What damage does a Fast Flight string do?

[LBR]

I understand.  I can't say it wasn't the strings, but I can say two instances doesn't convince me.  

Neither of my selfbows are that short, but I'm drawing them around 30".  Both are deflex/reflex, and both perform well above average for a selfbow--better than many laminated bows I've shot.

May I ask, have you had a bow, or know of a bow failing with a dacron string?

[Bozz]

Maybe it's my long arms, but I've had 4 bows made by three different bowers break in the last 5 years. All while using FF string. Since I can't cut my arms down, I've switched to B-50. It's not as fast, or as hard hitting, but I'm down to my last 2 bows, and I haven't broken any bows since April.

[Art B]

I've had many selfbows fly apart on me over the years using the B-50 Chad. But these two bows did not fly apart, but rather just cracked the back ring of their backs. That's never happened before.

I've been shooting an Osage bow of the same length/style as the hickories for a while now, using a dampened, padded fast flight string, and really don't have any concerns about it breaking. Osage is just a different animal.

What type wood are your selfbows made from?

[LBR]

Maybe it's my long arms, but I've had 4 bows made by three different bowers break in the last 5 years. All while using FF string.

I've broken quite a few over the past 20 years or so.  I'm pretty sure all of them had a dacron string on them--like 99.99% sure.  I don't blame the string though.  It's funny--Jack Harrison's warranty states that if you use a dacron string on one of his bows, you void the warranty.  Go figure.

Art, one of my bows is osage (the longer one), the other is hickory.  Both are 60-65# at my draw length (30-30.5"), and I shoot POC's from both with 125 grain points (not real heavy, not real light-9-10 gpp).  I use a 10 strand Dynaflight '97 string (2-bundle) with the loops padded to 18 strands with dacron.  The osage has narrow, deeper cored limbs while the hickory has wider, thinner limbs.

Just to clear the air, I'm not doubting your results at all, and don't blame you for suspecting the strings.  I wish I knew of a way to figure it out for sure.

[Sixby]

I doubt that there is a way to figure it out Chad. One thing is for certain when a bow breaks with ff its the ff s fault. When one breaks with dacron no one blames it. I have seen that over the years. However the majority of breaks in this thread and that I have personally seen were caused simply by overdarawing the bow .God bless you all and this has been a great thread. Steve

[Art B]

There's no way to over draw my bows with a 25" draw length Steve, LOL!. Of all the bows that I've had break in the past (and I only build and shoot selfbows) none could be contributed to any type of string material. Pilot error mostly.

But when you try something out of the norm, and then something out of the norm happens, well then you can understand what I'm saying here.

Oh, I haven't quit playing around with this low stretch material for my bows by any means. Just not going to try it on those hickory designs anymore.

Yes, good discussion all around. ART