Alright gang...give me the make and model of the "quietest" LONGBOW that you've shot...I'd have to say the Kohannah Windwalker...what say you ?
Any Fred Anderson longbow
My Northern Mist Classic 68" 60#@28(63#@29) this thing is real quiet and I don't even have string silencer on her!! I shoot a tab now, and I tried my glove for a few shot again, and the tab is also quitter.
Dwyer original shooting wood shafts. My toelke whip is pretty darn quiet also. There are going to be as many different bows as answers given, and I think that arrow weight, tuning and release are the real wildcards in play.
To me it is a tie between my Shrew Hill, Sunset Hill or my Osage Royale ... I mean man they are QUIET!! They do not even register on a decimeter 10 yards away from the shooter.
Bob.
A Mahaska that I had....66" 46# @ 28" B-50 string and 2 wool puffs with a 600Gr. arrow.......whisper silent!
My Baraga's pretty darn quiet!!!
Quietest I've ever not heard is a shrew
Mahaska, earily quiet
Kimsha Mattawoman II by Tom Parsons. I've owned three of them and they are by far the quietest bow I've shot.
Green Mountain with a Fred Anderson close behind.
Billy
My Wapiti Spike. When I shoot it all I hear is the arrow in flight.
The quietest I have ever shot is the
Frontier 66 string follow bow . Not because I build it either. It is just super quiet. No need for silencers on it at all., God bless, Steve
(http://eaglewingarchery.i8.com/images/Frontier/bow16.jpg)
Northern Mist Shelton No noise here.
My Northern Mist bows are very quiet, of those the Shelton is quietest, all FF & no silencers.
Eric
The new Liberty Classic ranks right up there with my Sunset Hill and Osage Royale.
I have never worried about the noise from my bows being a problem.
God bless,Mudd
I used to have a Wilderness longbow I believe the model was a white buffalo. I think the bowyer was Neil Russell and that was one of the best shooting and probably the most quiet bow I have owned. That bow truly fit me, regret letting that one go. I had a Kota that I gave away here last year at Christmas time, and that was a very quiet bow as well.
Westbrook:My Northern Mist bows are very quiet, of those the Shelton is quietest, all FF & no silencers.
Perhaps that is just a quality of string follow bows. I had never owned a string follow until I designed and built the Frontier so my bow is the limit of my experience with them.
God bless you all, Steve
My Hackberry selfbow..............
Any Treadway bow dead quiet!!!
I think your right Steve, it must be the lower tension at brace height. They are usually a longer bow 66-70" which emits a lower frequency and less tension makes it lower yet.
Eric
It's hard to beat a Robertson primal styk. It's one of my favorites.
QuoteOriginally posted by Matt Quick:
It's hard to beat a Robertson primal styk. It's one of my favorites.
Good to hear, it is one of the bows I am considering right now.
Of all the bows I have shot, my Fred Anderson Shookum is the most quiet. In fact, it does not have any kind of string silencers.
So, my vote is Fred Anderson. Too bad he is retired.
Now, that I think on it, another super quiet bow is my Dave Anderson. I have never shot them side by side. Perhaps, I need a "quiet off" test.
Alan
Like someone said "you are going to get a lot of different answers..." However, I would say the Whip and a Cold Mountain longbow by Bill Stroupe in North Carolina
The Cold Mountain longbow is a real sleeper and not known by many, but performance is great and craftsmanship is superb. Prices can't be beat either.
Hills
Dwyer Dauntless
My Shrew is quiet, but my 21st Century is even quieter.
Another vote for Northern Mist. The Baraga I had was VERY quiet. My shooting buddy has one as well,and he took a knee to shoot one day. I stood beside him,and the only noise was the feathers cutting through the air on release. rat'
I have a A&H with phenolic riser. it is quietest bow I have shot.
I've never heard a loud long bow.
Dwyer orginal quietest longbow I have shot or owned.
A wool silenced selfbow of perfect tiller.
Factors Contributing to quiet bows, in no particular order.
- string follow or any limb with less pre-load (i.e. reflex)
- lower draw weight bows
- perfect tiller rendering dampened harmonics
- a clean release, no plucking
- perfectly tuned bows, brace and nock
- well placed silencers
- strings that do not contact limbs (i.e. longbows typically)
- use of low-stretch skinny strings
- covered rests & strike plates dampening arrow slap noise
- use of inherently quiet arrow material (wood, carbon)
- heavy arrows
Of course there are exceptions to the list above...
Kris
Had,owned and shot a lot of longbows over the years and I really can not remember any that were not quiet.
