Oh boy! Do I know a thing or two about when your bow is making noise? It’s frustrating. Trust me, by the end of this article; your bow will be as quiet as it once was.
Top 4 reasons compound bows make noise:
- Cam mods
- Weights on bars
- Sight bar
- Insert in peep
These are the main items I’ve found to come loose on the bow and make noise. But let’s discuss first how you can easily locate where the noise is coming from.
Just lightly gripping your bow with one hand and gently thumping the riser with your other hand will imitate the vibration of a shot through your bow and allow you to hear what is loose.
You should be able to tell roughly where something is loose. i.e., if it’s close to your rest or your sight. If you remove your stabilizers, hit your bow to test if the noise is still there.
Remove things one by one until no noise is obvious when you hit the riser.
Using this process, you can identify exactly what is loose and tighten it up. However, sometimes it may not be an attachment on the bow. It could be the Mod Screws.
1 Cam Mod Screws
You can usually tell by the noise of the bow if the cam mods are loose, as it will sound like a clicking noise during the draw cycle.
If this ever happens, they are the first things I check. It’s understandable that items become loose every now and then. Check your bow and equipment every 3-4 weeks to ensure everything is where it should be, and you should have no problems with it.
2 Weights
Weights for your stabilizers are another big one to watch out for. If this is what your problem is, count yourself lucky.
Hand-tightening the weights generally does the trick. If you feel it needs a little bit more, every 5/16ths threaded bar comes with an Allen Key cut out at the top to tighten a bit more if you wish.
If your weights are loose, you’ll certainly know about it. It gives off a loud rattling noise that you can’t miss. Tapping the riser will show that the noise is nowhere near the sight or the rest.
A common way that weights come loose is with the generic compound stance
I find when I twist my bow, the end weight comes loose just a small amount. Something to keep an eye on but nothing a hand tightening won’t fix.
3 Sight Bar
One of the most crucial pieces of equipment on your bow is your sight bar. It’s extremely important that it stays tight. However, screws for sights are often small, making them prone to vibration, causing them to come loose and make noise.
I find that once you have each axis set, the tiniest amount of glue (Loctite) will do the job of keeping them square.
Again, like the other items, once they are loose you will hear it. The only problem is there are lots of parts to a sight bar.
You’re going to have to weed out which part is the loose one. You do this by going over each one with an Allen Key and tightening all that are loose.
4 Insert inside Peep
The last one to consider is a bit of an odd one. Through personal experience, this has caught me off guard, so I’ve decided to throw it in the mix.
I couldn’t pin down where the noise was coming from on my bow. I had checked my sight and rest to no avail.
It was as simple as the aperture for my peep. All it needed was a quarter turn back in, and it was right as rain.
Your bow will have a distinctive twang if this is what is loose. You might be confused by the sound as it’s not a common item to come loose, and you may not have heard the sound before.
So now you’re all equipped to deal with that pesky noise coming from your bow. Happy hunting!