I guess I am not in the norm, but I am loving going back to the good ol' B-50. It is not as fast, no question, and brace height seems to be more sensitive - especially in warm weather, I need to check it after a while - but it just is so much quieter ( at least on my bows). I do not need silencers, the tone is lower, but the decibels tell the story - SOOO much quieter. I reckon most folks are different, but for my Osage Royale or my Steen bow (both ASL bows) the hand shock is not an issue, they are super quiet, easy on the fingers and I still get very good performance.
Anybody else shooting the old dacron stuff?
Bob.
I tend to agree.......
I just picked up a new bow, and naturally made a new string for it. It didn't shoot bad, but was a bit noisey. After playing with the brace height some, I decided to go with a Dacron string. Voila! much more to my liking. It is the only bow I have that worked out that way, but if it works.....
Agree also.
Never really understood the whole "super string" deal...??
B-50 always worked fine for me!
I don't like the super duper string material either .
I like the feel of the Dacron .
Making a B50 string is usually the first thing I do when I get a bow, for that very reason.
B-50 Works fine for me also ! I dont mind giving up a bit of velocity for all the other virtues ! YEa you have to check brace height on occasion SO WHAT
I agree as well.
A quiet bow is paramount.
B-50 is all I ever use.
Nothing wrong w/ B-50. I'm not real fussy about it one way or the other but if all they made was B-50 it would be okay with me.
If I run out of B50 before I die, I might try B55. Or, maybe not! :)
I find b-55 just as silent but with less creep
I have one Dacron string with braided loops which makes the stretch factor far less important...the quietest string I have is a combination of B50 and 8125g...my low stretch strings are plenty quiet and I would not want to give up the performance increase they provide
DDave
I've also used B-55. It is slightly smaller diameter but I've mixed it with B-50(for color difference)with no ill effects.
I pre-stretch strings when I make them by hooking the loop over a nail, waxing the string well and vigorously rubbing the wax in with a piece of soft leather. The heat generated by the rubdown not only melts the wax, helping it penetrate the string but also helps stretch the string. Once I've braced the bow for the first time I will lay the bow across my knees and push out on the limb tips, stretching the string more. Once a string is broken in I rarely have to make adjustments to its length. I also tie a bowyers knot to the bottom of the string.
Yup, big fat B50 strings on my ASls. No silencers needed.
QuoteNever really understood the whole "super string" deal...??
B-50 always worked fine for me!
There are no real "super" strings. Some materials are just more consistent, more stable, and more durable than others. Polyester is the lowest on the scale for these characteristics, B-50 is the worst of the two polyester (Dacron) materials.
How the string is made can make a huge difference--as much as the material. A really lousy string can be made from the best material, and a decent string can be made from Dacron.
Bow noise is more a matter of bow design, tuning, and how the string is made...much moreso than the string material. I put silencers on everything regardless. Really don't know if it matters, but it makes me feel better even on my whisper quiet selfbows. Over the years I've gotten tons of comments at tournaments over how quiet my bows are...they always have some sort of HMPE or HMPE blend string on them.
We all upgrade in one way or another, even with strings. If not, everyone would be using squirrel hide, sinew, stinging nettle fiber, etc. for their strings. Countless critters have been killed with strings made from those materials, but how many still use them at all, much less exclusively?
I'm on the other side of the fence. It's a lot tougher, lot less stretch/creep (much more stable), I can make it just as quiet on my bows (if not quieter--critters don't seem to be able to tell a difference), my bows are made to accept it and are shooting just fine after years and years of using it...why wouldn't I use it?
I recently got two rolls of B-55 and have been making 12 strand flemish strings for my bows.They shoot good and quiet without silencers.
Yup! Mine aren't fancy since I twist up my own but I like it. I try to remember to pre-stretch them before putting them on the bow.
God bless,Mudd
I use B50 too. but thats because It is all I have on hand and I am cheap.
Agree with LBR.
And if I have a bow that needs B50/55 to behave and be quiet, I get rid of it.
There are bows that are older and need B-50. This can go on for ever.......if you like B-50, seems many do, use it. If you don't, use the modern string material. It's just a matter of your personal choice. The gain in speed with the new stuff......at 12-18 yards......it don't matter.
I can manage to make fairly good B 50 strings, but I cannot even approach what Chad does, so most of my bows have his strings on them.
Y'all sure you don't all have Lyme disease??
Just kiddin! To each their own.
I for one will only use B50 or 55 on vintage laminated bows that lack tip reinforcement and/or may have glue lines or laminates that won't handle the low stretch.
The original no stretch material was linen used on English warbows in medieval times. A well made linen string wetted down is quite a great bow string.
I have not shot one single bow of any design or construction that did not benefit from a well made and not overly twisted up modern material such as Fury, Rhino, BCY-X, 8125 or 8190.
The cut and abrasion resistance alone is enough to warrant it IMHO
I make my own endless loop strings.
Both B55 and bcy-x.
I prestretch the B55 at 140# overnight.
I rarely have to adjust brace height with them.
The B55 is waaaayyy quieter on both of my recurves over the bcy-x strings and to tell you the truth I really don't see much speed difference between the two.
has anyone ever tried a flemish twist with half b50/b55 and a high performance string material?
I'd be perfectly happy with a self bow and sinew string as long as I could hit what I was shooting at.
I still have a bunch of b-50 so I use it. If I miss it isn't because of the b-50. LOL
I just got one in last week for my JD berry
I just put a FT B55 on a Howatt Hi-Speed that I refinished. What a SHOCK at the first shot!! This has to be THE quietest bow I have ever shot,(Well excluding a selfbow of someone elses that is) and without ANY string silencers! Shooting 400 FMJs with a 12 strand string. Bow is probably a little over 40# at my draw length.
