Also, never dry fire your bow. (i.e. Never pull and release it if you're not shooting an arrow.) When you pull a bow, you're putting a significant amount of p

Also, never dry fire your bow. (i.e. Never pull and release it if you're not shooting an arrow.) When you pull a bow, you're putting a significant amount of potential energy into it. Your back and arms do work that becomes tension in the limbs of the bow. When you fire an arrow, most of that energy goes into propelling the arrow down range. The bow is designed to do this. If there is no arrow, that energy has to go somewhere. Typically, it goes into vibrations that the bow is not designed to handle. This can cause delamination, cracks or even catastrophic failure in your face. Just because a bow survives one dry fire doesn't mean it'll survive two or three or more. A bow that has been dry fired is not safe to use and needs to be checked out.