Any differences between 08 and 09 Firecat limbs?

[Rockyhud]

I recently had the lower limb on my 08 Firecat break. I called Martin and spoke with Joel - he said to take it to the dealer and have them take care of it. The dealer got the process started and was told by Martin they would send two new replacement limbs. The dealer said they didn't know if these would be identical to the originals or not since Martin had lost the rights to produce the Realtree APG camo and may not have the exact same limbs in stock. Long story short, Martin sent new (made in June 09) 13" 4H limbs with Next1 camo. My old limbs (13" 4H) had squared ends where the limb bolts go through and these new limbs have rounded ends. Other than that and the Next1 camo they appear to be the same as before. As far as the dealer and I can tell these are the same as what the 09 Firecat comes with. Does anyone know if there are any other, possibly unseen, differences between 08 and 09 Firecat limbs.

The main reason I'm asking is that when I got my bow back the point of impact was about 18" high at 20 yards from what the bow shot before. Keep in mind I use a No-Peep riser mounted alignment device which was not moved or removed so my anchor position didn't change, so there is no peep sight that could have changed location in the string. My rest was also not removed or changed. I checked the nock point on the string (formed by my d-loop) and it's exactly the same as before - my arrow is setting perfectly perpendicular to the string with the rest at full up position. To my knowledge the only aspect of my bow that changed was the limbs. In order to get the impact point to coincide with my sight pin I had to move the sight aperture up several mounting holes higher. After giving the limb bolts one more turn down it now shoots like it did before at all distances.

The customer service from Martin certainly lived up to the reputation they have gained - it only took 2 weeks from the time I took the bow in to the time I got it back and with no charges incurred by me. So, I'm pleased with how Martin took care of the issue. I'd just like to understand what caused the change in how my bow shoots.

Any thoughts or knowledge on this?

[Montalaar]

As far as I know the only differences between 08 and 09 limbs are the shape and the camo. Maybe there have been improvements made at the limb tips but i am unsre with that.

[dbd870]

Different bow, but I had to have the limbs replaced on my 08 MOAB and got 09 limbs also; only thing I noticed was camo and shape as well. It did not change the point of impact for me.

[bfisher]

The limb deflection is the same. There has to be a difference in the cable lengths slaving the cams together or cam timing itself.

[Rockyhud]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I checked the cam timing and it appears to be spot on with no sync issues that I can tell.

So, while reading the replies and thinking more about it I came up with another thought. Since the limbs were changed one of the things that I noticed, besides the different point of impact, was the bow seems just a little quieter than before. Since experiencing the lower limb failure it's caused me to wonder if possibly there was an inherent defect in this limb that may have caused it to flex slightly more/differently than the top limb, right from the start of when I bought it to when it cracked. With that thought and the obvious difference in point of impact, could it be the new limbs are working and flexing in unison where the old limbs maybe were not?

For example, it wouldn't take much increased flex of the lower limb to cause the nock point to rise at full draw just enough to cause the arrow to be launched pointing downward enough, as compared to now, to cause a lower point of impact. With the new limbs flexing the same, the nock point would not rise but stay the same, relative to the riser and rest, thus the arrow would be launched with a slightly higher tip orientation that before, hence the higher point of impact.

I'm just trying to figure this out if possible as that just in my nature to want to know these things.

[bfisher]

You've hit on a very good point. One that I hadn't thought of. Just goes to show that even though you're still learning some of us old guys are, too.
Nice to know you want to learn things about these bows. NOw, like me you can start taring your hair out.

Tune 'er up and git to shootin. Have fun.

[dbd870]

Could be, pretty sharp reasoning skills there!

[Rockyhud]

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, every once is a while the gray matter cells fire just right and I come up with these ideas. ;>) When the reason isn't so obvious you sometimes have to expand your thought process and think outside of the box, as it's been called. I was just trying to think of some of the dynamics that might possibly be playing into this and that's about the best I could come up with.