I shoot a SKY Trophy longbow.  The bow was designed with tips to handle fastflight but I have always shot it with b50.  I fella frOm SKY told me the fastflight would make it a completely different bow- should I make the switch to fastflight?  How much faster will it make the bow?  It's 58#.

One of the commercial sponsors of this board is SBD Bowstrings, Pierre Lucas.  They make great fastflight string out of the latest material available, "skinny" strings with low mass weight.  The strings aren't very expensive, and it would be worth while for you to try one and decide for yourself if there is any performance advantage.

Personally, I wouldn't consider shooting a bow that was built to handle fastflight with any other kind of string.  The tips that are used on bows rated for fastflight are somewhat heavier than non-fastflight tips, and add some mass to the end of the limbs, so if you don't use fastflight, you are paying a price for it.  Might as well get the benefits too.

You will gain 8 to12 fpr.  Ff. Is harder on the bow then B-50 in that you will feel some hand shock. You will need to tune the bow again and the spine in the arrows you are usiing right now wil be to weak for the FF string. And the bow will be louder.

I'm a fastflight string fan. It gives "oomph" to my low poundage recurves.

QuoteOriginally posted by atatarpm:
You will gain 8 to12 fpr.  Ff. Is harder on the bow then B-50 in that you will feel some hand shock. You will need to tune the bow again and the spine in the arrows you are usiing right now wil be to weak for the FF string. And the bow will be louder.

Well.....technically none of that is usually true (apart for the speed gain & spine issue)
99 times out of 100 you'll feel a lot less shock, as the FF string doesn't allow the limbs to travel too far forward of their brace height. Because of B50's stretch, your limbs are presently travelling beyond brace.
HMPE (FF) strings of reasonable design (ie NOT overbuilt) are actually less hard on the bow, if the bow is designed for it.
Also, 99 times out of 100, you'll notice a lot less noise.

I agree with him, it will be a completely different bow and you will kick yourself for not going with a FF string sooner. I would suggest you get padded loops also. I suggest a 10 strand with padded loops for you.

I've messed around a bit building strings with FF materials and B50. I've tried various strand counts too. Personally, I think 12-14 is the perfect performance verses noise ratio. Anything lower than 12 gets really noisey REALLY fast (I've gone down to 8 strands). Plus you end up needed to double serve it to get the arrow knock to seat properly... 14 gets a better arrow fit, but 12 is quick and quiet enough. My strings I go 15 strand, 3 bundle. Its just what I like. To me the speed for lower is not worth the noise and harsh performance. If I need to go that fast... maybe I should shoot a wheelie ; )

I have found the skinnier the ff string the quieter and lower hand shock from the bow.  I shoot 55 lb RD longbows and love an 8 strand string padded with B50 to 14 strand in the loops.  Properly padding the loops does a lot for noise reduction.

For me the only bows I shoot dacron on are a couple of older vintage recurves that rarely get shot.Just not a fan of dacron!I shoot a FF type string for the feel and not for any speed increase it may give me.The bow feels more solid and not springy like with a dacron string.

what Robtatto said. fastflite strings are ++++++.

Fastflight has made both recurves and longbows faster and quieter for me. I shoot 6 strand SBD's below53 lbs and 8 strand above 55.

Fast Flight SBD strings are the only way to go, I love their performanceand how quiet they are.

A lot depends on how the string is made.  Generally speaking, you gain durability, while reducing stretch and creep.  Noise depends on tuning, silencer type, silencer placement, nock fit, release, etc.

I've never seen evidence of a FF type string damaging a bow, "overbuilt" or not.  What is overbuilt depends on your personal definition.

FF type strings generally reduce hand shock, not increase it.

IMO, you loose some of the benefits by going too low in strand count--you loose durability, you add stretch and creep--those are the attributes I like and the reason I use them to begin with.

Like most everything else in this sport, there are lots of opinions and personal preferances vary.

Chad

Once I built a ten strand flemish: I did not like the feel of it. I shoot it once and my bow limbs were vibrating like a bango string and I never made one like that again. I do shoot 15 strand FF's and I like them.  Nor did I mean at anytime to say not to try them. You asked for pro's and con's. Everyone has different thoughts, and here in this thread you should get a lot of them.

In my experience I own a couple of bows that are built for fast flight and I now shoot Dacron on both more speed yes but I got alot more noise from the fast flight even with heavy arrows.
(bow in 55# range and shooting 700 gr. arrows) For me anyway I Like the slightly slower but much quieter Dacron strings.

FF for me, gained 11 ft/sec and a quieter bow.

Im my experience there are no cons with FF. I wouldn't even consider dacron anymore

i like FF strings.  SBD and Olivery Stacy make a awsome set of FF strings.

B50 here IMO FF is too noisy

Though they shoot with more oomph than B-50 I have always found it much more difficult to quiet down FF strings.