Home Forums Bows and Equipment SBD string. Two track silencers questions!

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    • jmsmithy
      Member
        Post count: 300

        Howdy Gents (& Mom)

        So I strung my 52″ Fedora Stalker with appropriate SBD string and, after reading one of Dr Dave’s posts, installed Two Track wool silencers in a heterodyne type alignment. 12″ down from top and 16″ up from bottom on my 48″ string.

        Performance is unreal. I literally had my 29.5″ Griz Sticks flying like darts out to 25-30 yards. But a bit loud. Putting the Two Tracks on certainly tamed it quite a bit though still a touch louder than my original string.

        Next gonna try same type setup on my Widow PMA 62″.

        Leaving Saturday early am for bear trip to Maine North Woods and been wanting to make this change.

        Any thoughts about noise increase? I don’t think it’s too bad though I notice the difference. Assume it’s the 6 strand “skinny” string?

        Definitely impressive performance though…:D

      • Doc Nock
          Post count: 1150

          I wish I could throw in $.02, but have no idea what you’re referencing. Can you shoot me a link to said “Dr. Dave’s heterodyne placement thread?

          I’ve always read to place silencers equally at 1/4 or 1/3 locations from the tip…

          I had a 6 strand skinny with just tiny bits of cat whiskers tied in a wrap around method that spins them into small ‘balls’… and it worked beautifully for quiet.

          But the bow I have is super balanced upper/lower limb which really helps noise

        • Alexandre Bugnon
          Member
            Post count: 681

            The concept of that irregular placement of silencer is supposed to cancel noise causing frequencies.

            You put one silencer 1/4 of the string’s length from the top limb, and the other silencer 1/3 of the string’s length from the bottom limb. All my bows have SBD’s. It made some difference on my actionboo Elkheart. My foam/carbon Shrew CH , on the other hand, hardly needs any silencing. It’s as silent as a self bow with just 1″ wide woolie whispers. Funny, because the consensus is that foam/carbon is noisier. Maybe my bow was a fluke! 😀 I like that!

            Have fun in Maine! I just came back from a mini vacation in vermont’s green mountains. A bear came by the cabin all 4 nights we were there. No moose though!:(

          • jmsmithy
            Member
            Member
              Post count: 300

              Sorry!

              Some really lousy writing there 😳 I meant I had read about the Two Tracks wool silencers in one of Dave’s posts! 🙄

              As for heterodyning (sp?) I’ve read about that method of placing silencers in a number of places (websites, blogs, mags etc). I used to always place my silencers at equal measurements from each tip. Then I tried heterodyne method and it seems to make a difference….

              Sorry about any confusion 😥

            • Bruce Smithhammer
                Post count: 2514

                For those who are interested, here’s a link to the Heterodyning article:

                https://www.tradbow.com/public/Heterodyning.cfm

                There’s a lot of good info in the “Tip of the Week” archive!

              • archer38
                  Post count: 242

                  Maybe its just me

                  , but I’ve never had much success with wool silencers. Rubber cat whiskers seem to work best for me. I’ve also used plain old rubber bands and surprisingly, they worked just as good as anything I’ve ever used. I think I mentioned this in a previous thread somewhere, but an old-timer friend showed me this trick with cinching rubber bands, cut from bicycle tire tubes, on my string for silencers. Worked great but then, as I said, Maybe that’s just me ! Either way, I agree with everyone as to the heterodyning method. All my bow strings are done this way now !

                • Doc Nock
                    Post count: 1150

                    Thanks for the link. Can’t imagine why I never heard about that before, but…hey…never to late to learn less your dead!

                    Thanks guys! I will give this a try on 2 new strings I just got from Rick Barbee…

                    Sounds too good to be true…but I use the wrap around and clothespin process for tying on catwhiskers.

                    I can’t say they’re better, but they don’t change arrow performance like wool, yarn, fur when it rains and they get wet!

                  • mgerard
                      Post count: 19

                      Two Tracks String Scallops-weigh about 7 grains. The natural felted wool sheds water for awhile and doesn’t pick up burrs. Really easy to set-up, work great (in my experience) and they look great.:)

                    • Doc Nock
                        Post count: 1150

                        Wow…thanks for the LINK!

                        As said earlier in a post, never heard of this (or I ignored it) but just did that w/ catwhiskers on a new Barbee string!

                        Amazing! thump. It was pretty quiet before…between the string and Kirk’s super balanced limbs on my Bigfoot, but, now! shhhhh.

                        THANK YOU ALL!

                      • coastalbendbows
                          Post count: 120

                          The bows I build get set up this way. Pierre (SBD) sends me the bare strings and I use the heterodyne placement of homemade wool silencers. I’ve never had a problem with noise on any of mine.

                          Recheck your placement of your silencers just to double check and also check your nock point in case it slipped.

                          Shawn

                        • Forresterwoods
                          Member
                            Post count: 104

                            I just read a book about american indian bows, arrows, and quivers. Some pictures taken in the late 1800s show native american bows with string silencers an inch from each end of the string. When I have shot my bow with small fur silencers a foot or more from the string ends, I hear a ‘woosh’ noise from the silencers passing through the air. I wonder if that unwanted noise doesn’t slow down the arrow speed? If the silencers are on to stop the string vibration, doesn’t the entire string vibrate? If so then silencers would work on the ends of the strings. Just a thought.

                            Kevin

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