Why would a bow not be fast flight compatable ?

[Muskoxman]

Would my Wes Wallace handle a fast flight string ? If not, why not ?  I learned a lesson last night, I was sitting on a bear stand and pulled out a arrow with a super sharp broadhead  and it brushed against my sting and twang! Needless to say I need another string. I did have a spare for last night though.

John

[vermonster13]

If the tips aren't reinforced for fast flight....well imagine your string as a broadhead in the string grooves along the limb tip.

[redant 60/65]

I have found in the last 10 years with all the newer product's out glues, reisn,and glass. Just about every bow will take fast flight.  :confused:

[WidowEater]

older bows just arent FF compatible.  FF wasnt used a great deal until the early 90s.

[bbairborne]

Originally posted by vermonster13:
If the tips aren't reinforced for fast flight....well imagine your string as a broadhead in the string grooves along the limb tip.

Tips and Lams
--------------------
Stick & String or Cap & Ball
Trad Rag
Longbow: ACS-CX 58@28, GT5575 Traditionals, 2-blade Magnus, 530gr. total weight.

[Danny Rowan]

quote:by redant
I have found in the last 10 years with all the newer product's out glues, reisn,and glass. Just about every bow will take fast flight.

NOt true. Unless the bowyer recommends the use of ff on his bows, do not do it. Schafers and Dale Dyes come to mind. They do make some ff bows but unless it was made for ff better not use it.

Danny

[redant 60/65]

Danny I agree I would check with the bower first if your not sure, as I said just about every bow will take fast flight. I still have fast flight on my 1986 BrackenBerry.  

[hvyhitter]

Gotta ask yourself if a $600 + new bow is really worth the extra 4 fps............hey go ahead, bowers love it when you blow up your old bow cause then you need a new one.

[hockey7]

-if your using a dacron B-50 string, will it keep stretching, or stretch to a certain length, then stop? What string material is available that won't stretch, yet is compatable with a non fast flight bow?

[Jeremy]

hocket7, linen     Stretches more than FF (which still does stretch) and less than dacron.  Lower breaking point.  What you're talking about is creep though - an overbuilt dacron string will keep creeping almost indefinitely.  Build it with 12-14 strands though and it settles in fairly quickly.  I use 12 strands an am pulling around 60# at my 30" draw.

I agree with redant.  The glues and glass these days are all more than capable of handling a low-stretch string.  

As vermonster13 said, the only real consideration is how the tips are shaped.  If they are properly rounded you should have no problems - to get the properly rounded teardrop shape you have to add an overlay.  Any ridges act as stress points which, depending on where they are, can lead to failures.  You have more leeway in that case with a dacron string.  The old recurves rarely had overlays thick enough to allow for proper shaping.

At this point I've seen tons of custom bows where the string grooves aren't properly rounded (that includes the transition to the belly glass too bowyers!!)  and are surviving only b/c they are reinforced with phenolic or something else dense.

I prefer the feel of the low-stretch strings (TS1+ is my favorite) and would use them even if they shot slower than dacron.  I typically see 8-10fps increase in speed with the same weight arrow.  That's like shooting a bow that's 10# heavier... put that way it doesn't seem so insignificant, does it?

Moot point since all the bows in the house right now were made before 1960  :D

[O.L. Adcock]

A lot of misconceptions about strings and the comparisions folks make are misleading because of it. Most Dacron strings are moderately over built, most modern material strings are WAY over built. As for which bows to use modern strings on, ask the bowyer. As for strings damaging bows, strings have never caused a bow to fail any more then a spoon makes Rosie fat. Far more bows have failed shooting Dacron then FF, you just don't hear about them....O.L.

[George D. Stout]

O.L., my mischievous  friend, that's simply because "many" more bows have been shot with dacron over the decades than with our new playmate Fastflight 8^).

Would you suggest that it would be okay to use a TS1 on my 1959 Shakespeare to get a few more feet per second, as long as I'm using adequately heavy arrows?  No, I mean really!  I would like to know if it's all just hot air.  Would the Fastflight product be any more harmful than linen?

[vermonster13]

George don't take this personal, but I wouldn't want to be standing near you if you did.    

[WildmanSC]

I suspect the biggest causes of failure of bows, in no particular order, are dry fires, leaving the bow in a hot truck or car, improperly stringing the bow, and certainly using FF materials on a bow not built for it.  As Danny said, most of Dale Dye's bows are NOT built for FF materials.  That being said, they are great shooting bows, and very quick, with B50 strings.

Bill

[Jeremy]

The handful of bow failures I've seen have all been where the string cut into the limb at the grooves.  Every last one of them did NOT have a nicely rounded smooth shape.  I think only one had ever seen a FF string and that was a bow that was built for FF (just not correctly IMO).

If the grooves aren't properly shaped you get stress risers.  With a dacron string, even one that's completely settled in, you still get it acting as a spring and stretching during the shot, which takes up some energy.  The low stretch materials don't take up as much energy and, unless you pad the loops or horribly overbuild the string, are typically much thinner.  The thinner string concentrates the energy on a smaller area, which combined with a stress riser in the groove and the greater energy available can lead to tip failure.

My $.02 anyway.