Heavy bow or better string?

[gringol]

The subject of string weight is discussed in a lot of detail in Trad Bowyer's Bible (forget which volume).  Basically, the limbs can do a set amount of work.  If less of that work goes into moving the weight of the string, the arrow goes faster.  Obviously, a heavier bow has the potential to do even more work, but why not squeeze every bit of energy out of every bow?

Going from a 10 to an 8 strand string probably won't do much for you, but if you are using a generic string (typically 18 strands) you're losing a lot of energy in the string.  I saw such a big difference in performance in my bows between the generic and skinny strings that I'll never use another generic.

[BowDiddle]

I have seven bows with 9 strand ultra cam strings on them. Did have 10, but I sold three recently.

There has been a good speed increase with every bow, but the increase varied from one bow to the next. All of these bows are shot with 10 grains of arrow weight per pound of bow draw weight.

The lowest gain I got was 6fps. The highest was 13fps, and what surprised me most was that the highest speed gain was on my next to lowest draw weight bow.

All are super quiet, and very stable to shoot now. Even my old 70# grandma longbow is smooth as butter to shoot now with no hand shock. It used to make my hand numb after 4 or 5 shots.

[JamesKerr]

Coming back to this I will give you a bit of information to think about. I just weighed my standard 16 strand string with loops padded to 18 strands single served for correct nock fit and it weighed 96 grains. I then weighed an 8 strand string with loops padded to 18 strands. This string had to be double served to make it work with my nocks. It weighed 72 grains. Keep in mind that the double serving probably adds a bit of weight but the string would not be usable due to no nocks fitting on it. 24 grains difference on a 59" string is not going to make hardly any difference at all. I also don't want to put my limbs on the line with the skinny string because with such few strands it is inherently easier to get cut while hunting.

[TxAg]

JakesKerr

I understand your point, but the opposite point is made in my post above by saving 60 grains in string difference.

I suppose (as always) it comes down to experimentation for each archer.

[BowDiddle]

The string weight thing really got my curiosity going, so I just weighed two different strings for the same 66" bow.

Both strings have been shot in, but I removed the silencers, and nock points before weighing them.

String 1 - 14 strand dynaflight 97 - 109gr - arrow speed with this string was 187 fps when set up with wool silencers, and double nock points

String 2 - 9 strand ultra cam, with loops padded to 18 strands, and serving padded & sized for mercury speed nocks - 79gr - arrow speed with this string was 196 fps with the same wool silencers, and double nock points.

The speed results were when using the same 9.2 gpp arrows with each string.

I use to be a non believer. Not anymore.