How does the extreme heat and extreme cold affect the performance of a bow?

Say for eg:

40 deg celsuis in SA and -20 deg celsuis in Ant.

I think it depends on the exact plastics in the limbs, but usually the stuff is well-behaved between -15 and +55 C. There is a phase-change in a lot of plastics at -18 to -22C, and I would not travel around the world to use a bow to use a bow at those temps.

I've never had a problem on the coldest winter day here in Ohio. (-15 C ??)

I do think that you can ruin the limbs by leaving the bow in a solar oven (such as a closed vehicle on a sunny summer day) where temperatures can easily reach 80C.

Extreme cold will affect the archer that's for sure. I try to shoot before I go to my stand at least ten arrows when it is really cold just to get the technique right with the added clothing and stiffness of the muscles and bones.

The "inside the vehicle" comment I fully understand.

Just last weekend I had my bow in my bowbox on the back of a bakkie on a farm I was hunting. It was very, very hot and the box was in direct sunlight for a couple of hours - the box is also black - I opened the box specifically to feel how hot my bow was - it was very hot to the touch, surprisingly hot.

I placed a wet towel over the box and a T Shirt under the lid to allow air in.

I am no plasturgy specialist..by far.
Theoritically, heath makes the limbs suppler, cold stiffer. Consequently a bow might seem more shootable when it's hot.
But it's only theory. Practically I doubt one can find any difference.
No precautions seem to be taken when hunting polar bear or musk ox in North Pole. There are no report of breakings during African hunts.

The only plain issue is what tells Don, in any case avoid storing a bow in an overheated vehicle.
Any other issues are not worth worrying.

I can my offer personal experience with archery equipment in what most people would consider below average cold temps. I once hunted for ten strate days in -10* to -15* below zerow weather. The temp for that ten day hunt never rose above zero. My archery equipment remained out of doors for the entire time, both while hunting and while in storrage. I tested it extensively by shooting it a lot every day, and observed no difference in performance or experienced any problems with my equipment what so ever.

I will add though that was with a by todays standards, a quite slow performing compound. I have no idea weather or not if todays ultra high performance bows would be more suseptable to being affected by extream temps. What I do know about the materials used to make todays bows leads me to strongly doubt thay are at all tempriture sensative. When you think about it nothing on a compound experiences anything at all like the tremendous tempriture varrations or stresses there in like any peice of moving equipment like a internal combustion engine always is subjected to while in use.

It would stand to reason that you are courting disaster to leave your bow in the direct sun light, or worce while stored in a black bow case for any length of time, or even storring it in your vehicle out of direct sun light on hot days should be avoided at all costs.

On that trip I truly found out just EXACTLY what is ment by bone numbing cold. This was early on in my hunting life and to say I was ill prepared for temps much below 20* let alone sub zero, was a gross understatement. I look back on that trip now and I am utterly amaized I was able to tough it out in those temps as well as I did. I once got so cold after five hours on stand I found to my compleat amaizment that my hands would not work well enough to sicurly grasp my tree steps in order to get down. In my defence I will offer I was hunting in northern IL durring the last week of October, and that week as it turned out went down in the books as the coldest ever in the history of Illinios for October. It was the first time I ever experienced first stage hypothermia.

I was speaking to a dealer yesterday and we were discussing the delamination of limbs/limb damage that he has experienced. He had a set of limbs that had to returned for replacement - the third time for the same person. He says that he had come to the conclusion - (his personal opinion only) - that this was as a result of the bow being left/transported in a closed vehicle in a bow box for extended periods of time in our hot SA climate.

Interesting................

I shoot my recurve down to about -25c without any problems-the bow works fine. I tend to freeze up though. I find that early season is when I get the coldest because I haven't got my head around to dressing warmly yet. Around here once it cools off just about every hunter experiences some degree of hypothermia on a daily basis. Sitting on a stand is near impossible for me once it gets below -15c that's when a ground blind is more comfy. Now if we can just find someone who has hunted in really cold temps we'll have our answer!!

the chef

Don't know about cold but extreme heat is bad. Back in the 80's my father used to leave his Darton SL50 in his car all the time. Both limbs delaminated.

A friend found that the glue he used to fix his broad heads became brittle on an extremely cold caribou hunt. He switched to an epoxy.

I had a longbow limb delaminate in hot weather. Switched to Gordon Composites BoTuff.

GVA

I/

IMO it shouldnt be a problem for the bow but the bowhunter.

Thread getting a little age but heres my 2 cents. Hunting muskox two "springs" ago saw my archery equipment in -40 degree temps for several days. To avoid larger temperature changes, I kept the equipment outside the entire time. I believe going from -40 to +60 for several days would likely cause damage. Just my unfounded concern. I experienced zero problems with bow, arrows, etc.

IMHO, heat is a much bigger enemy than cold.

Thks. Where did you hunt the Musk Ox and were you successful?

Would you guys agree that in hotter climates hunters use a longer drawlenght than in colder climates, due to the amount of clothing worn?

I filmed an archer last year in Arviat while hunting for Polar Bear. He was shooting a Hoyt and he brought a Block target to practice with. The bow itself worked fine even at temperatures below -40F with ridiculous winds. The only problems he had were with a drop down rest as it would only drop at a very slow rate and it defeated the purpose of a drop down. Also, the Block target refused to give back the arrows at those temperatures. The archer wore a breast plate to keep his down jacket out of the way and drew his bow frequently throughout the days to keep his muscles warmed up. Good luck, James

Besides excessive heat, excessive exposure to UV can really degrade composites. Most bows aren't exposed to both at the same time for extended periods but if it happens the effects can be permanently destructive. This can be addressed with the formulation of the limb resin itself but you truly have no way of knowing what you're getting.

Example: Uncased in a car is a sure fire way to cause issues that can be permanent.

Old steel cable bows had some very real serious problems with cold weather. The cables could shrink more than 1/16" in cold and that causes issues.

Hot glue which is quite popular to secure inserts is almost always a simple thermoplastic. It's quite likely to get very brittle in cold weather. IMO, A cyanoacrylate based glue is a better choice.

If you're worried about your equipment in cold, then freeze it in a freezer overnight. Shoot the frozen arrows and bow the next day a few times. If you're gonna have problems you should notice them then.

Soroko, I hunted south of Cambridge Bay out of the small village of Umingmoktok. Both myself and hunting buddy took P&Y animals that also qualified for B&C.

Can't imagine changing draw length for any reason. Added clothing during cold weather hunts do require special attention when shooting. Actually, I removed some of my bulky outter-wear before making the stalk. Didn't take long to put it all back on!