Just acquired a 62" MAV, 63@29. I'm coming back from a few years with longbows and would like to get this thing as quiet as possible and could use some help.
First time out shooting it, I had brace height at 8 1/2 shooting 780 grain 2317's. Felt awesome in the hand and spit those logs out great, but seemed a little loud...even with wool yarn wrap on the ends of the string and beaver balls.
I know I will have to accept some degree of limb noise but can some of you BW shooters chime in with your best advice please.
I've now installed string groove pads (velcro pad) but I'm wondering why there is no pad between the limbs and riser (?) Isn't there usually a thin layer of rubber or fabric in most take-downs ? I can see the limb siting on the bushing grommets. Is this correct ?
BTW I draw about 29.5 on a recurve and will be shooting loaded carbons for a min. arrow weight of 650.... should I go heavier ???
Thanks for the help !
Try raising and lowering the brace height. Sometimes there is a quiet spot. At 29.5" you are probably pulling closer to 65-66 lbs. I find 11-12 grains / pound much quieter. That would be 715-792 grn arrow. Try a stiff carbon with a lot of weight up front (steel insert and/or steel addapter). Don't believe BW had a pad between the limbs and riser. Call the folks at BW for more info and tips on quieting. They are very helpful.
Gordy:
My experience with BW bows (5 of them) is ya need to tinker with the brace height as Shaun said. As little as 1/8 inch can make a difference. Your arrow weight seems OK but again you might want to take it to the upper end of the scale.
I doubt you need the pads. I never did.
Good luck. Widows are sweet..... yea, the bows also!
What string are you shooting?If B/W's string change it to a Fast Flight plus 14 strand w/ nylon .014 serving.
Put 2 pair of cat-wiskers (4) on the string :thumbsup:
It'll be quiet as a churchmouse
Raise your brace to 8.75"s and put industrial velcro in the string grooves, not a lot about 2"s worth. Also experiment where ya place the silencers, use rubber cat-whiskers and a zip tie to hold them in place. I have owned several widows and ya can get them quiet but not as quiet as some without adding too much junk to the string. except that they are a bit harder to quiet than a lot of bows and shoot it. Shawn
also, make sure that you have the small rubber washers on the brass lims pins (where the limb attatches to the riser. Don't know if this would cause much extra noise without them, but it may.
If you can find one, I'd try one of Papa Bull's Mountain Muffler strings. Also, sometimes those brash bushings which align the limbs will get loose. Ken Beck told me to pull the loose one out with pliers and a piece of leather and reinstall it with fletch tite glue. He said not to use epoxy as if you ever sent the bow in for refinishing, it would be hard to remove the pins. Loose pins will make lots of noise.
I have my brace height at 8.75 and it seems pretty quiet. I have only the "spiders" on the string now.(PMAV Ironwood)Am shooting a 2117 out of it . Arrow weight is 545 grains
On my psa the the string made the difference. I use TS1 14 stands and rubber wiskers, nylon serving. It's very quiet. All the other strings I tried,including the Muffler string sounded the same(loud). I don't even have to wrap the ends of the string or use the velcro. The bow is 54lbs@27" and I shoot a arrow about 600 grains.My PSA is quieter than a few long bows I have had...not all of them but a few of them!
good luck
SL
Just contact Bow Hush, Terry will line you out on exactly what to do.
I use 1 pair of catwhiskers split in half on my widows. I put one catwhisker at 9" from the bottom of each string loop, and one at 14" from the bottom of each string loop. I shoot about 10gpp and the bow is as quiet as any recurve I've had. I tried the material in the groove to get rid of the string slap, but found they didn't work for me and constantly moved around. After doing the catwhisker thing I took em off and been real happy with it...Mike
If you are using the BW string, and you want the bow to be quiet, then take it off and put on Dacron. Every bow that I have shot with a DF97/fastflight/TS1 string was too loud for me. But as soon as I put a nice Dacron string on 'em, man it makes a world of difference!
I agree with JBIORN the Bow hush works great for me with a brace height of 8.5 " But then again as I've gotten older my hearing is slipping away and my bows are quieter then ever , so if you have the time just wait a few years, Fred
Most people will tell you this is wrong, but I can say from doing it on several bows, it works very well for me. I put on a endless loop dacron string.
I have tested it thru the chrono, this string slows the speed about 4-5 ft per second, but the noise level is greatly reduced. My most recent Widow, a PSR was noisy with the fast flight. With the endless loop dacron, it is now the quietest bow I have ever shot. The biggest draw back is you may have to switch to a lighter spined shaft. I am a stickler on shooting perfectly spined shafts. And with the dacron endless loop, it requires a lighter spine than the flemish fast flight or 97.
Also, the dacron endless loop sells for about $6.
I agree with SL get a TS1 with padded loops, I am sure as others have stated that dacron will work well too, just get rid of the D97 that comes with the bow !
Great input guys, thanks. I do have a d97 string on there now. Will try B-50 and see how it works.
Loaded carbons are working great ! Love the bow. :thumbsup: