing the tiller....warf

[bowshooter74]

is there an alternative? like make just a little piece of felt on the tip? never gave this any thought. :sbrug:

question is is there a nough difference to see a difference? have to try it.

[Bob Gordon]

What will work and weighs nothing is to do a couple wraps on the tip with black electrical tape, will last a long time and will give a measure of protection without messing with the limb timing....warf

[bowshooter74]

Thanks for the tip warf, im going to try it, besides everytime i remove or put on the rubber tip protector i end up splitting it :mad:

I like to remove mine evry so often after a wet day out to clean the moisture out, that should make it easier. :highfive:

[Viper]

Stick -

Gonna go with Warf on this one. Will the weight of a tip protectot REALLY throu off limb timing? :sbrug: Don't know, but it can in theory. The electrical tape "can" too, but given the same theory, a wrap of tape weighs less than the plastic tip protectors. Less is better.

Viper out.

[Heathen]

Stick -

Gonna go with Warf on this one. Will the weight of a tip protectot REALLY throu off limb timing? :sbrug: Don't know, but it can in theory. The electrical tape "can" too, but given the same theory, a wrap of tape weighs less than the plastic tip protectors. Less is better.

Viper out.

If this is the case, if there is much of a weight difference in a set of limbs would it have the same effect? Wood being wood there's a good chance a set of maple lam limbs might have a significant weight difference.
Would it help to put a protector on the upper limbs also to balance it out?

Jim

[Bob Gordon]

Interesting point on limb weight not being the same, never had thouht of that or read anything on it. Even if they did not weigh the same I would think most of the difference would be in the butt ends or in the lower, thicker part of the limb where there is much more limb mass and it would fade out to the tips. Now this is getting to "tec" even for me!!...LOL Just put some tape on it and go shoot the darn thing!....warf

[Viper]

Heathen -

I think that's why guys like Hoyt are still held is such high esteem. The geometry of the fade outs and various tapers aren't choosen by chance, and I have to believe that there's a good amount of quality control to make sure that you don't get a knot in the core under the glass, just deep to the tip overlay. That's why Hoyt makes limbs, and I don't. Also one reason why carbon limbs are more consistant, if bigger than life and twice as natural.

Getting back to the tip protector thing, as I said, I really don't know how much of a difference the weight can make, but it is near the most critical part of the limb. As I said elsewhere, life's a comprimise!

Hopefully O.L. will be along and set us straight!

Viper out.

[The Gray Fox]

I'm going to try Bob's idea because my bows get leaned against trees at 3-D shoots, too, but I may put some on the top end that rests against the tree, too, to protect the finish. What really sells me on his idea, though, is that it is thin enough to let me use my bow stringer without having to take it off. I think we need to have Robert to put up another forum topic entitled something like "Nifty Archer's Tips" or some such thing, possiblly with simple sub-sections like "bows", "arrows" and "accessories" for both new and re-discovered things to make life easier and our stuff last longer. Maybe "The Frugal Archer's Tips." I can see it all now, Bob Gordon with his own half hour TV show sandwiched between Bob Villa and Red Green, just sends chills up my spine.

[James Wrenn]

A lot of guys I shoot with use them on the lower limb of longbows to help when sitting them on the ground.I think the main thing would be to have them on when you tune the bow.You might need a little different noc point to compensate for the way the limbs are moving.On a warfer you could change the tiller a little.I personally just have buggered up tips on my own bows.I have never seen a reason to put something on the limbs I could do without. :) jmo

[Woodduck]

I want one on the bottom for another purpose. If I unstring the bow, I don't want the string coming off the bottom and untwisting, which would change my brace height/tuning...happy trails..... :shooting:

[kawil]

I read somewhere (can't remember where) the idea of using the tip of a rubber baby bottle nipple for a limb tip saver.

I just cut one up the other day, and put it on my recurve. You can cut it so only the tip is covered...not the string nock. Seems to work nice so far. Stringer use has not caused any issues so far either. Neat thing is, they're inexpensive and come in different sizes.

k

[bowshooter74]

hey cool, one more thing to drive my wife nuts about, where having a little one in july now i can cut up here bottles lol. thatll get me in trouble. :shooting:

[Grey Ghost]

Just used my small set of electronic scales and weighed a commerical made Limb tip cover, (57 gr), three turns of black plastic elec. tape (11 gr) and a large rubber band to simulate a baby bottle nipple (43 gr). So tape does win out weight wise over the other two. But, I have learned to shoot all my bows with the 57grs sitting out there and if I got rid of it, I'd probably have to change my nocking pt and retune my arrows. (grin) So I'll probably leave it out there on the end of that long lever.

gg
:2cents: