My Damon howatt makes a springs noise, which I assume is normal.  It has silencers and brace height is good. I was wondering if longbows are fairly silent. Im really weird and I think I want a super stealth bow. Only people that go to my range shoot compounds, so mine is the only one I've heard. I've been thinking about moving to a longbow anyway. Anyone got any suggestions? I don't have a lot of money but I was thinking about saving up and getting an hh

Hill style bows are very quiet. Not the fastest bows in the world, but they point like a Colt 1911. Truth be told though, get the arrow's nock fit looser to where it is just holding on but not snapped on, tune the arrows so that you are not smashing the fletching into the riser at the shot, ie tuned. And go shoot some game.

Double post erroR

What type silencers are on the string? When I once owned a 68" hybrid longbow, it was "twangy" without string silencers on it. I put a pair of yarn wool puffs on the string and it became whisper quiet upon arrow release.

My acs or my ziper longbows are extremely quiet.

My Howatt had two sets of cat whiskers and limb tip groove padding and that bow was very quiet.

Not as quiet as my Apex Predator Ossabaw longbow though... which is silent.

Joshua

What Swampthing said....Hill style bow.

Even more quiet...Hill longbow and hickory arrows with well broke in fletch.

Even quieter....Hill bow with solid fiberglass arrows (cut down from fish arrow), worn fletch, mole skin shelf, string spiders.

You go that far though and arrow trajectory looks like a rainbow.  

any longbow - only the string loops touch the limb nocks and there's no string/riser slap such as found with recurves.  if you want recurve-like performance, seek out an aggressive r/d longbow.

I suggest that you let someone else shoot your bow while you stand back and listen to it. All of my bows are quieter than what I perceive them to be.

Yes, you will find that longbows are in general quieter. I thought my Pronghorn was quiet (and it is), until I got my Big Jim Thunderchild. A buddy and I were shooting yesterday, and he was shooting his Pronghorn, and he commented on how quiet the Big Jim was. Heavier arrows seem to produce less noise, too.

3 under is noisier than split finger release too.

Do most of you adjust how the knock fits? I wish I could get a close up picture on this mole skin shelf, I bought some and I'm trying to figure this out. Should I do the skin on shelf and plate? Or moleskin on shelf, velcro on bottom?

QuoteOriginally posted by Aaron2k5:
[QB] Do most of you adjust how the knock fits? ...

I think most of us do. Tight nocks affect arrow flight.

Joshua

Should I just run some sand paper through it a little until it releases easier?

is your bow a take down or a one peice

If the bow is F/F approved, maybe try a nice skinny string w/padded loops.
  A Stringfollow Hill Longbow, pick a shaft any shaft they are hush hush. Have'nt tried'em with a skinny string yet. Mine even with 18strand FF and 8gpp arrows is very quiet, the dacron string just makes a lower tone. Backset ones have little more tension at brace height so the string may be ever so slightly higher pitched, still pretty quiet though, and, plenty quiet in my book. Of course the above setups do not wear ANY string silencers! At all! The only noise you'll get with a tuned Hill bow is the feathers going past the tiny riser.

I think I'm getting close. The arrows are fish railing up and down a little bit now. The velcro after 60-70 shots is already burning. Does this mean I need to raise knock point or lower?

Aaron,
 Your Howatt is a recurve and using yarn wrapped around the "Y" or "V" on the loops down about 4 to 6 inch's or just to the point where the string stops touching the limb grooves will not only Quiet the bow but padd it..Also using the two tied on over and under nock and of course the correct nock for serving size will also help in making your bow super quiet...So many ways to quiet a bow and for the yarn idea I do my own and discribing it is hard but Terry Greene has those for sale on here and I hope he chimes in ...He doesn't charge much but I think he even has a little instruction sheet to show you how to apply them...If you have yarn and know how to serve a string it's kind of like that...I did it and added a over/under tie on nock on my latest strings and what a world of difference...Placing a wrap around limb style quiver on your limbs sometimes will soften the limb vibration or a slide on model even...Many good answers here so find what works best and don't part with a really good recurve trying to find something quieter...That bow should be very easy to quiet...God Bless, Keefer's <><

You may want to look in to shooting a heavier arrow also.

If they're going up and down, it's called porposing, and you would need to raise your nock point, unless it's already very high, in which case you might try lowering it.  If they're waggling side to side, it's called fish tailing, and you would want to raise your brace height.