I keep three bowstrings for my favorite hunting bow at all times. I have fur silencers on my practice string because that makes it easily identifiable, and I prefer the look. I use cat whiskers on my two hunting strings, regular use and backup, because they shed rain the best.
At the end of each hunting season I toss my practice string, which is usually worn out or close to it by then and buy a new string for my bow. I replace the cat whiskers on the regular hunting string with fur silencers, which then becomes my practice string. My backup hunting string becomes my new hunting string, and I set up and stretch the new string to be my backup hunting string. All of the strings are pre-stretched with silencers and nocks properly installed before hunting season starts.
By using a three-string system, I always have a like new string for actual hunting, and a new backup string. If something happens in the field that requires me to replace my regular hunting string with its backup, my practice string can then become my backup hunting string. It’s a flawless system that keeps you in perfectly tuned strings regardless of the circumstances.
Great idea! Thanks
Great system! I’m going to use it. Thanks for sharing. What bow is that in the picture? It’s beautiful.
Thanks for the compliment. That’s a 2-piece Sarrels Sierra longbow. Cocobolo riser, mountain juniper limb veneers, whitetail antler tip overlays from a buck that I shot with my 1-piece Sierra, and beavertail grip.
Hope this tip helps guys out. It’s a system that I came up with a few years back and I’ve never been without a good string for the woods since. And the rotation helps keep a little method to the madness while maximizing string life AND making sure my string for when it matters the most while hunting is always perfect with a perfect nick fit.
Thanks. I started using this method several years back and find it to be the best of all worlds for optimizing string life while practicing and also making sure that I always have a perfect nock fit and fresh string for hunting. I’ve shared it with a few local buddies of mine who have also adopted the system and one of them recommended that I write in for the tip of the week group. Hope it helps someone.
The bow is made by Bob Sarrels of Sarrels Archery. It’s his Sierra longbow and is the first one to leave his shop as a 2-piece design. The riser is cocobolo with mountain juniper limb veneers over bamboo cores, it has whitetail antler tip overlays from a buck I shot with a 1-piece Sierra longbow that Bob also made, and the grip is beavertail.
Three Bow Strings? Don’t you just gotta love someone who is thinking ahead? We should all wisely come down with a good case of the ‘What Ifs??”
What I like the best about this is that it really costs NOTHING. Your going to use the strings anyway so your just buying them in advance during the off season and placing them in your hunting pack takes zero space and has essentially zero weight. My backup strings just stay in the very bottom of my pack in the little zippered bags they shipped in.
If that’s what you want to do then do it. I guess we can make anything complicated if we try. I have NEVER “worn out” a bowstring in all the years of shooting I have done. I hunt with the same string I have practiced with in the off-season then I have a spare in my pack which has been shot in from a few years ago, all waxed and ready to go if I cut the one on my bow. I have done that before but have learned to be very careful with my bow strings. Although, accidents do happen.
That’s a good idea if you are prone to hunt in the rain.
Several years ago a friend arrowed a deer and it was misting at the time. I had gone back to the truck because of the weather when he showed up and told me about the shot. Back out in a heavy mist we trailed that deer until the rain had obliterated the blood trail. Just a mist, not a light rain, just enough to speckle your glasses good.. We tracked what we could for about another hour and finally gave up. Found the deer the next afternoon about 100 or so yards from where we gave up but not in the direction we thought it had traveled. The coyotes had a good meal.
Me, I don’t hunt when it is raining.