Was at the farmers market with the family today and found some wonderfully soft alpaca wool for sale... Being the archery addict I am, I immediately thought about making the wool into silencers... Anyone ever tried it? I am really trying to find a good less expensive alternative to qivuit.
I have been using llama wool to pad my loops and as silencer puffball material for the past 15 years. Works good for me.
I use alpaca wool yarn to make my homemade silencers.I picked up mine on the bid auction site,there is nice nice colors to pick from.
I have a farm down the road from me that has a bunch of alpacas. The owner let me paw through a bag of cutoffs and pieces of sheared wool. The only problem I have found is the hair is very fine and the shorter lengths fly off as you shoot(first time I ever got smoke when I released a arrow!) you need to get the longest lengths (3-4") and twist them as you place them through the bow string. It is lighter then most wool fibers and seems to do the job. I need to find someone that has the darker colored animals, all the wool I picked up looks like snowballs on the bow string!
Great feedback! I think I will grab some (if its reasonable in price) and give it a shot!
I use 100% wool yarn I get from the hobby store. I take the yarn and wrap it around two fingers 10-18 times (depends on the thickness of the yarn). Then tie it together in the middle with a piece of thread (and leave long tails on the thread). When I am ready to put them in a string I just separate the bundles, put it through and tie to one bundle with the thread. Then use scissors to cut all the loops in the yarn and shoot a couple times. They "fluff out" just right after a few shots. If you are just making them for yourself, one skein(ball) of yarn will last forever and only costs about $6.00.
Bisch
It ought to work great - though I find alpaca for socks doesn't wear as rugged as sheep wool.
My current silencer crop. These are Jacobs sheep.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Stumpkiller/HPIM2414.jpg)
Well, two for silencers - one for lambchops. ;) Also trophy opportunity for a four-horned Jacobs ram. I'll hold 'em, you shoot. :biglaugh:
We do turkey hunts as well.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Stumpkiller/Chickens/HPIM0416.jpg)
I have been making some from alpaca yarn for a bit. Make the wrap type that I cut after instalation, Puff out great. I wrap a small amount of rubber cat whiskers into the that disiapear into the puff ball, but I think help as the yarn is so light and fine. Here is pict of one before instalation. You can see the cat whiskers poking out a touch.
(http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/001424.JPG)