Right now I would have to say my Toelke HS Whip is probably one of the quietest I have ever shot.
God Bless, Pierre
Toelke Classic Whip!
My Hill Country Harvest Master is very quiet. Also I have Red Mountain kit bow that is quiet.
Kempf Trophy Hunter 2pc Longbow, just a little whipser on release. Everyone says, "man that bow is quiet." Yep, that's one reason I had Jack make me another one, oh, and so did my hunting buddy.
Cari-bow Peregrine
The Royal Crown by Ron Fox. Amazing bow on all aspects, and i have shot recurves nearly all of my life.
My Whips
A Griffin hybrid longbow by McCullough is the quietest bow of any type I've had.
I thought my Widow PLXS were quiet till I shot a friends Wes Wallace. That thing is whisper quiet :readit:
Was shooting my bow-bolt Holm-Made Osprey today, its real quiet & has stellar performance as well.
I would have to go with my 3pc. Leon Stewart slammer, 64" and 51 @ 26 1/2" shooting a GT1535 with a 50 gr.brass insert and a 125 gr. tip.
the quietest longbow will always be a well tillered self bow. always.
My Firefly FX 62"53@28 and my Toelke Whip 60"44@28 I also had a Northern Mist Baraga that was quiet as a church mouse. Don
Pretty much what I see here is:
Longbows are by design a quiet bow.
So, are the Hill Styles more quiet versus Mild R/D versus the more radical R/D bows?
Perhaps Style of Longbow might be another question to ask?
Alan
My Hill style is quieter that my R/D bow.
64" Black Widow plx t/d, tulipwood, if that makes any difference. I know Widows aren't known for being quiet but I swear that particular bow barely made a sound.
I would say my NM Baraga as well.
Northern Mist Baraga, 66" 49#@28"ultra quiet!!
Larry, You are absolutely right. The quietest bow I ever shot is my old yew self bow. Never thought of that for some reason but its a fact.
God bless you all, Steve
Eagle wing talon LB is very quiet and i am not done finding the sweet spot.
Toelke lynx has been the bow to beat.
Quietest I've shot would be my bow bolt Griffin or Shrew Classic Hunter.....
My Toelke whip are dead quiet but at the Kalamazoo expo I was amazed at how quiet the Northern Mist Baraga was without any type of strong silencers.
My lovely wife is test driving a Leon Stewart Little Slammer right now (thanks Mike and Sue). I can't believe how quiet that thing is. Way quieter than anything I'm shooting.
Tom
My Stewart takedown is extremely quiet. Had many other quiet bows. Zipper is quiet too. As far as longbows in general, my quietest bows have always been English longbows.
Kramer built Big 5,nothing but a swish.Actually Kramer built it and Craig rebuilt it,either way its quiet.
My Northern Mist Classic. With a 10gpp arrow it is whisper quiet.
My Toelke Super D is plenty quiet enough for me.
I think any Hill/American style longbow with a proper hunting weight arrow is quietest. Currently I am amazed at my new JD Berry Vixen - this thing is absolutely quiet with a 500+ grain arrow..... I haven't even put string silencers on it yet. Now sure about other reflex/defle longbows but my other three longbows (Brackenbury Old Timer, JD Berry Serpentine) are quiet but not as quiet as my new Vixen.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Great Northerns. My Critter Gitter is dead quiet. The rest of the GN line of bows is known for being quiet, even the Ghost recurves and Fireball. I have a D/R Osage Royale by Chuck Jones that is silent as well.
I have a quartermoon bow that is the quietest bow i have ever been around.
There you have it. 90% of the longbows made today are the quietest ever. And all the kids at Lake Wobegon are above average. :dunno: He he he he.
QuoteOriginally posted by Alan Coe:
Any Fred Anderson longbow
I have one. I can't disagree with you on that one. And my Skookum bow doesn't even have string silencers on it.
I have a Mowhawk (Sparrowhawk) 66" that's nothing but a whisper........
Norhern Mist Whisper (both of 'em)
Mohawk and 21 century.
In order top three bear Montana, Rodney wright firehawk, eaglewing string follow.
The bear Montana is spooky quiet
My Legends Cyclone, it is so quiet,very smooth bow.
A very subjective analysis...we have no standard for what loud is for a trad bow, so all are just opinions and are anecdotal at best. Ask the guy with impaired hearing how quiet his bow is? :)
We could use a loudness meter to truly compare one bow to another for the amount of sound being emitted from the shot. Getting too technical? Likely, but this wasn't my post. I did a search online for a decibel meter, they start at around $20. Even if you weren't comparing two bows against each other for "loudness" you could compare just one bow to itself, to find its "sweet spot", arrived at through tuning. I might consider this, but have always just used my own hearing.
