Shooting 3 under

[Steel]

I have been shooting split finger for almost 25 years now and being the off season I started shooting 3 under full time just to see how well I could shoot after a few weeks.Time has passed by and I am grouping 3-4 arrows smaller than my fist with ease at 15 yards. I hate to say yes I am shooting better than I was but hate the extra noise all my bows make when shooting 3 under. Is there a reason for this? Something I can do to lower the noise? I was just outside shooting one of my Morrison longbows and it is dead quiet split finger but when I shoot it 3 under it is loud? Thanks for any thoughts

[Winterhawk1960]

Cody,

Like you I had shot split finger all my life. About this time last year I decided to give the three under a try myself, for various reasons but mainly to see if I could shoot better groups consistently. I have always read that three under shooters typically have a higher nocking point than split finger shooters do. Not true for me. I currently own as many bows that were tillered for split finger as for three under. I can't see or feel a bit of difference in them.

However.......I did notice that they were louder when I shot three under. Before going into what I did to remedy the situation for me let me add that all my bows are at least 62" long and several are 64" long. I have a 29 1/2" draw and the longer bows just seem "smoother" on the draw for me.

I am not saying that what I did will work for you or anyone else.......so no guarantees.

First and foremost for all my recurves except my Dakota Pro Hunter that came with female velcro in the string grooves on the limbs, I bought a spool of merino wool yarn and I wrap the ends of the strings from about two inches below where the string first contacts the limb itself. I wrap them all the way to the nock loop and make a pass around each side of it and then wrap all the way back down to BELOW where I started on the string. This elimnates, or at least limits the amount of "slap" that happens when you draw and release the arrow.

I tried all kinds of different types of silencers on the strings in different locations. What I have found that works best for me is the musk ox silencers that are available located at 1/3 points on the string. If this still doesn't quite get it as silent as I would like I then put some beaver fur silencers at 1/4 points in addition to the musk ox ones.

There is one more thing that I have tried on my takedown bows. If there isn't anything between the limb and the riser where the limbs attach I take my string wax and give it a fairly good coating on the riser and re-attach the limbs with the limb bolts. I'm not sure what this does, other than hide the sound that they make when the move on each other, but it has taken the last bit of noise out of all the bows that I have.

One more thing that you can sort of "fine tune" with on noise is this..........................

Find out your bowyers recommended brace height and start at one end or the other and go through the whole range of recommended braces. This will really surprise you as to eliminating that last little bit of "noise" that you are hearing.

I hope this helps.......    

Winterhawk1960

[Winterhawk1960]

Originally posted by Winterhawk1960:
Cody,

Like you I had shot split finger all my life. About this time last year I decided to give the three under a try myself, for various reasons but mainly to see if I could shoot better groups consistently. I have always read that three under shooters typically have a higher nocking point than split finger shooters do. Not true for me. I currently own as many bows that were tillered for split finger as for three under. I can't see or feel a bit of difference in them.

However.......I did notice that they were louder when I shot three under. Before going into what I did to remedy the situation for me let me add that all my bows are at least 62" long and several are 64" long. I have a 29 1/2" draw and the longer bows just seem "smoother" on the draw for me.

I am not saying that what I did will work for you or anyone else.......so no guarantees.

First and foremost for all my recurves except my Dakota Pro Hunter that came with female velcro in the string grooves on the limbs, I bought a spool of merino wool yarn and I wrap the ends of the strings from about two inches below where the string first contacts the limb itself. I wrap them all the way to the nock loop and make a pass around each side of it and then wrap all the way back down to BELOW where I started on the string. This elimnates, or at least limits the amount of "slap" that happens when you draw and release the arrow.

I tried all kinds of different types of silencers on the strings in different locations. What I have found that works best for me is the musk ox silencers that are available located at 1/3 points on the string. If this still doesn't quite get it as silent as I would like I then put some beaver fur silencers at 1/4 points in addition to the musk ox ones.

There is one more thing that I have tried on my takedown bows. If there isn't anything between the limb and the riser where the limbs attach I take my string wax and give it a fairly good coating on the riser and re-attach the limbs with the limb bolts. I'm not sure what this does, other than hide the sound that they make when the move on each other, but it has taken the last bit of noise out of all the bows that I have.

One more thing that you can sort of "fine tune" with on noise is this..........................

Find out your bowyers recommended brace height and start at one end or the other and go through the whole range of recommended braces. Somewhere in the range of recommendation there will be a spot that it is the quietest and also has the least vibration of the limbs. I believe that this will vary from person to person and will not be exactly the same for two different shooters. This will really surprise you as to eliminating that last little bit of "noise" that you are hearing.

I hope this helps.......      

Winterhawk1960

[Winterhawk1960]

Woops........sorry about the double post, but if you will notice......I forgot something, and added it in the last paragraph.

