A compound bow is a precision machine. Unlike a rifle that you can drop in a case and pick up months later, a compound bow has strings that stretch, cams that shift, servings that fray, and hardware that loosens under the repeated shock of shooting. Most bow failures — inconsistent shots, unexplained fliers, even catastrophic string breaks — are preventable with basic maintenance. This guide gives you a complete maintenance schedule, from after-every-session tasks to annual shop visits.
Bowstring Waxing — The Single Most Important Regular Task
Bowstrings are made of synthetic fibers — Dyneema, Spectra, BCY materials — that dry out and fray without regular wax treatment. Wax keeps the individual fibers lubricated and bonded together. Dry fibers move against each other under load and break down faster. Maintaining that wax coat is the single highest-return maintenance task you can do, and it costs almost nothing.
How often: Every 100–200 shots, or any time the string looks dry or fuzzy. You don't need to count shots obsessively — just look at the string before each session. If it has any white or dried appearance, it's time.
How to apply: Work the wax into the string with your fingers, generating heat to melt it into the fibers. Wipe off any excess from the surface — wax sitting on top of the string attracts grit that grinds the fibers. Do not apply wax to the serving sections (center serving, peep sight serving, D-loop area). Wax on serving makes it slippery and can cause inconsistent nock fit and a slipping peep.
What wax to use: String wax specifically designed for compound bow strings. Do not use silicone-based products — silicone breaks down string fibers over time and is difficult to remove once applied.
Signs of an under-waxed string: Individual strands appear separated, the string looks fuzzy or white between the fibers, or you can see distinct fiber bundles instead of a smooth, cohesive string. Any of these means it's drying out and needs attention now, not later.
Serving Inspection
The serving is the wrapped thread protecting high-wear sections of your string. Three areas to inspect every session — these take about thirty seconds to check and can save your season.
Center Serving
The center serving wraps around the middle of the string where the arrow nock seats. It is the highest-wear area on the entire bow. Look for gaps in the serving where the thread has separated, fraying at the edges, or sections peeling back from either end. A loose nock point means inconsistent arrow nocking height — your vertical groupings will open up noticeably before the serving fails completely. Replace at the first sign of wear. Don't wait for it to unravel in the field.
Peep Sight Serving
The serving holding your peep sight in place keeps it from rotating and sliding up and down the string. Look for the peep rotating under load (your sight picture will change at full draw), or the serving sliding up or down the string (your anchor reference changes). Peep alignment should be verified every session — a peep that rotates even slightly changes your eye-to-peep geometry and can cost you inches at distance.
D-Loop Condition
The D-loop is a small rope loop tied around your center serving where your release attaches. Check for wear at the contact points with your release hook, fraying at the tie-off knots, and any signs of the loop being cut or crushed by your release jaw. D-loops are inexpensive and easy to replace — replace yours at the start of every season regardless of how it looks, and check it again mid-season if you shoot frequently.
Axle Inspection and Lubrication
The axles are the pins the cams rotate on during the draw cycle. They take significant side-load and cyclic stress with every shot. Neglected axles develop roughness, scoring, and eventually galling that throws off cam rotation and timing.
Check for: Grinding or roughness when you slowly rotate the cam by hand with no load on the bow, and visible scoring or galling on the exposed axle pin where it exits the limb fork.
Lubrication: Use a dry or light oil lubricant on the axle bushings or bearings. One small drop, worked in by drawing and releasing slowly a few times. Do not use WD-40 — it is a solvent and moisture displacer, not a lubricant, and it will eventually dry out and leave the axle worse off than before. A dedicated bow lubricant or a small drop of sewing machine oil is appropriate.
If your cams feel rough or sticky after lubrication, take the bow to a pro shop. Axle replacement requires a bow press and precise fit — it is not a DIY task.
Limb Inspection
Your bow's limbs store all of the energy that launches your arrow. The draw weight stamped on your bow — 60, 65, 70 pounds — is the load those limbs are built to hold at all times. A cracked or delaminating limb is a catastrophic failure waiting to happen.
What to look for:
- Delamination: Bubbling, lifting, or separation of the limb's composite layers. Replace immediately — do not shoot a delaminated limb.
- Cracks: Any crack perpendicular to the limb grain. Replace immediately.
- Chips: Small chips at the limb tip where it contacts the limb cup can be cosmetic or structural depending on location and depth. Have a pro look at anything larger than a pinhead before shooting again.
- Scratches and finish wear: Surface scratches in the finish are cosmetic only — no replacement needed, but monitor the area to make sure they don't extend into the composite material.
Never dry-fire a compound bow. A dry-fire — releasing the string with no arrow nocked — sends all the stored energy into the limbs, string, and cams, rather than into the arrow. A single dry-fire can shatter limbs, break strings, crack cams, or damage the riser. Even a partial dry-fire from a dropped arrow at the shot counts. If your bow has been dry-fired, have it professionally inspected before shooting again.
Cam Timing Check
Dual cam and binary cam bows require both cams to reach full draw simultaneously — this is called being "in sync" or "in time." If the cams are out of sync, the string does not travel through the bow in a straight plane, and you get poor arrow flight and inconsistent draw stops.