This from Wiki:
A sound level meter or sound meter is an instrument which measures sound pressure level, commonly used in noise pollution studies for the quantification of different kinds of noise, especially for industrial, environmental and aircraft noise. However, the reading from a sound level meter does not correlate well to human-perceived loudness, which is better measured by a loudness meter. The current international standard that specifies sound level meter functionality and performance is the IEC 61672:2003.
Hills are as quiet as an ant fart. An ant told me that and they don't lie.
Quietest I own is my Northern Mist Classic
My Bama hunter longbow was so silent that I once missed the same buck twice in one sitting and ended getting winded because he circle my stand. The arrows hit the ground and he didnt so much as bat an eye. I am convinced however that any longbow with the proper brace height and a good heavy arrow will shoot silently.
The one with a skinny padded loop Ultracam string shooting heavy arrows. ;)
Or the one at anchor, about to be released? :)
I have shot many many makes of the American Longbow's (Hill Style) for 25 plus years and they tend to be for me the quiet ones, but my Two Tracks "Echo" string follow profile bow is scary ridiculous quiet. It is 54#@28 and 68" long shooting 615 gr woodies.
Any string follow with good brace stability is going to be as quiet as a bow can get. With a skinny ff string even better yet;
God bless you all, Steve
Looks like the Northern Mist Baraga is the winner so far...it has the most votes in this thread
My HH Big Five string follow. I have received many comments/compliments on how quiet she is.
The Hills. My Big Jim Buffalo is dead quiet.
Roy Hall Cherokee, by far the quietest I ever shot, than a 7 Lakes by Mike Ballenger. Shawn
Northern Mist Whisper - even when shooting fast flight
All my Hill bows are pretty quiet when tuned properly and shooting a fairly heavy arrow. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of experience with other longbows to make a good comparison. Right now I am favoring my 55# Cheetah.
makenzie karluk
my legend cyclone makes no sound, it is so quiet i never even think about sound.All my legends bows are quiet !
QuoteOriginally posted by WESTBROOK:
My Northern Mist bows are very quiet, of those the Shelton is quietest, all FF & no silencers.
Eric
I have to agree with Eric on this one. My Shelton was the quietest bow I ever owned...also no silencers and D97 string. If the grip had fit me better, I would still have that one.
QuoteOriginally posted by Ulysseys:
64" Black Widow plx t/d, tulipwood, if that makes any difference. I know Widows aren't known for being quiet but I swear that particular bow barely made a sound.
I will tell you what, my PLXS are very quiet as well. Thanks to using heavy arrows and silencers. I hate to admit this but its true, on more then 1 occasion I have got more then 1 chance at a deer at 10 yards and closer because they never heard my bow, either that or those particular deer were hard of hearing :goldtooth:
Hmm. This question to me at least only matters if you also say what kind of string and whether anything is on the string. then of course arrow weight may come into play. My quietest ever? My Miller Old Tom with a pair of small muskrat silencers on an SBD FF string. All you hear is a whisper of it slip off your fingers and the arrow hit the target. Other quietest bow, a 65" 40# osage hill style self bow w/ a B50 string, no silencers built by a fellow tradganger. Also, like a whisper. Selfbows generally are dang quiet. I had a couple Holm's that were extremely quiet with skinny FF strings.
recently another bow that has impressed me, oddball that it is, is that silly Herter's Itasca I'm trying to sell. It's got a B50 string and a pair of rubber cat whiskers, I loaded up a 780 grain arrow for it and MAN, not shooting super fast, but QUIET, and when that 780 grain arrow hits, the target KNOWS something just happened. :)
Lost Creek or my Hill Country.
Firefly FX
My Martin Mountaneer with 6.5" BH is silent.
QuoteOriginally posted by larry:
the quietest longbow will always be a well tillered self bow. always.
X2
Definitely my home made ERC selfbow. Almost no noise at all.
Thunderchild by a long shot
Northern Mist Classic and Whisper( Classic with reverse handle)
Fred Anderson Skookum all the way
My Leon Stewart Straight limb longbow!
My quietest bow is also the bow that for some unexplanable reason is also my most accurate bow, my pignut hickory. It is about 60 pounds at my draw and shoots dead quiet, with no hand shock, it also shoots a 50 pound cedar shaft just as fast as a 52 pound string follow longbow that I had.
My Fred Anderson 64" 51# Hyak is the quietest of all the L/B's I have ever owed and the "1" that even though I'm hurt :wavey: