Dacron or Fastflight material on a longbow?

[30coupe]

Originally posted by LBR:


The big benefit from high performance materials--especially longbows--is the reduced hand shock, along with much better durability and stability.

I personally don't care to shoot a bow if it doesn't have a high performance string on it.

I have found this to be 100 percent true. I use D97 on everything I can, mainly because I have enough of it to last as long as I do, lol. I have no experience with the other materials Chad mentioned, but would certainly defer to his expertise.

[Bladepeek]

I'm hard of hearing, so I don't notice any difference  between FF and Dacron. Unless the bow requires Dacron (my Grayling Kodiak Mag), I prefer FF due to a (perceived - I don't have a chrono) increase in speed, longer life and a little extra safety factor if one or more of the strands should get cut.

What really has me shaking my head is people saying the FF is harsh on their fingers. Your fingers never touch the string. If both strings are served to fit the nock, they both feel the same to me.

[JamesKerr]

BCY-X is the best!

[flyguysc]

SBD strings and never look back

[sancoon]

I agree with red beastmaster.  I personally like and use b 50

[forestdweller]

BCY X all the way. It's very durable and quiet as well. With Dacron you are giving up performance and Dacron is less durable than fast flight.

[Joe2Crow]

Hill style longbows and dacron just seem to go better together than FF.  I can't tell a difference in handshock but my hill bows were definitely louder with FF.  And I just like the feel of the release better with dacron.

I have Chad's strings on my Hill style bows.  I have not noticed a noise difference, I have noticed a remarkable lack of vibration and even less shock than they had before.  They were all fairly soft in the hand before, but now, many recurves have more than my longbows.  I also noticed the need to bump the spine a little.  I did that by either reducing point weight or going a notch up in spine over the B50s that I tied myself.   As far as feel on the fingers, that has more to do with the serving the the BCY material in the strings.

[LBR]

There's a lot of bows I haven't shot, but there's quite a few I have.  I haven't shot one yet that didn't benefit from a well made high performance string material (as long as the bow was made for it).

[tradarcher4fun]

I went from FF to a Ten Ring Strings B-50 on my Howard Hill Robin Hood.  I've noticed B-50 is more quieter than FF.  I'm not using any string silencers.