String silencers

NW Jamie · February 01, 2009, 11:46:00 AM

Looking to learn about string silencers. Do they reduce speed and therefore energy? Do they need to be symmetrical, i.e. in pairs top and bottom and at the same spacing? Should they be used to correct a problem or are they needed on all bows? FYI my bow is a Martin Savanna 50# at 28" longbow, thanks in advance for your help and input.

NorthernCaliforniaHunter · February 01, 2009, 11:52:00 AM

I'm no expert here by any means, but found that they helped quite down my longbow considerably. If you have a spool of yarn laying around, there's a fantastically easy "build your own" video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrAN8gFuHkU

I did it and it worked great!

Juan

GrnMtnTradNut · February 01, 2009, 12:19:00 PM

Buy some Hush Puppy's from here you will not be disapointed they are the best I've ever used and look great.

Jerry Jeffer · February 01, 2009, 02:58:00 PM

String leaches. Small, work great, not slowing your string down.

deadpool · February 01, 2009, 03:14:00 PM

I use yarn, infinite supply cuz its so cheap....and it works perfectly!
most of my bows just had a lil "poomp" sound

30coupe · February 01, 2009, 04:14:00 PM

Yarn works great until you get into the burrs like we have around here, then I usually go with cat whiskers. They do about as well as yarn, but don't gather burrs. With all the flooding we had this year, I could have used yarn as the burrs were not bad. Last year I tried yarn first. I looked down at the bottom puff and saw a yarn gob! There were more burrs than yarn.

I can buy two sets of cat whiskers for $1.49 at Mills Fleet Farm, so they don't exactly break the bank. They last a long time too. I have never tried the leeches, but hear they wear out pretty quickly and are WAY more expensive than yarn or whiskers. If yarn or whiskers slow down the string it is not enough for me to notice.

BTH · February 01, 2009, 04:25:00 PM

I've found the same thing with yarn...the places I hunt it picks up burrs and soaks up water. Most anything you put on your string as some effect on performance. Not enough to worry about though in my opinion. My set up is a couple of brush button to keep the stuff out from between my string and limb, which also acts as quietening device for string slap on the recurve limb, and a some cats whiskers type material that I zip tie on to the string so I can move it around until I find the sweet spot for vibration sound dampening.
You can also use moleskin on your limb for string slap dampening.
I was thinking about what you said in your post...is it necessary? Depends on what you are trying to acheive or if it is even required. I was going to take the cats whiskers off to see if they even need to be there but right now my rig is silent except for the arrow hitting the target! So I'm not going to mess with anything.

Shinken · February 01, 2009, 09:56:00 PM

Greetings Jamie! Not all bows need string silencers- particularly longbows. For determining if string silencers are needed for a particular bow it's hard to beat starting out with rubber catwhiskers to determine the best position on the string (just slide them up or down on the string to adjust) and what the benefit of the silencers are.... One can always "upgrade" after that if they choose to do so.

Shinken

knobby · February 01, 2009, 11:31:00 PM

I like the catwhiskers. Lightweight, rubber for water-repellency,low cost and burr-proof. To me, a bow,even a longbow, can't be quiet enough, so I always try to silence my bows. A heavier arrow will also help, as can a higher brace height.

PAPA BEAR · February 01, 2009, 11:41:00 PM

hunting the oregon coast has taught me one thing about water...i use yarn(hush puppies) and spray it down good with scotch gaurd,this minimizes the water absorbtion greatly,almost to nothing at all,spray it a little every time you go out hunting,etc.

Marvin M. · February 02, 2009, 09:55:00 AM

Jamie,

I've got a Savannah, and love that bow! I used yarn on it at 1/4th on the top limb and 1/3 on the bottom. The factory string that comes with them is very noisy. Putting the yarn on there made a lot of difference in the noise. I've taken two does with it so far. One from eight yards that never knew what hit her and one from fourteen that knew it was comeing but couldn't do anything about it.

Spacing them at different spots helps by absorbing more of the different harmonic frequencies that you get with a shot. I use 1/4th on the top because that gives me more clearance for the sight picture.

I dont' have to deal with a lot of burrs where I hunt, so that is not an issue for me, but I can usnerstand how it could be a problem.

Danny Roberts · February 02, 2009, 10:09:00 PM

100 % wool yarn - the only way to go !

Danny Roberts · February 02, 2009, 10:10:00 PM

freefeet · February 03, 2009, 04:54:00 AM

Like this...

2 inch pom poms 1/4 and 1/3 from where the string leaves the limbs. 1/4 dampens the odd harmonics and 1/3 dampens the even harmonics. I also add double layer wool wraps around the string ends to dampen the string slap on the limb tips, spiral down from the loop and then spiral back up over it. I use double knit pure wool from my local wool shop. I actually noticed an increase in performance as i only put them on when i changed to an 8 strand D97 flemish string from the stock endless loop rope that came with the bow.

The best thing about wool is that you can get it in all colours to match your bow.