I use it on my Ben Pearson, and self bows. It's been around a longtime that's for sure.
I have mixed string material, Mike Treadway told me to try it so I did. I used 452 and B-50, 5 strands of 452 and 3 of B-50. Instead of padding the loops you pad the whole string. Seems to work well and my nocks fit perfect. Seems to be quiet with just wool puffs and a heavy arrow. 45# bow with a 550 gr arrow.
For me I am not a fan of dacron,only have it on a couple of older vintage bows I rarely shoot.I have been making my own strings for my bows for over 20+ years.I've had over 50+ bows over the years.I much prefer a low stretch type string,I've used many different ones.I find them so much better then a dacron.It just feels better and I don't use it for any speed or performance increase that may come from it.
So many keep bringing up the fps gains between the two materials. I could care less about that...I like the modern materials for the lack of stretch and less vibration.
Old bows are a different story. I only use B-55 on those...I just rarely shoot one.
Again, it's not about speed. If 2-4 fps was "make or break" for me, I'd choose a different weapon. Consistency, stability, durability. Those are a big deal, to me anyway.
Not long ago I made a string for a guy I've known for a long time, but never had a chance to hunt or shoot with (we live way apart). He was die-hard Dacron--nothing else was quiet to him, especially on a particular bow he was shooting. I sent him a BCY-X string, just to try it. He's converted.
It's B50 only for my ASL's.
I shoot B-50 or 55 on all my older bows. But I have no problem getting D-97 quiet on the newer ones. I like the "feel" of it better as well. Nothing wrong with B-50, but there are good alternatives out there.
I let the bow decide what it likes. Half my bows have B-50.
On the idea of mixing materials, I'm a B50 guy and don't know much about the low stretch low creep materials, but... One thing I've learned that must be watched carefully in making a string is to maintain equal tension on all the strands. So, going one step further in my possibly flawed thinking, mixing materials with different creep rates could very quickly result in the very low creep material material stretching, albeit very little, and gradually imparting that rebounding stretch into the other material as permanent creep and eventually a string wherein the work is being done by the low creep material with the other along for the ride adding unnecessary weight to the string?
Hope you can sort out what I'm trying to say. :) :confused:
Monterey, you are spot on. As long as you use enough strands of the stronger material, it should work fine. Mike Treadaway has been doing it for years and likes the results (he's nuts about quiet). what it amounts to is you are making a string with the silencer built in.
Well, I don't own an ASL or any vintage bows that require dacron, so I'm in LBR's camp on this issue. I use D97 on all my bows, even my selfbows. I read that there are some newer, "better" materials out there to choose from now, but I have the recipe all figured out with the D97, so I stick with it.
Bisch
one of my bows has b50 and one has bcy-x. I am happy with both strings but you can feel the difference in the b50 on really hot days. I would use low stretch on all my bows if I could.
how much of a difference is there between b55 and b50
B-55 is a higher grade of polyester. Not a huge difference, but enough to appreciate for me.
I had a well respected bowyer tell me that you can hide some tiller and design inadequacies with modern no stretch strings that are called out by B50. So perhaps low stretch strings are more "forgiving" in that respect.....
How is that supposed to work?
When I tillered my bows or retillered bows, I used an 18 strand B50. The final sandpaper tillering is where I can, very labor intensive, get the limb timing to that sweet spot. If a longbow shoots rough with a B50, I have seen it a number of times that things work better with an adequately thick and padded modern string. However, if a bow shoots sweet with a B50, it shoots really sweet with one of Chad's BCY jobs.
I haven't shot a bow yet that didn't feel better with a low stretch material...with some the difference is night and day.
I'm no bowyer, but I'm sure that at least part of the reason is the string vibration. A simple way to look at it is pluck a piece of stout twine vs. a rubber band. The rubber band is much more elastic, so it vibrates a lot more. Dacron is much more elastic, so you get more vibration.
QuoteOriginally posted by LBR:
I haven't shot a bow yet that didn't feel better with a low stretch material...with some the difference is night and day.
I'm no bowyer, but I'm sure that at least part of the reason is the string vibration. A simple way to look at it is pluck a piece of stout twine vs. a rubber band. The rubber band is much more elastic, so it vibrates a lot more. Dacron is much more elastic, so you get more vibration.
Oh man, going from B50 to low stretch on my old 100% fiberglass bows turned them from "kids toys" to pretty sweet shooting sticks.
I am with Chad on this as well. B-55 on one bow, the rest have the BCY X strings he made me. I moved on from B-50 years ago. When I put a D-97 string on my ASL I gave the B-50 repelling rope that was on bow to wife for tying up plants.
But to each his own. What works for me will not work for the other guy. One of Murphs laws.
QuoteOriginally posted by Bisch:
Well, I don't own an ASL or any vintage bows that require dacron, so I'm in LBR's camp on this issue. I use D97 on all my bows, even my selfbows. I read that there are some newer, "better" materials out there to choose from now, but I have the recipe all figured out with the D97, so I stick with it.
Bisch
I agree. I make my own strings and have both B50 and D97 on hand. I can't say that I've found B50 to be quieter on any bow I've tried with both materials. It is fatter, stretches more, and wears out way faster though. My supply has pretty much been relegated to use in padding loops, although I mostly use D97 for that anymore as well. I know there are newer, maybe better materials out there now, but I'm getting old, so I probably have enough D97 to last as long as I do.
I do know that B50 will add significant hand shock to some bows. I had a Mahaska longbow that just about wore out my left elbow because I was using B50 per the recommendation of the bowyer. I finally made up a D97 string with padded loops, and it was like a whole new bow! And it was just as quiet as before!
B50 will work, but there are better alternatives available.