How to check: Draw the bow slowly with an arrow, watching both cams in a mirror or with a partner standing to the side. Both cams should hit their stops at the exact same moment. If one cam rolls over before the other, the system is out of time.
Signs of out-of-sync cams: The bow torques to one side at full draw, the string tracks off-center through the cable guard, or groups open up vertically even with consistent form.
Adjustment: Timing is corrected by adding or removing twists to the buss cable or control cable, specific to your bow's cam geometry. This is a shop task unless you understand your bow's cam system well and own a bow press. Attempting cam timing adjustments without the right tools and knowledge can make the problem worse.
Single-cam bows: Only one cam to worry about, which eliminates sync issues. Focus instead on brace height consistency and string condition as your primary timing indicators.
Brace Height Check
Brace height is the distance from the string at rest to the deepest part of the grip. It is a tuning reference point, but it also functions as a diagnostic tool — it tells you whether your string length has changed.
Measure brace height before and after every shooting session using a bow square or ruler placed against the grip throat, perpendicular to the string. The measurement should be consistent from session to session once the string is broken in.
If brace height decreases: Your string is stretching. New strings always stretch during the first 200 shots — this is normal, and shooting them in is expected. Check brace height frequently during break-in and re-zero your sight after each check.
If brace height changes on a broken-in string: The string may be damaged, or twists may have been accidentally added or removed. Investigate before shooting at game.
Keep a log of your bow's stable brace height once it settles. Any change beyond 1/8 inch from baseline on an established string is worth investigating. If your brace height has dropped and your arrows are hitting low, see the full explanation in our bowstring maintenance guide.
Arrow Rest Maintenance
Drop-Away Rests (Spring-Loaded and Blade Style)
Drop-away rests are the most common rest type on hunting setups today. Spring-loaded launcher arms depend on a spring that can fatigue over time — check that the arm snaps upward crisply and fully with no hesitation. Also check the timing cable connection or cord that drives the rest up at the shot; fraying or looseness here causes inconsistent rest timing and erratic arrow flight.
Blade-style drop-away rests should be inspected for bends or nicks in the launcher blade. Even a minor bend will deflect the arrow at the shot, and a nicked blade can damage fletchings.
Whisker Biscuit
Inspect the bristles for wear at the contact zone where the arrow passes through. Worn bristles affect fletching clearance and can contact fletchings inconsistently. Clean debris — feathers, foam, grass, dried blood — from the bristles after every hunt. A clogged biscuit creates drag on the arrow that degrades accuracy at distance.
Off-Season Storage
One of the most persistent myths in archery is that you should unstring your compound bow for off-season storage.
This is true for recurves and longbows — leaving them strung permanently can deform the limbs over months of sustained tension.
This is false for compound bows. Compound bow limbs are engineered to remain at draw weight. The limbs are pre-loaded from the factory. Unstringing a compound bow requires a bow press and involves removing that pre-load — this is a shop task, not a maintenance routine. There is no benefit to unstringing a compound for storage.
Store your compound bow:
- At draw weight, in a hard or soft case with padding to protect the cams and limbs
- Away from direct heat sources — a car trunk in summer reaches temperatures that damage string materials and can affect cam timing
- Away from UV light for extended storage periods — UV degrades string fibers even without mechanical wear
- With a fresh coat of string wax applied before storage to keep fibers lubricated through the off season
Compound Bow Maintenance Schedule
| Task | Frequency | DIY or Shop |
|---|---|---|
| Bowstring waxing | Every 100–200 shots | DIY |
| Center serving inspection | Every session | DIY |
| D-loop replacement | Start of each season | DIY or Shop |
| Cam timing check | Monthly during season | Shop (unless experienced) |
| Axle lubrication | Every 300–500 shots | DIY |
| Brace height check | Every session | DIY |
| Limb inspection | Every session | DIY (shop if any cracks) |
| Full bow tune + press work | Annually pre-season | Shop |
| String/cable replacement | Every 2–3 years or if fraying | Shop |
Most of the daily and weekly tasks on this list take less than five minutes combined. The annual pro shop visit is where you handle press work, cam timing, and string replacement. Splitting the maintenance this way keeps the bow in consistent tune without requiring a bow press at home.
For a full breakdown of what a pre-season tune-up covers and how to prepare your bow before the opener, see our pre-season bow tuning checklist.
Maintenance Bottom Line
Ten minutes of inspection before a hunt is worth more than a week of practice after a bow failure. Most catastrophic bow failures and accuracy problems trace back to deferred maintenance — worn strings, dried-out wax, a D-loop that should have been replaced two seasons ago.
String waxing is the single highest ROI maintenance task. It costs nothing, takes two minutes, and can double the life of a quality string. There is no reason to skip it.
When in doubt, go to a pro shop. A professional tune costs $40–$80. That is cheap compared to a missed buck, a shattered limb, or a string break at full draw.
Any time you change your string, cables, or do significant bow work, your arrow speed will change — and your sight tape will need to be rebuilt. New strings settle differently, and even a small speed change shifts your yardage marks at distance.