My Martin Lithium Limb Snapped!

emrah1028

New member
Joined
Aug 31, 2011
Messages
540
Location
Victoria, MN
My lower limbs snapped at full draw the other day. I'm not happy. It's a 2014 Lithium with the X4 limbs. I bought it used on AT and it looked brand new, but you can never guarantee it's never been dry fired, can you?

I've shot the thing at least 300 to 400 times since I got it, so I doubt anything was wrong when I got it due to dry firing. I've had it turned down 5 turns off max down to 40lbs. It was my small game hunting bow and still shooting 204 fps! In fact, we were chronographing our bows and I cranked it back up to max (60lb) and it snapped at full draw.

I'm wondering this: do you think having it turned down to such a low poundage was bad for it and I inadvertantly damaged it? Like the limbs end up TOO loose and stress back and forth due to lack of tension? The manual from Martin says do not turn it more than 5 turns (which I didn't). When I called Martin to tell them what happened, the girl on the tech line said, "oh, we are told in the shop to no go more than 4 turns". When I told her the manual says 5, she says, "oh? really? Huh."

It's not a popular bow and I can't find used limbs for it anywhere. Limbs from the factory are $175 or $140 through a dealer. They say 2-3 weeks, but they had a fire at their facility and burned to the ground in early July, so I doubt they'd get anything for months.

Do I hang on to the riser and wait for the off chance some limbs show up cheap on a bow site? Do I even trust Martin limbs after this? They HAVE had QC issues a few years ago. Do I cut my losses and toss it all in the trash?

Bummed.

Emrah

P.S. No, Martin will not replace the limbs without original proof of purchase. They guy I bought it from doesn't have it either. Don't really want to spend $140 on new limbs for a bow I bought $290 shipped.
 
I think you would be fine ordering new limbs. I'm guessing it would take a bit longer with the incident that happened at the factory. Also I looked in the manual does show 5 turns and a weight variance of 15 pounds so I'm not sure how you got it down to 40? Hard to say what actually caused the issue especially not knowing what the use was prior to buying.
 
Last edited:
Maxed out I was at 58#. With 5 turns off I was down to 40.5#. Do you think having so little poundage hurt the limbs? I really can't see how?

Also, it is a split limb design and BOTH lower limbs broke in a straight line across, about 2-3 inches from the limb pocket.

This is my small game/backup bow to my Z28 so it's not like I'm down for the count. If it's some I did, I'm ok waiting and saving up for limbs. If it's a QC issue, it would be hard to trust.

Emrah
 
I'm surprised they aren't taking care of it, I had a limb start to delaminate on one of mine a couple of years ago and they couldn't get it fixed fast enough. Like you said though, you never know how it was treated by the previous owner.
 
Not sure what arrows you were shooting and I don't know enough to tell you what spine you should have on your arrows. But if the arrows weren't spined heavy enough for the increased poundage it can have the same effect as dry firing the bow.
 
.400 spone Bemans cut to 29". Total weight 400-ish grains with 100gr small game blunt or DRT broadhead. Plenty good. I shoot that in my 60lber

Emrah
 
I'm surprised they're not taking care of it as well. I bought an elite GT500 from a friend after I had all of my gear stolen from my locked truck. Shot it for 3 years and was great. Shot it once this summer for 20 or so shots. Next time out I draw back and I'm thinking this feels light. Next thing I hear is this horrible cracking sound. Limb delamination. I contact elite, they would have warrantied it but the previous owner had it custom dipped so that was void. I was out 160, oh well. Beats 1200 for a new one. I also found out because of this issue that elite has an awesome thing going. If your on a hunt and something happens to your bow. No matter what it is, you call them with your draw length and weight. They'll overnight you a tuned bow ready to shoot. Just site it in. Free of charge. Obviously have to send the loaner in, but talk about customer service!!

Now as for your issue. I generally don't like backing my bows off. I'm forever paranoid about backing them out too far and the bolt stripping or something. Just seems when you back them off that you allow movement that doesn't need to happen. Does that movement transfer to the limbs? I have no idea. I'm not an engineer. I keep my bow pegged. When I can't pull 70, I'll drop to 60. As my own personal preference I'll never own a split limb bow. No real substantiated reason, just my preference. Glad you're OK though. Broken limbs at full draw is never good. Tons of energy being released in an uncontrolled manner.
 
I just sent it off today to Dave Barnsdale. He said he doesn't offer limbs for the Lithium (or newer Martins for that matter) but he'd take a look to see what he could do. No promises. We'll see what happens.

Emrah
 

Forum statistics

Threads
110,805
Messages
1,935,124
Members
34,884
Latest member
Irish-Jay
Back
Top