Barnett Crossbow Strings

If your bow has been restrung before, measure what is on it rather than trusting the model name. An aftermarket set fitted by a previous owner is not always the factory length.

Strings degrade gradually, which is why people shoot them long past the point they should have been replaced. What to look for:

• Broken strands standing proud of the bundle. Light fuzz on a used string is normal; strands that have parted are not.
• Serving separation. If the centre serving has unwound or shifted along the string, the nock no longer sits where it should. This is the one that produces erratic, unexplainable shots.
• Flattened or glazed strands. Usually means the string has been run dry without wax, or is rubbing on something.
• Speed loss and point of impact drift. A stretched string slows the bow and moves your group before anything looks obviously wrong.

Waxing is what extends string life, and it only works as prevention. Waxing a string that is already fraying hides the fraying. Once strands have broken, order the replacement.

Barnett sells a rail and lubrication wax combo kit that covers both jobs - rail lube for the string path and wax for the string itself. They are different products for different surfaces and are not interchangeable.

On a compound crossbow the string and cables work as one system, and they stretch at similar rates. Replacing only the string on a bow that has seen several seasons leaves stretched cables in place, which means the cam timing sits slightly off - and it commits you to a second trip to the shop within a year.

This is why so many Barnett replacements are sold as string and cable sets rather than bare strings: the Jackal, the Ghost 410, the Wildcat C5, the Recruit and Raptor, and the XP range are all commonly listed as sets. Where a set is available for your model and the bow is more than a couple of seasons old, buy the set.

The Whitetail Hunter STR is a useful example of why cables need their own measurement: a 38.125 inch string with 20.8125 inch cables. Those are not numbers you would guess.

Almost all of them are aftermarket, from specialist string shops rather than from Barnett. The names you will see most often are 60X Custom Strings, October Mountain Products, Blackheart and First String, typically built from BCY D97 material.

This is normal in archery rather than a compromise. Custom string shops serve hundreds of bow models, and a D97 string from a specialist is not a downgrade from a factory string. What it does mean is that you should read the length in the listing title rather than relying on the model name alone, because one product page may cover several similar models.

A compound crossbow cannot be restrung by hand. It requires a bow press designed for crossbow limb geometry, and crossbow limbs store enough energy that improvising is dangerous rather than merely difficult.

The practical route for most owners is to buy the correct string and pay an archery shop to fit it. That is usually cheaper than buying a press, and while the bow is in the press it is the right moment to check everything else - the rail especially, because a grooved or dry rail destroys strings faster than shooting does. See what wears first.

Recurve models such as the older Barnett recurves are the exception and can often be restrung with a stringer, but if you are unsure which you have, treat it as a press job.