 Hello I'm Ron Duker with Pyramid Air. Today we're going to talk about how to maintain your crossbows, both waxing the strings and lubing the rails. Let's get into it. Some general knowledge to know about waxing crossbows as well as vertical from a rail and a string standpoint is pretty much you're going to have on every single format is going to be very similar. You just need to know exactly where, when and how much to apply. So we're going to start off the conversation with the MagAir 305. Inside of that you're going to get yourself some rail lube and wax. This is a two-part thing that works on both. In order to wax your string the first thing you want to do is locate on your string. You're going to see typically black but you can get those customized. These are your servings. It's the little wrapy part that goes over your string and then you're going to see the string itself somewhere on the crossbow. Inside of there, this part right here, the string, not the serving, is what you're trying to target with your wax. How you're going to do that is you're going to rub your wax on your string back and forth and you'll see material come off. This is not a thing where you want to overload your string with wax. So just enough to see it and you'll be able to feel it when you then take your fingers and run it across it. Ideally how I do it is I rub until you'll feel friction warm up the wax and you'll see your string get nice and shiny. That's working all of the wax down into those fibers which ultimately protects your string. The reason why you do not want to put the wax on the serving is actually a topic of debate for multiple different archers. So the basic general thing if you do research is you're going to find the actual answer is because you don't need to. This is a nylon thread. It's all synthetic. It's designed basically to protect the string from the bow. Either the cams in this Mag-Air, it's when the string goes, it's going to hit and stretch over the limbs and it's going to rub across the rail. So if you do that in my experience, I've actually, my first bow, I went ahead and lubed it anyway and I started having some serving separation and so you could actually see it starting to unravel a little bit on there. Whether it was correlated or not, I don't know. Folks in the comment section, please feel free to give your experiences and what you've run into. Those can vary bow to bow and from arch to archer. But in general, this is there to protect your string. So more protectant on top of protectant, not necessary. In order to wax your rail then, which is this part here, so you'll see where the string attaches and rubs against this rail right here. You either take a liquid lube or you take a lube like this, which is designed for both. And what I'm doing is, is I'm rubbing a little bit of material onto the Q-tip or some type of swab or some guys in the field or you use your finger, you can do that. But if you have any dirt on there or anything, you're in essence putting something that's an abrasion on your string, not something you want to do. But in a pinch, you can go ahead and do that. And then what you're trying to do is, where the path is, you're going to rub it across the rail all the way back, all the way on both sides. And what you're doing there is, you're not using your finger, you're using the swab. And the objective is, is to get the material from the swab onto the rail. You don't want this thing to be shiny when you're all done. You don't want to put so much on there that you have material that's going to potentially hinder your arrow flight. So the trajectory can actually get affected negligible to a lot and it depends on how much you use and to who you talk to. But the reality is, is that you just need a little bit so that it doesn't rub right on the rail itself without any type of lubrication. Now, when we're talking about all crossbows, you're going to see a wide verae of opinions on how often you need to wax and lube. And this is going to be true of the other two that I'm going to show you in a minute as well, which is, when do I wax my string? General rule you want to go by is, wax your string. When you start seeing it get a little puffy or a little bit frayed, you'll see little like hairline things start popping up on your crossbow string or your vertical string. When that happens, it's time for wax. And as soon as you put the wax on and you rub it in there with friction, you'll actually see that go away. The rail is very similar. Every crossbow, read your manual. It'll tell you a recommendation. It goes anywhere from one of these here says every three to five, like on the tube, it says of lube three to five shots. That's a bit excessive in my opinion. I see guys go 20, 30, 50 shots. But you really got to use your eye in order to see what does it look like when I have it new? What does it look like when it's worn off? And then visually you can tell the very least do it before each season. Just because sitting in a box somewhere, heat, humidity, climate, you got your boat sitting in a basement, garage, wherever it is, might collect dust, which is the enemy of a bow like this. You put too much lube on. What will end up happening is you're actually collecting microscopic dust particles and abrasion, which will actually cause you to have premature string wear and serving wear. And you won't be shooting as fast. You think you are, but you won't. So some things to consider on your forward draw crossbows. It's going to be very similar to every other bow. You just need to know exactly where and how to apply. This is the fatal X from killer instinct. And what we're going to do here is again, same process, we're going to locate our string. Only this time we have cables because it's a compound bow. So you're going to see the cams. And you can tell these cables are actually completely served from start to end, which means that they've got that protective wrapping on it. I don't need to wax there. What I do have here is a spot right here on the right and right here on the left that you can see the actual string. Easy way to identify that is that it's actually twisted completely, as opposed to a perfectly served material. Same concept here. You'll see it goes on white. As you work it in there and get friction as your friend, it will vanish. Same thing on the other side. So the next thing is how are we going to lube the rail? So very much visual. I'm getting just a little bit on the q tip. You can't even actually see it on the q tip. Same as the other one. And same concept here. They say with this type, you can actually apply it straight on. I always use a q tip just as a recommendation because you know exactly how much you're getting on. And once the material is on there here, I rub it in and go all the way back. Reapply because this is a longer rail and similar type of thing. You're going to see it on there and then rub it in. The concept here is as you're trying to get friction to do the work so that it rubs in because of warmth. You can go in front, as with all others, whether it's necessary or not is up to you and your crossbow. Inside of your user manual, it'll tell you exactly where and how. But you can never go wrong by doing it all the way to the end. Next up, we have the reverse draw crossbow. This is the Wicked Ridge RDX 400. And on this one, they actually made it very easy for us. They made the strings orange and the servings black. Same exact process. You're going to apply the lubrication, the string wax onto the strings in all the places that you see the strings, and then use your thumb and forefinger in order to create a little bit of friction in order to work it into the string. As far as the rail goes, same exact process here. Take a little bit of wax or lubrication, whatever it is that you have, you're going to want to go the full length on both sides and don't put too much. A little is good here. Lastly, on this bow, as well as some of your forward draw crossbows as well, you also want to keep an eye out for there is a cable slide that goes inside of here, which is down on the bottom here. You'll see the cables actually go through the stock. In that instance, they come pre lube typically and everything's covered. It helps the cable slide freely in between there. Over time, depending on the age of the crossbow, or if you get dirt or debris or anything in there, you may have to lubricate that as well. If you do same concept here as the rails, you can be a little bit apply a little bit more here because it's not actually touching a string or a cable. It's touching a slide and you want to be on the top in the bottom inside here. And by doing that, you'll have your crossbow properly lubricated and ready to shoot. Proper maintenance of your crossbow is going to make it last a long time. I'm Ron Duker with Pyramid Air. Please remember to like, comment and follow. See you next time.