Another Noisy Recurve

[dwyattcarlile]

#7434

So I have been attempting to quiet down my recurve. As it stands, I’ll probably send a moose to the moon with the noise I’m producing. I have played with brace height ranging from factory specified 7″ – 7.75″ as far as “Old guy at the bow shop” specifications of 8.25″ – 9.25″ to no avail. Added a little weight to the arrow… no good. Bought a slightly stiffer and slightly less stiff spine weight. NOPE! Put some felt on the limbs with zero results. Have tried differing sets and styles of cat whiskers: Four on, two on, longer, shorter, brown, green… nothing is quieting this bow. On top of that, I have severe noise induced hearing loss, so if I can hear it, then it’s likely the Brits can hear it in London. The bow is a Martin hunter, 65# @ 28″ (I’m drawing 29.5″ if it matters). It was made sometime between 1986 and 1988 (again: if that matters). Any ideas?

[jpc]

#61915

Thoses olds bows are like olds laydies……..

Lets try your bow by someone with no more than 28” draw lenght

If no result sent it to the trash 💡

[David Petersen]

#62069

Assuming it’s the string slapping the limbs where they meet the recurved tips, try padding with self-sticking felt etc., same stuff you’d use for a shelf rest. And/or try a softer string, like Dacron. Or likely best of all, get a new bow. One of the many advantages of the hybrid deflex-reflex longbows is that they spread the “recurve” effect throughout the limbs rather than bunching it at the tips, thus are generally far quieter. I had a Martin once, many years ago, before I discovered that even a used custom bow, well made, is far better than a new factory bow. IMO

[Mark Turton]

#62450

Damn wondered what that noise was, thought they had started fracking!

I’ve no experience of Martin bows but how heavy are your arrows? some of the older bows like HEAVY arrows.

Re. the silencers have you spaced them 1/3 and 1/4 of string length or placed them randomly.

Like Dave says custom bows are way ‘different’ and most bowyers will happily help you set up used bows of their making.

Mark.

[dwyattcarlile]

#62604

UPDATE: I lengthened the felt on my limbs to reach further toward the center of the bow. I looked closer at what I had going to realize that there was a possibility that I had some slap going on. I also took my 4 cat whiskers and barely cut any material off. They are evenly spaced from the tips. I wasn’t able to fine tune last night due to lack of light, but the bow is definitely quieter. My wife even said she couldn’t hear it in the house anymore. Need to find the sweet spot though. Have some vibration in the bow itself. I’ve thought about getting another bow (long bow to be specific), but the season starts in 9 days. OH… and my arrow weights are averaging about 640 grains with 25% FOC.

[Etter1]

#62859

The hunter is a fantastic bow. Try yarn puffs over cat whiskers. IMO, there arent any better string silencers.

[Mark Turton]

#63568

Like Etter says yarn makes a difference.

Also try this method for positioning the silencers, measure, the string nock to nock, divide by four that gives the distance from one nock to the location for the first silencer, top.

Again take the measurement and divide by three this gives the distance from the other nock for the second silencer.

The reason for doing this is to dampen vibration, like ironing out a sine wave.

That’s crap explanation, there’s a better description here that someone else put up if you can find it.

Hope it helps, Mark.

[Robin Conrads]

#63594

This tip by Rocky Weeks explains what Mark is trying to say. It’s called Heterodyning. Good luck!

[David Coulter]

#8366

It looks like you’ve tried a lot of things on the bow to make it quiet. I have a R/D longbow and I notice that it normally very quiet, but the noise I produce with it varies. There are times when I only hear a soft thunk of sorts and other times it’s disturbingly loud. For me, I’m sure it’s not the bow, it me. More specifically it’s my release. When I’m really getting into my back with the draw and release, it’s quiet as a mouse. When I get sloppy with my form, it gets louder.

There’s a very cool thread going here on form. You might want to consider linking a short video of you shooting. Just a thought. All the best, david

[Mark Turton]

#12725

Thanks Robin, I knew there was a more coherent explanation somewhere.

Mark.

[Charles Ek]

#16259

Etter1 wrote: The hunter is a fantastic bow. Try yarn puffs over cat whiskers. IMO, there arent any better string silencers.

You probably haven’t made the acquaintance of these:

Musk Ox Bow String Silencers.

I have used them for a couple years. I’ve had numerous favorable comments at 3d shoots on how quiet it made my bow. Liked them so much, I bought a ball of musk ox yarn from Canada to make my own. Have them now on all my bows. They’re very light because of the properties of the musk ox wool.

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