TAC 15i limbs

Hunter38

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Joined
Sep 20, 2011
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Has anyone else had their limbs come apart? After about 100 shots target shooting the limbs are pealing apart and splintering. I have a new set of limbs coming from PSE to my local dealer. No trouble getting them to send new ones. Wondering if anyone else has had this issue?
 
I have not had that problem. My limbs seem pretty sound and I have about 200 shots through my Tac 15i so far.
 
Hi Hunter38,
I have about 1,500 shots through my limbs just since February of this year, with no problems, but i have heard of numerous owners that have experienced limb fracture problems.

It's not that common, but it does happen. This is one of the reasons that PSE backs these crossbows with the type of warranty they do. The best advice I can give you is to get the new limbs, get them on and shoot as often as possible. If anything is weak or defective in any way, it's better to find it sooner than later!

Regards,

Jon
 
I have had some limb failures reported by my customers but not an inordinate number as far as I can tell. I have sold a very large number of Tacs. And some were because of user abuse.

When the first reported failures occured I wondered a bit since I am new to the archery industry.

But when I Googled limb failure I found many other brands show up in the search results.

Seems to be related to how hard the entire industry is pushing for speed improvements.
 
I have had this issue twice with my TAC 15. The first time was one week before last year's archery season. I got it back from repair a couple of weeks later and wound up shooting a doe with it.

The second time was last Friday -- one day before the archery season here in PA. Sounds like I may have to wait up to three weeks before I get it back this time.

Probably had about 150-200 shots on it before the first failure. Probably another 100-150 until the next one.
 
Not many shots at all! I sometimes do half that many shots on a one day outing when I'm testing or evaluating different products for the crossbow. Just my set-up and tuning probably took about 300 or 400 shots.

All I can recommend is that you shoot it relentlessly when you get it back this time. Either break it in so you are comfortable with everything about it or you will just break it period. It's sort of like the break in for a new car. Go easy while you are tuning everything and adjusting your components. Once this is finished, put it to work and get everything smoothed out. If there are any weak components let them show as a problem because they will need to be replaced or changed for something better before your warranty runs out.

Some components are better off being replaced with after market products than to put the same sub standard factory parts back on.

Regards,

Jon
 
Just happened to me, TODAY. Have had this tac 15i two weeks. Estimating about 300 shots to date. Was working on the problem lack of horizontal and vertical adjustment limits with HHA optimizer installed and now this.
Already had parts replaced on delivery because the cocking crank was bad.

John Henry, will you trade? One retired soldier to another? HA! HA!

Mike
 
Well I spoke too soon. Just doing some last minute practicing before a hunt this weekend and darn if I did not have a cracking sound after I got it cocked. I could see the top left limb delaminating so I quickly shot the arrow out (about 20yds into the ground) before anything snapped.

This really is starting to get anoying !!! After just replacing the cable/strings paper tuning, and sighting everything in. I had it shooting nice tight groups out to 60yds.(With broadheads). Moved back to 80yds and had the next 2 shots shot left (I'm guessing that is when the limb started to give on that side). On the 3rd shot is when I heard it give way.

Now back to the shop and at least 2 more weeks without the bow !!! The rut starts around here at the end of the month so hopefully it will be good then.

WildWillie
 
Hi Mike,
I'm starting to get very concerned about what the Heck is going on at PSE that we are seeing this many limb fracture problems. Has their quality control dropped to the point where they can't produce a limb that holds up to regular usage anymore?

The TAC15 and 15i crossbows are anything but new and they've been producing these things for several years, so something had to change in either their limb material or in the laminate bonding process they're using these days.

I think it would be a good idea to get Len Backus involved in this issue, because he has direct ties with PSE as a major TAC 15/15i distributor for them. Len has the ability to call and speak to both their engineers as well as numerous other product line personnel.

At this point, it's no longer one or two isolated cases and it's certainly not based on abuse or mis-use of the crossbow, so I think we need some answers and feedback.

I'll ask Len to look into what's happening at PSE to address these problems.

Regards,

Jon
 
Hi Mike and WildWillie,
An e-mail has been sent to Len Backus asking him to please look into this problem with PSE and provide some feedback.

Regards,

Jon
 
Thanks for the input Jon -

I got my Tac 15i for Christmas last year (Wife bought it from Len at this site) so it is less than 1 yr old. I shot about 150 arrows through it late Dec/Jan, but not much until Early Aug when I started regular shooting with it. I would say I have about 700 to 800 shots through it.

The split seems limited to the top left limb and about 1/8" of the top layer peeled back 3/4 of the way down the limb.

I can honestly say that just before that the x-bow was just starting to shine.

WildWillie
 
Hi WildWillie,
Sounds identical to my own experience.

I purchased my TAC15i from Len for Christmas last year as well, but those orders didn't ship until late January, so I received mine and immediately began working on set-up, trigger replacement and a number of other changes before ever even trying to shoot it.

Everything outside was frozen cold and windy, so I didn't try shooting mine until about April of this year.

Once April came around and started using it, I was on it almost every day for hours, so I rang up a lot of shots very quickly. I was also doing a great deal of testing indoors at a large indoor archery facility in New Jersey, where I had some great help and support from a few good friends that either sit on the board for Easton Archery or who were engineers or pro shooters that I've competed with and known for many years.

They were gracious enough to help out and lend their advice to much of the testing I was doing to sort out some of the grouping problems that I was working on with Super 91, Okebowie and a guy named Konrad. All are great guys and very knowledgeable, so we had one of the best knowledge based teams working these problems that I've ever had the pleasure to work with.

It took a few weeks of testing work and a lot of documentation to nail down the issues, but we finally nailed the problems. They are all documented in my articles under "PSE TAC15/15i Undocumented Information".

I had limited experience with the TAC15 Crossbows, but over 40 years of experience with competitive archery and having an engineering background I understood well the dynamics of arrow flight, so it was just a matter of applying my background knowledge and skills to this crossbow. It seems I've been involved in many of the problems that shooters are experiencing ever since.

My goal was always to reach out and help as many other people as I could and at the same time spread the knowledge and educate them at the same time. It's my way of giving back to a sport and hobby that's been good to me over my lifetime and hopefully others will enjoy it more as they learn more about it.

Regards,

Jon
 
Hi Hunter 38,
I heard back from Len Backus earlier this evening and he's going to check with Kevin, who's a PSE Engineer that Len knows well, on what the story is with the TAC15/15i limbs.

I don't know what type of feedback he'll get, but I will let you know what we learn.

Regards,

Jon
 
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