I like natural wild fur too, and have it on my selfbow. But even beaver, when it gets wet in a downpour, soaks-up and holds water so that if you shoot at game (not very likely in a downpour, granted)it can make a loud noise and whack your face with water. “Cat whiskers” are basically waterproof but don’t last long in my experience — longer on slower-shooting all-wood bows with heavy arrows, but not long at all on a Fastflight string and fast recurve or r/d longbow. Right now for hunting I’m using some cheap “balls of wood thread” I got somewhere. They’re no better than beaver I guess, but a lot cheaper.

Really, and I guess this is another topic — but all the worry we put into string silencers that work when drenched with rain, and feather “water proofing,” etc., seems pointless in my own hunting experience since hunting in hard rain sucks at best so might as well go home and keep our feathers dry. 😆 If I’m wrong, I hope somebody will tell how they manage to find big game in hard rain.

What can and do you hunt over there? Homer

I agree with you on the rain Homer, although a real hard snowstorm is an excellent time to hunt.
I use catwhiskers. The last bow I bought came with the catwhiskers installed. They were tied in such a fashion to make a perfect little ball, about the size of a golfball.
not sure how he did it but it looks pretty good and they keep the bow quiet.
Also interested to know what you hunt Stefan:?:
Bruce

I like to keep it simple. Dave Petersen had mentioned he just uses a couple short (maybe 3″) strips of leather and I tried it. I like it, and that’s what I’ll stick with.

I tried the leather as well and it seems to work just fine. I prefer Beaver Balls at the end of the day. I shoot a D-style longbow though and do not require a whole lot of suppression. The beaver simply lessons the string vibration a bit.

…oh and it looks cool too! 😛

A naked bowstring just seems odd to me.

I know looks doesn’t kill anything, but I’m the kind of guy that likes to have a set-up that I think looks good. I just really like the looks of the fur type silencers, and they work pretty well. But, in my humble opinion, rubber is the best silencer out there. So…here is my compromise. One set of cat whiskers divided into two sets. One on top and one under my mink fur. It works fantastic and, to my eye looks good also.

There was a great article with a lot of technical backup in an issue of TBM about a year ago. Beaver balls as I remember was the best choice looking at sound suppresion without too much loss in speed.

Dabersold, that does look Good !!
How do you attach the fur to the string and how big a piece is it before it is installed?
Bruce

I’m sold on llama wool. Very quiet, highly water resistant and I don’t notice any loss in speed.

Thanks guys for the positive posts.
BRUC – The fur comes in two strips. Each is about 2 1/2″ long and about 3/8″ wide. I just unstring the bow, separate the string where you want the top of the fur to start and put just the end of it thru the separation. Then, wind the fur around the entire string tightly. Separate it again when you get the fur wound down to the end. Push the end thru the separated string and string the bow.

BRUC wrote: Dabersold, that does look Good !!
How do you attach the fur to the string and how big a piece is it before it is installed?
Bruce

On the 3Rivers website, they have a how to video on installing beaver fur silencers…

Because my wife is a compulsive knitter and collector of yarn, I just make my own from her scraps. I think the best silencers I have used are muskrat. But not good enough to beat the price of free yarn scraps.

I have a beaver I have been playing around with. If I manage to work myself up to actually harvesting him, I may turn his hide into silencers. A lifetimes worth I suppose…

And after we dine on his wonderful tail, I will use the skin on my next bow…

OK, fantasy time over. Back to work.

I use the homemade yarn silencers and lately I’ve used strips of grey fleece material – very quiet and don’t soak up water as much. I have the beaver balls on my selfbows – just seems to go together.

I agree with Smithhammer (anyone who digs Lee Marvin must be right anyway). 😀

I’ve tried most all manner of silencers, and some bows I never could get quiet. I think much has to do with both proper tuning and bow design – or whether you’re shooting fastflight or dacron. I shoot a Shafer recurve that’s fastflight. With llama wool silencers installed, my Shafer’s VERY quiet. My other two Wild Horse Creek recurves, also sporting llama wool, are not designed for fastflight and are, of course, even quieter than the Schafer. I also like the llama wool silencers because they’re cheap, natural, and simple to install.

Good shooting, guys!
Chris

i bought a “package” of camo yarn about three years ago, have a lifetime supply of silencer material. About ten wraps around four fingers. I have beaver on a couple bows, looks nice but cant say it works any better in my experiance

LimbLover wrote: I tried the leather as well and it seems to work just fine. I prefer Beaver Balls at the end of the day. I shoot a D-style longbow though and do not require a whole lot of suppression. The beaver simply lessons the string vibration a bit.

…oh and it looks cool too! 😛

A naked bowstring just seems odd to me.

I like the leather because it will likely never wear out. I’d rather have a naked string, but I can’t stand the buzzing sound. I prefer the minimalist approach.

My longbow doesn’t require much vibration suppression, but I put beaver fur on to make it just a wisp of sound. And besides,like a few have mentioned, it looks8) 😆 As for the hunting in the rain part, it’s hard on feathers and makes a blood trail alot harder, if not impossible.JMHO
Wayne

Brian Sorrells’ article in the Oct/Nov 2010 TBM uses bike inner tubes.Itried them and they work great and last until they dry rot.

I tried a few of the fur and yarn types and they didn’t seem to quiet as well as catwhiskers. Then I couldn’t find the originals so I went looking and came up with these. For a few bucks you can buy a lifetime supply. And since most of us are frugal(cheap) they fit right in. Gary

http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/skirt-making-material/366200.aspx

P.S. You just cut a hunk off whatever length you want and pull it in pieces like a cat whisker.

I’ve used a lot of different string silencers over the years, going with the next new fad as it hit the market. For my longbows I liked a more traditional look of beaver fur or some kind of fur but like some of you have stated they don’t always work well. That changed for me when I tried Hairy Beaver String Silencers as they are literally a cut above the rest. I think it has to do with the quality of the fur they use that makes the big differance. That is all I use on my longbows.

http://hairybeaverstringsilencers.com/

Oh and for those of you that like the Cat Whiskers Hairy Beaver has those also as well as some of the best string wax I’ve ever used.