Some pictures made at the Archery Direct Pro Shop of bows and parts which have been dry fired.
Why should I not dry fire my bow
Most bows, especially compound bows fail when shot without an arrow on the the string.
The arrow takes about 75% of the released energy, so shooting without an arrow will force 4 times more enery into strings, cables, limbs and the riser. Quite often some of these parts break. See the pictures !
The most common way to dry fire a bow is "just testing..". Never pull a compound bow without an arrow to check the draw length or the peep rotation, nobody wants to release - but they do more often than you think.
Never let anybody pull the bow who is not used to it, a good way to spoil a bow is to give it to a friend and let him pull. He may be able to pull the bow but while letting the string down he may let go.
Be carefull with modern bows with short axle-axle lenght when shooting without a release. The nock may come of the nocking point resulting in a dry fire shot.
