Affect of string silencers .

[Pine]

So I make a new D97 string for one of my longbows and went out to shoot it in .
First couple of shots , I noticed that the bow was very quiet , so why have silencers on it ?
I just started shooting without paying attention to it and I noticed that I was having a very spine weak kicking of my arrows .
Thought I would check my brace height and it was a little low . Normal during breaking in a new string .
Reset the brace height and started shooting again .
Same thing ??????
Could it be ? Does it need the silencers ?
Put a couple of bunjie bundles on and .....
Would not have thought that silencers could make that big of difference , it shot perfectly .
I have other bows that don't make a difference .
Guess this old archer learned something .    

[katman]

Yep, silencers add weight to the string, there position and weight will effect tune. Useful as a fine tuning method also.

[Covey]

Sure does! I swapped out my old yarn puffs for new ones and my aluminums were showing slightly stiff, had to go up in point weight. I'd say once my puffs start to wear down I might have to readjust. Like katman said, good fine tuning tool.

[Stumpkiller]

If your bow was shooting quiet but the arrows were showing underspined then you would have been better off to go to a higher spine and leave the silencers off.

More costly, but more performance.

That said - I put on puffs and adjust brace height to get the best flight at, I hope, the best cast from the bow.  Playing around to get the lowest possible quiet brace height.

[Duncan]

I trim my wool and fleece string silencers down to no larger than 1-1/4" and some are about 1" in diameter and they work fine. I find that it matters where they are on the string too. Definitely effects tuning.

[crazynate]

I had the same issue last week with a new string. I also never realized the affects  silencers play.

[McDave]

Originally posted by Duncan:
I trim my wool and fleece string silencers down to no larger than 1-1/4" and some are about 1" in diameter and they work fine. I find that it matters where they are on the string too. Definitely effects tuning.

+1.  On target bows, I'll cut a small piece out of a set of cat whiskers and divide that in half, so there are only a few cat whiskers sticking no more than an inch up from the string, just enough to take the "twang" out of the string.  I always use silencer size and location as the final step in tuning.  I realize that using more silencer than necessary or moving them toward the middle of the string is reducing my bow's performance slightly, but if it helps me tune the arrow I want, then I consider it to be a reasonable tradeoff.

[A.S.]

Yep, I do most of my tuning by the size and location of the silencers. They make a big difference in tuning for sure.

[Gerald Denley]

I agree with Allen from Ten Ring. Size and especially location are what make a big difference.

A good string is an important starting point...

I supplied a friend with a new string this year, I even put some alpaca wool puffs on it.  He calls and said the string was no good.  His arrows were kicking.  He had a three spline B50 that I made before, but it had damage at the loops.  We added some beaver to it and his arrows flew straight again.

[batbow]

Grap
Thanks for posting this. My Centaur has been showing a bare shaft that's just a bit stiff. And Adding point weight was not helping.
After reading your post I put on a new string I had for it with no silencers. Bare shafts like a dart now! Maybe showing slightly weak, but it's really good.
The old strings needs reserved anyway - arrows almost fall off.
The new string is not as quiet as the old one with the wool puffs on it. So I will add something light later n see if I can maintain the tune

[A.S.]

Originally posted by batbow:
Grap
Thanks for posting this. My Centaur has been showing a bare shaft that's just a bit stiff. And Adding point weight was not helping.
After reading your post I put on a new string I had for it with no silencers. Bare shafts like a dart now! Maybe showing slightly weak, but it's really good.
The old strings needs reserved anyway - arrows almost fall off.
The new string is not as quiet as the old one with the wool puffs on it. So I will add something light later n see if I can maintain the tune

Try placing your silencers closer to the limb tips on your new string.  Also, making them smaller than your old ones will help also.

If you are tuned with silencers, you need silencers! Even a substantial difference in the weight of the silencers can throw things out of whack. I have seen that one first hand, as I served and installed silencers in a string for a friend. He started shooting it and like a week later was complaining that he could not figure out why he was shooting so bad. Next time i shot with him I noticed he had not trimmed the silencers down at all. They were huge! We started trimming, which made them look better also, and wallah, he started getting good flight again and putting arrows in the middle again!

Any change, no matter how small, can affect the tune!

Bisch

[BWallace10327]

The AFFECT of silencers in generally a positive one, the  EFFECT on arrow/bow spine can be pretty big too.

   When I am shooting indoor targets in controlled environments, I use wool yarn silencers I build.  Those aren't so good when hunting, the pick up burrs and become really heavy when wet.  They're heavy too, so my bow requires a weaker spined arrow than if I used the Black Widow silencers, which I prefer.  They do not pick up water or burrs.

[forestdweller]

I'd try adding some weight to the nock end if possible to stiffen them up. Honestly I don't like string silencers because I have had them fail on me and they are just another thing to worry about that can fail on you.

Where I live brier and just being in the woods will eat them up.

[kennym]

I use the rubber silencers now and go with Ryan Sanpei's method of installing. Makes a nice round rubber silencer ball. No weedseeds stuck in em!!

Also, I used to (long ago) buy the 5" strips and just tie them around the string. They slap the string because they are long and make a noise all their own. The shorter rubber are what I like best!