Rick Barbee strings

[MikeW]

Glenn, I ordered one for my new blacktail recurve a couple of weeks ago. I am in hopes when I get it,it will quiet down my recurve.If it dont I will be twisting up a dacron string for it.Have you noticed the skinny strings are quieter than normal strings?

Got a noisy Blacktail? I have had two of them,still have one. I've noticed they are kind of finicky getting them setup right so they are quiet.

Norm told me to make sure and wax the limb pads frequently,well TX. it's so hot you have to do that all the time. I got tired of that and didn't think it helped much anyways so on the first one I took a piece of mole skin and glued it to the limb pads, my current one I have the thinnest piece of cork gasket I could find glued there. Still don't think that's where the noise comes from but figured it couldn't hurt.

It's quiet now but it took a lot of messing around to get it there. 10 strand D10 string, small cat whiskers and small hush puppies and I mean small only about 1/4 of what most folks use,10 gpp arrows and the main thing was brace height. It's still not as quiet as my Whippenstick Hellfire but it's very acceptable and am happy with it finally. I'd set the brace height at 8" and start talking 3 twist out at time and see what happens. I like mine as low as it will go and still be quiet. Mine is a 62" and I'd have to go measure it again but I want to say it's about 7 3/4" or maybe a hair lower.

I mentioned this in an other thread one time and some guys went off on me like I was talking smack about the Pope or something.

[Lynda]

Lynda,
Yes I plan to bring my recurve to the clinic.

Glenn

Great - I'll be interested at taking a look at the string and being educated on the benefits and variables.

Thanks!

[RickBarbee]

Almost all of the youth bows I let kids use have Rick strings on them.


I have a question about them being thin. Do you need a special type of bow tips to be able to shoot a thin string without damage to the tips or bow? I have a bunch of old Bear Grizzly bows and I was told that fastflight string would cut into the tips and bow. Would a thin string do the same thing?

Gary, the "skinny string" terminology has been kind of misleading for some folks.

Skinny being - low strand count strings made from one of the many Fast Flight varieties of string material.

The misunderstanding comes from folks thinking that the loops will also be low strand count, when in actuality they are not if the string is properly constructed. The center serve area also will not be skinny if the string is properly constructed.

My 9 strand strings are actually 18 strands in the loops, which make them the same size loops as most standard strand count strings. They are roughly the same size loops as 15 strands of B50.

Fiberglass bows, such as those you put these strings on, will handle fast flight just fine. It is the older laminated bows they have the potential for failure due to the string.

I don't recommend fast flight strings for any of the older vintage bows, but that does not mean a FF string won't work on them. Lots of folks use FF on old bows and do just fine with it, but then there's always that occasional bow failure that makes you wonder - "was it the string, or just the old bows time to die?"

The skinny FF strings (if properly constructed) are actually a little more forgiving to a bow, than a FF string of the same material at a higher strand count, because the skinny string WILL stretch just a bit more at the apex of the shot.

It's a judgement call, that you have to make with the understanding that there is a risk, and you may have to deal with that risk somewhere down the road.

My track record with fast flight - I've been shooting FF strings on trad bows since 1986 when FF string material was first released by Brownell.
FF rated trad bows did not first hit the market until 1995.
I've only had one bow break due to a FF string, BUT the string did not have padded loops, the bow was a fairly fragile bow to start with, AND it was dry fired. I still believe today that the bow would have survived if the loops had been padded, but we'll never know for sure.

Yes, a bow that has good solid overlays on the tips, and good thickness back to belly on the tips has a much better chance, but when we're talking old bows it is impossible to know for sure. You just can't know what hidden damage there may be in an old bow that's been drug around a long time.

I've seen bows with the limb tips ripped out of them when all they never had on them was B50 strings. Folks just sighed & said, "Dang my bow broke." Then I've seen the exact same kinda bow fail in the exact same way with a fast flight string on it, and the string immediately gets the blame. You see where I'm headed here. Kinda hard to tell if it was the string, or just the old bows time to die.

There has never been any accurate data collected to draw an informed conclusion from. That is why I started this this poll -

http://www.tradarcher.com/string_poll.html

in hopes of putting together a more clear picture of what is going on with strings & bows, especially fast flight strings on old bows. It'll be a while before there is enough data there to paint a clear picture, but what I am seeing so far - there are a lot more folks using fast flight strings on old bows & getting away with it, than there are those with failure.

Here's a funny little TRUE story for you:

Back in the mid *.90's (about 1997 I believe it was), I was helping run a 3D tournament by taking registrations & helping with concessions.

Most of the shooters were already out on the ranges shooting, but there was one group of trad guys shooting on the warm up range waiting on one of their buddies to get there to shoot with them.

Their buddy showed up, and as luck would have it, he parked right where I could see him getting his gear out of his truck, and preparing to get to shooting.

He pulled his bow from behind the seat on the passenger side, turn to walk away as he was closing the door, and slammed the door "Full Shut" on the bottom 1/4 of his bottom limb. He jerked the door open, examined the bow, strung it up, examined it some more, seemed to be satisfied, and went over to his buddies & started shooting. All seemed fine, and they all headed out on the ranges shortly there after.

About 1 p.m. (most of the other shooters had already filtered through for lunch at the concessions area) I hear this same group coming in. Why did I hear them? Because the guy who slammed the door on his limb was cussing at the top of his lungs. I could hear !@#$ fast flight string this, and @#$%! fast flight string that.

They came in, ordered some food, and sat at a picnic table about 20ft away from me to eat. The guys bottom limb was sheared completely off at about 6" from the end.

I sat there for a while listening to the conversation, and the guy cussing & ragging the fast flight string for breaking his bow.

Well, I have this problem. Sometimes I just can't keep my mouth shut, and with this guy using he language he was using I had to put a stop to it, so I leaned out of the registration building window & said/asked - "Hey buddy, you don't think slamming your truck door on that limb earlier had anything to do with it breaking?"

Well, he got a look on his face like I had just slapped him with a wet rag or something, and his buddies all started rolling with laughter. He didn't say a work. Walked over to the trash can & unloaded the trash from his meal, gathered his stuff (including the broken bow), and left.

The moral of that story - "Was it the string, or was it the truck door that broke the bow?" Hmmmmmmmm, we'll never know.

I could go on & on, but I'll let it rest there.

Rick

[stinkbelly]

Thanks Rick.