I see guys with two string silencers on each end and a couple of those limbsaver thingys stuck on the limbs trying to make their 'curve quiet.

Speed be damned, who makes a naturally quiet recurve?

Too Many Variables, String Strand, Composition and Tuning have ALOT to do with it...

Assenheimer...as quiet as it gets.

My GN Ghost is pretty quiet with a D-97 string and one set of Woolie Whispers.

dunno who makes one, but Terry Green's BowHush and HushPuppys work on my Red Wing 58",50# @28, with a 12 strand string.You can see both on the bow  (21st shot/powwow)
Good Luck with the search though!

Assenheimer is known for a quiet curve. Then again, I have owned two of the same model, set up the exact same, shooting the same arrow and one is noticebly quietier then the other. I have come to accept the fact that some particular bows are just louder then others. And then there is that moving target question; exactly what is considered loud  :rolleyes:

JL

I have shot a number of really good recurves over the last ten years. The quietest have always been B50 dacron string bows. An older Border in particular. Of the newer FF models I once had a Horne Ridgerunner that was very quiet, but again the quietest ones have been the two new Borders with HEX4 and XP30 limbs. Both are 62" take down recurves and probably the fastest bows I have ever owned. They both have one set of woolie silencers installed and that is all. I believe the strings are currently D97's. I am sure there may be others just as quiet but probably not as fast. As BigRonHuntAlot said, there are many variables.

Louis

I have a Sovereign Ballistick with static limbs and it is extremely quiet with just beaver balls.

Zipper

I agree with rbhunt, I had a Ballistik for awhile and it was the quietest recurve I've seen.  It's not a slow bow either.

I second on the Borders. I haven't had a critter duck one yet.

Assenheimer Quiet and smoooth!

Two ballistiks and both are very quiet, even with no silencers.

I have 2, 40 year old Shakesepare Kaibabs that are very quiet with very little silencing.

John,

Kahauna hunter is a very quiet recurve. If you want to shoot it let me know and I'll bring it to the next Itba shoot

Heavy silencers have a negative effect on speed. so here are a few tips to silence bows without the added weight.

Most bows are draw length sensitive quieter at one drawlength than another. Straight'ish sections just prior to the nock create what I call pre-slap and this bit is more particular to draw length the longer the draw the greater is the pre-slap of string on limb as the styring angle is increased and the Flatish section exagerated. The flat needs to be rounded so the string can wrap insetad of slap. Here, a bit of soft Sticky backed Velcro at the strategic location can fix it. It takes some of the thump but also helps to create or improve the radius that the string wraps around. You don't need more than an inch of material and often less.

After slap occurs when the string moves past brace height on the follow through during the after-shot (as the string finsihes wraping the recurve). This is often brace height adjustable. Here again again Soft Velco can be used just under the string to take the thump of the string but more importantly create the space for the string to come to rest without catching the string on the limb. The Velcro is placed just as the string leaves the limb at brace height.

Result minimal materail used and minimal weight to reduce the negative reduction in arrow velocity.

No need at all to put soft material in the recurve groove. Once the string is wraping then there is no noise.

String silencers are there to remove string hum as the string vibrates to rest.

Almost always pre-slap or after-slap is the cultrit of sharp noise.

Later XP30,HEX4 and HEX5 limbs have been designed to significantly reduce Pre and After string slap.

The higher energy the bow obviously the greater the noise.

Hope this helps, spent many, many hours finding this out. with the HEXIII and HEXIV designs.

You can use this to reduce Brace height and gain some speed. We developed 3/8" dia foam sticky backed buttons to hold the string from the limb in the after-slap location they also act in a limited way as brush bottons or more like grass buttons.

Weight on the limb has about half the effect on arrow speed as the same weight on the string.  

Sid

Sid,Thanks for that very concise explanation.I believe that the semi-static limb design of Mark Hornes' recurves,which promote 'wrap' & minimize 'slap' greatly contribute to the quietness of my Combo Hunter.I haven't had the opportunity to shoot one of your bows yet,but I'm certainly looking forward to it.

Sorry to get into this a little late but I too have a Sovereign Ballistick and it is very quiet without silencers.  The only thing quieter that I have shot is my Sovereign Trident.  It is the quietest bow going for me.

Interesting that some folks posted suggestions for making their bows quieter, but the original post was "who makes one quiet to begin with."
I'm trying to get a feel for design here. My longbows are all whisper quiet, and if I could find a recurve design that was, I'd sure consider buying one.
Thanks for the replies.

John,

The Border bows with HexIV limbs, and probably HexV, too, are very quiet.  Another bow I've owned and shot is the Dale Stahl T/D recurve.

One thing I've found is the 450+ string makes for a quiet bow.  Dale Stahl ships all of his bows with a 450+ string.  I've also found a TS-1+ string to be even quieter still.  I've shot the TS-1+ string on a variety of recurves and longbows and have found the bows to be very quiet even without silencing materials on the string.

So, there really is a two part answer to your question.  Some are inherently quiet by design, the Borders and Stahl bows, for example, and nearly all can be made quiet using the proper string, properly setting brace height and using properly tuned arrows.

Bill