Silencer Mystery…?

[MSARCHER]

#6344

Ok, I’m on my 3rd set of silencers or should i say half set. For some reason after a month or so of shooting (and i shoot alot) my bottom string silencer (cat whiskers) starts losing the strands until eventually just a few are there and the bow gets noisy. The strange thing is the top one is as good as the day i put it on. i’m wondering if maybe its rubbing my clothes or something, but i dont think it is. We are tying these to the string, not in between the string, but again the top one stays put. Does anybody have a clue as to what is going on and would it be better to tie in between the string strands?

[Stephen Graf]

#50792

It’s not hard to tie them in between the string bundles. That would help keep the silencers in place.

In fact, I don’t tie my silencers in place, But I use wool from my wife’s yarn.

Normally cat whiskers break off as they wear. So look for that to indicate a problem. As well as wear to the string around the silencer.

If you have access to wool yarn, it is a much cheaper solution that is more natural (if a bit less effective) and lasts a lot longer in my opinion.

[MSARCHER]

#50916

Thanks Steve!

[William Warren]

#52425

The wool yarn is a very good silencer but lately I’ve been using fleece material. I have a bunch of gray fleece so I’m cutting 8 – 4 inch long strips no wider than 1/2″ and tying them onto my bowstring with serving. It is very quiet and easy to install and can be trimmed to suit your needs.

I don’t know if this could be an answer for your question, but was wondering how close are your silencers to the knock ends? I’ve noticed catwhiskers, at rest, droop under the pull of gravity, so maybe the bottom one, if it is close to the knock end, is slapping the limb and causing it to wear prematurely.

Duncan

[cody]

#54286

I hand twisted strands of my Siberian Huskys sheaded hair into yarn strands and put them in the string. Produced a pretty good cloud of hair in the air for the first several shots(ive got too much time on my hands haha). There not much to look at but someone stole that dog from my house and I hate to get rid of them. I’ve also got a set of musk-ox (spell check) wool and they have been in for about a year or more and I love em.

[archer38]

#15418

I used rubber cat whiskers for a long time and an old timer showed me his bow at a 3D shoot one day. He used 2, 1/4 inch rubber bands cut from a bicycle inner tube.Just looped it around the string and pulled it through itself.I pondered this and decided to try it with actual rubber bands. I’ll never by cat whiskers again! Those rubber bands work just as well, if not better than the whiskers.

[Wexbow]

#16227

Archer38 – do you just tie a couple of elastic bands directly to the string top and bottom? I find that elastic bands tend to perish and get brittle over time, how do they last on the bow? Or are you using tube rubber like the old timer?

[bruc]

#25093

I have used the 1/4″ strips cut from an inner tube now for a month or so and they work great. I ended up tying them with a bit of dacron to keep them from loosening. I don’t think the regular type of rubber bands would work as they could not be pulled tight enough without breaking. Anyway great idea from someone !

Bruce

[skifrk]

#25226

One question does the bow really need silencers. When I got my most recent I tunes it nice enough where it did not string silencers don’t know if it might be possible with this bow.

[archer38]

#25733

Yes, the rubber bands did wear out quickly. I’m using tire tube cuts now. As for the bow that doesn’t need silencers, sounds like a nice problem to have ! If you don’t mind me asking, What is it ? (make/model)

[MSARCHER]

#26296

I’ve noticed alot of you mentioning using old pieces of tire tube for silencers. This probably should be another post but since we are on the subject i’ll just type it here. I work at my father-in-laws tire business here in Corinth, Ms. He’s been at his location for 42 years. Anyway, we have alot of semi-truck business as well as the other including tractor/lawn garden tires, so old tubes are very easily accessible. Now, we also do a service called “truing” tires in which a high speed blade shaves off the tread of a tire to get uneven wear smoothed out. This is a big deal for big semi-trucks. We do alot of it, so the very thin shreds of shaved rubber accumulates very quickly. I decided to find a use for it. I took an old feed bag and dumped this rubber into it and tied off the top. Man, it stops field tipped arrows like crazy and this stuff wont wear out just the bag will. With that being said, old tubes stuffed tightly into a bag would work as good. Now unless you have someone like myself working at the tire shop, most of the time, they will be glad to get rid of this stuff. There’s my tip. Have a good one.

Nick

[skifrk]

#26413

Archer38 the bow I shoot is a bob lee 64″ longbow called the signature stick.

[jmsmithy]

#27536

Here’s a question…where do you put your silencers? Do you break up your string in measured sections OR do you look to see where oscillations converge after plucking?

I’ve seen/heard both methods and honestly can’t tell difference. I have some new SBD strings that I’m setting up and can’t decide which method to use….:shock:

[Ralph]

#27701

Mine are at about 15″ from the tips towards the center and that’s cause that’s about where I get to with two spans of a middle finger to thumb spread (that span works on all my longbows, no matter 64″, 62″, 60″ for some reason and it’s a “ruler” that’s with me all the time). I use yarn wool now but when I used cat whiskers I had a couple of bows that ate the bottom set. I moved them a bit closer to the center and that seemed to help. Maybe the vibration wasn’t as sharp and quick? Dunno. Yarn silencers are so easy, cheap and work really good. Somebody said somewhere that acrylic sucked but I have wool yarn and synthetic wool both and I can’t tell any diff.

[Robin Conrads]

#27712

Jmsmithy wrote: Here’s a question…where do you put your silencers? Do you break up your string in measured sections OR do you look to see where oscillations converge after plucking?

I’ve seen/heard both methods and honestly can’t tell difference. I have some new SBD strings that I’m setting up and can’t decide which method to use….:shock:

Here’s a recent Tip of the Week that might help with where to put the silencers, and why. Heterodyning I hope it helps.

[archer38]

#27812

Very cool Robin ! Thank you for posting that !

[Raymond Coffman]

#27866

Yes —

I read that tip and applied it to my bows —

which were pretty quiet to start, more so now —

outstanding tip!!

Thank you Robin! again from me—–

Scout

[jmsmithy]

#29594

Thanks Robin 😀

But, of course, I have a question…:roll:

Does it matter of the silencers are reversed in the Heterodyning model? Meaning the shorter distanced puff at bottom and longer at the top? Just wondering …:shock:

[neotoxo]

#29659

Jmsmithy wrote: Thanks Robin 😀

But, of course, I have a question…:roll:

Does it matter of the silencers are reversed in the Heterodyning model? Meaning the shorter distanced puff at bottom and longer at the top? Just wondering …:shock:

It doesn’t matter which end is the short end in reality…BUT I choose the top because the longer side up top on some bows puts the silencer in my peripheral vision and that bothers me…not all the time but on occasion I’ve drawn down on a target and had the urge to swat them…LOL

[Etter1]

#29840

I’ve found the yarn puffs to work better than any other silencers. I would love to use beaver or muskrat fur but haven’t found them to do much good.

[handirifle]

#34142

Very good thread, especially the heterodyning tip. Thanks to all.

[Author]

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