I often hear that fur, yarn, wool hold water when it raining...and its usually stated as a negative toward the silencer only.....like nothing else gets wet or is effected. Rubber silencers hold water too.

When its raining I pluck my string occasionally to clear the water from my WHOLE BOW....yes, the water on the silencers...the water that is beaded up on the sting, the limbs of the bow, and the shelf/rest area.  The silencers, no matter what they are made of, are going to be effected by water,...but so is EVERYTHING ELSE.

You should always strive to keep your arrows n feathers dry....and keep you bow clear of water by plucking your string.

I'm a fan of beaver fur silencers, or a yarn product like Hush Puppies.  Rubber silencers do teh job, but they are heavier and to my eye, not attractive at all.  

I have noticed that rubber seems to do a slightly better job of taming the higher pitch of a performance recurve.

Hush Puppies on all my bows

QuoteOriginally posted by Hopewell Tom:
The TBM article favored the Cat Whiskers, I think. Don't mean to hijack the thread, but does the length of the Cat Whisker make a difference? Mostly everyone trims theirs, but is that for looks or performance? Placement is supposed to be important, with the 1/3 placing better that the 1/4 position. More to it than just material?
I like the sound (pun intended) of no silencers, Dutchy.

The article favored cat whisker - this is correct. Lighter and did a better job at noise reduction, they don't get wet either!

Still trying to figure out how rubber don't get wet if its raining?

Also, wonder why they claim rubber is lighter ...when the rubber silencers are heavier than Hush Puppies???

I've used them all Wool Yarn, Beaver Fur, & Rubber Whiskers, I've learned to tune them to suit the noise level I'm looking for & have been very happy with each product, never really worried much about the speed.

I'm with ya Terry, if it's raining everything get's wet, just keep plucking every once in a while to reduce it.

Perhaps the correct terminology is that rubber doesn't "absorb" water although it does get wet.

Anyway, makes no difference to me. My preferred bowyer sends 2 strings with rubber cat whiskers installed so I just go with the flow.

Got bobcat fur on my Cari-Bow and it is the quietest bow I have ever had

I'm really not trying to be a smart alack....or pick flies off of turds....but contrary to what most folk 'say' cause they 'heard'...rubber DOES absorb water.

If you want a silent bow, you should grow-up on a farm operating noisy machines, and have a love of rifles, too. Not only are my bows silent, half the time I don't know what my students or my wife are saying!

Have gone to the wool silencers. The Muskox silencers from 3Rivers & the Navajo silencers from Centaur Archery have worked great and shed rain very well.

I don't pay any attention to rain because I don't hunt in the rain. I bowhunted one time in the rain and I was miserable.

Since I use a pair of yarn wool puffs, I don't pick up burrs because I don't carry my bow like most bowhunters. I carry mine on my shoulder where the limb touches my shoulder next to my head.

i've tried quite a few different string silencers from rubber to wool and i'll take hush puppies any day.  new zealand wool is extremely water resistant, super quiet and it takes half the wool to silence a bowstring.  got no stake in this race - if i found a better string silencing material, i'd switch in a new yawk minute.

QuoteOriginally posted by Terry Green:
I often hear that fur, yarn, wool hold water when it raining...and its usually stated as a negative toward the silencer only.....

Last week I shot a 3d tournament in the rain, and I mean it started raining at the first target and was raining a little harder at the end.

My feathers didn't have any waterproofing on them, I was shooting lighter points and my arrows showed off that they were too stiff once my feathers matted down...

BUT - the hush puppies were not noticeably affected. I thought they would hold water, but they really didn't. I suppose I was shooting it out by shooting regularly, but they were fine the whole time.

Cat whiskers here also.

Put them on by folding one sheet and cutting it in half and using only one half on each end of the string.
Put them on with small zip ties, that way you can slide them up and down the string to find the best place. Location does make a huge difference.
I find that on my recurves the best place is 5 inches from where the string contacts the bow.
Try this and you will be surprised at how quiet a recurve can be with the silencers this close to the limb ends.

John

Slade, when you find a good weather proofing.  Feel free to share.  

Billy