[COMPOUNDLESS IN CONCRETE]

I have only shot 3 under so I can't comment on the noise difference between the two finger positions but one thing I did to quiet down my TD was to make little rubber gaskets out of an innertube out of a childs bicycle tire.  I cut them to fit the limb pockets and bolted her back down and now the bow is very quiet.  Heavy arrows often help too.  My recurve likes the high end of the brace height that is recommended for my bow which is 7 1/4"-8 1/4".  I have mine set at about 8" and it seems to like it there.  Winterhawk 1960 seems to know what he is talking about, so try his recommendations as well.  Hope this helps.

[buckster]

Cody,

Can you try to specify a bit more where you think the noise is coming from?  If all the other variables are the same with your Morrison set-up, it may well be related to your release.  This would be reasonable to expect, if you have just switched over from split.

Maybe try both shooting gloves and tabs and ensure that you are getting a smooth and clean release and that you aren't torquing the string out of alignment. This can defenitely cause some extra noise.  If you need a extra tab, let me know?? I'll send you one of my Black Widow cow hair 3-under tabs for you to try.  They are smooth and quiet.

Like you, I favor shorter bows, more challenging little beasts to mute sometimes! I find that with shooting 3-under I can get a quieter rig by increasing the brace height by as little as an 1/8 inch or so, and not give too much performance.  

All the other stuff that Don recommends are also valid.  I use heavy duty Merino wool that my wife picks up at the Hobby Lobby.  I only weave it into the ends as a last resort, as I prefer skinny strings with padded loops and use the wool to make my own silencers mostly.

Finally, check out many very helpful post on 3-under shooting on our shooter's forum, great stuff here.

[MAT]

Make sure you have a nocking point under the arrow too, shooting 3 under the arrow can slide down.  This can cause it to hit the shelf, and cause erratic arrow flight. Usually you'll see a mark there.  Sometime 3 under causes this to happen anyway.  You can raise the rest a little to help.

I found 3 under greatly improved my accuracy.  You'll want to play around with finger pressure to difnd what works best for you. For me it's  relaxing my top (index)finger slighlty and pulling more with the bottom finger.

[broketooth]

i think the noise comes from not moving the nock point up on a split finger tillerd bow, the reason why i think this is when you dont move the nock point, you are adding extra pressure on the lower limb only causing it to shot slightly out of tiller. you are also adding extra pressure on your third finger which may contribute to string noise. you also may be plucking the string slightly by moving three under your anchor point may have changed slightly also.  in my opinion this is just a list of possabilities for the extra nooise or perceived noise. i also came to these conclusions by trying three under without changing my nock point. i normally shoot split thanx ruddy

[Bowwild]

I shot split-finger during my first round with traditional in 1969-75. Also with compounds for the next 10 years after that. Since going back to traditional (heavy this year)I've only shot 3-finger.  I love it--more comfortable and better string control. This is the best way for beginners to learn also because the string doesn't role the arrow off the shelf or rest.  I also put a nock locator (tied on, not the brass ones) under the arrow. High-speed photog shows sometimes the arrow nock will begin to fall down when the fingers come off the string. I can't imagine, if you change nothing else why the bow would be noiser one way over the other?

[xtrema312]

If you get if figured out I want to know.  My bows make more noise 3 under.  I have tried tabs and gloves of different types.  I have also tried to shoot 2 finger split and 2 under to see what that does.  My bows make more noise even shooting 2 under.  I do have one bow tillered 3 under; with silencers at 1/3 points and some brace height adjustments it is not too bad now, but still shoots quieter yet split.  It is one piece and a LB so all the other tricks are not possible.  I have raised my nock point and gotten great bare shaft flight, but still not much change in sound.  I am thinking of trying two sets of whiskers next at 1/3 and 1/4 points.

[crotch horn]

Funny you mention the Morrison. I switched to 3 under this past year as we'll& the only bow of mine that is louder in my Morrison. So much I could not hunt with it the way it is. I love the bow 56" 56@28. I just got a Lost Creek NAT and no noise at all. Got a turkey with it to break her in. That bow is 54" 51@28. My draw is 27" 3 under but 26" split finger. Also have a BobLee with no noise & a Mikuta TD with no noise. Just the Morrison.

[Steel]

Thanks for all the tips I have several tricks to try this weekend. I think I will start out with  my all wood Centaur it is super quiet spilt finger so I will play with the nocking point/brace height and go from there.

[Pete Arthur]

I just switched to 3 under too. I also noticed that my ChekMate Hunter 2 is a bit louder. I may try the Musk Ox silencers mentioned above. I hear they are great.

[Jason Kendall]

Have some one stand next to you when you try it each way, I find it doesnt sound any different to them.

[Burnsie]

I thought I would give 3 under a try myself this evening.  I actually started liking it, was getting pretty consistent after awhile.  It may have been slightly louder, but the thing I found was I started getting feather burn across the top of my bow hand.  Any fix for that?

[xtrema312]

Originally posted by Burnsie:
I thought I would give 3 under a try myself this evening.  I actually started liking it, was getting pretty consistent after awhile.  It may have been slightly louder, but the thing I found was I started getting feather burn across the top of my bow hand.  Any fix for that?

Raise your nock point.  The arrow is kicking down and out.

[Burnsie]

Thanks Todd,  I'll give it a try.