String silencers.

[southpaw]

I've been shooting my recurve without any silencers but it's time to quieten her down for hunting. I'm wanting to put a pair of String Leeches on it but wondering why I haven't seen them on other traditional bows? Any reason why they wouldn't work? I love them on my compound.

[caughtandhobble]

They do work great, no moisture retention and overall just a great silencer. I can only guess why they're not that popular in the trad community is due to when the bow is unstrung they can easily fall out. I thing that Doc uses them and likes them. Heck give them a try and let us know how they work for you.

[jerp]

I think a lot of trad guys just like the look of yarn puffs or something similar on longbows and recurves. I have cat whiskers on my longbow and Bowjax on my recurve - kinda non traditional but they work well and I like em'

[TXMark]

I have used them. They work fine. Only worry was them falling out when the bow was unstrung. I think that if you were to serve some on each side of them they would stay in place.

[southpaw]

Thanks guys, that's what I suspected but wanted to hear it from someone with more experience.

[Felix40]

Cost is a factor for me as well. I can make a lifetime of yarn puffs for the cost of one pair of string leeches.

[trad"Doc"53]

I have always liked the beaver balls because they "look" traddy. However looks don't quieten down a bow. I shoot three under so my bows tend to be a little louder than the norm. In fact I had a longbow one time that I finally broke down and put string leeches in and folks started commenting on how quiet it was and what I did to get it that quiet. That's all I use now and have in the past and will continue to suggest trying them if you have an unusually noisy bow. If you put them in a new string and add twists to it as it stretches out, they will pretty well stay in when unstrung. I did have one bow that I placed them then tied them in. Forgot to add, as stated above they don't hold moisture or collect those little weedy things like wool or yarn silencers do. Hope this helps.

[M.E.B.]

I used string leaches for years. Have to be careful not to loose when you unstring the bow.

I have had problems with them not lasting long for some reason. The string cuts them in half. So I went back to making silencers out of yarn again.

I found them on clearance at Academy a couple days back and bought 13 packages at .48 cents each. So I am back to using them again for a while.

[JW]

I used string leaches for years. Have to be careful not to loose when you unstring the bow.



I have had problems with them not lasting long for some reason. The string cuts them in half. So I went back to making silencers out of yarn again.



I found them on clearance at Academy a couple days back and bought 13 packages at .48 cents each. So I am back to using them again for a while.

That's why I stopped using em. I would go to restring a realized I lost one. I like musk ox but honestly that dang yarn works great. I also have Hush Puppies on my string near the loops so I don't have to put a silencer backing near me string grooves. They also help deaden the string as it oscillates.

[Selfbowman]

Where is The string and noise guru Rick. I use beaver balls. If you want a quite bow get rid of that recurve and get you a quite selfbow.about time for you to go all the way trad . Arvin

[M.E.B.]

Where is The string and noise guru Rick. I use beaver balls. If you want a quite bow get rid of that recurve and get you a quite selfbow.about time for you to go all the way trad . Arvin

You are the man Arvin. I went to Africa and wussed out and used my compound.

I just put some clickers on a couple of bows and what little time I have had to shoot them so far so good.

So I am going the other way.

I do want a self bow. The idea is really appealing.

[Draco]

I used to use the yarn a long time ago but went to the cat whiskers after a bow hunting club I was in did some noise tests that showed them to be the quietest. They don't hold water and burrs don't stick in them and that is a plus as well.

[RickBarbee]

I've never been able to make them stay in the string. The small ones shoot out after about 20 to 30 shots. The larger "Heavy Duty" ones shoot out after around 100 shots.

Where silencing & durability are concerned, the three best string silencers I have found are the two yarn puffs (wool or acrylic) & cat whiskers. I prefer the acrylic yarn, because it silences just as well as wool or cat whiskers, and is much lighter in weight.

If you have a good stable string it don't need much to silence any vibration you are getting. It's the real stretchy strings that vibrate the most, and need to most for silencers.

Another thing to think about is - a lot of folks confuse bow noise with string noise, especially where recurves are concerned. They are getting string slap noise, they equate that noise to the string, and start stacking silencers on to alleviate it. They eventually get it quiet, but the reason is they are slowing the string speed down & lessening the force of the slap. Most of the time, that particular noise could have been better dealt with in the tuning process.

Rick

[60X]

tough to beat cat whisker silencers They're simple and work very well