Most effective string silencer for recurves ?

[Brent Hill]

About soaking your string in laquor thinner, I started dong that with my d-97 and ts1 strings since talking with Rob Lee and it has made a great difference in the level of noise and I have not had any string failures.  It sounds crazy but it works.

[snag]

I just took some wool yarn and wrapped the string starting at the loop and ending where the bowstring doesn't touch the limb and then tucking it into the string. Did a good job of quieting it down.

[Big_Al]

I've gotta know - what exactly does soaking a string in lacquer thinner do to make a string more quiet?  I'm not trying to be cute here, I honestly don't know.  

I know lacquer thinner is good for removing stuff like glue, wrap residue, etc from arrows.  I know that if you leave an aluminum arrow sitting nock first in a bottle of lacquer thinner for a while, it will totally melt the nock and any plastic fletching.  What exactly does it do to the string?

[Chuck_Delsandro]

I've had good results with the Musk Ox string silencers on my recurves, but now I may try the  hush puppies.

[Brent Hill]

The lacquer will dissolve all of the wax in the ends of the strings (about 8 inches from the loop) if the ends are left in the laquer long enough.  15 - 20 minutes !  According to Rob Lee, any less time doesn't help.  Now I agree.  After 2-5 minutes the lacquer will turn the wax to slime but has no real effect of the string because the wax is still there.  After 20 minutes and a good wiping of the string, the ends will actually be bleached out and devoid of wax.  The ends of the string will look like kite string as versus a weighty waxed cord.  I have relunctly tried this with both my widow and bob lee and each bow has been much quieter and I haven't had to hassle with applying calf hair or moleskin to my limb tips.  Now I'm no expert.  All of this information came directly from Rob Lee.

[Brent Hill]

It hit me last night after I wrote my last act of babble, you need to know the following: 1.  The lacquer will dissolve plastic.  I'm anal about my brace height and when I remove a string from my bow, I will tie the loops together with tape to prevent the string from unwinding.  When ( and if ) you try this,  tie your loops together with a trash bag tie or something with metal wire in it so it won't be dissolved and let your string unravel.  2. After you wipe your string off, let it sit for some time so that no lacquer gets on your bow finish.  I usually wait a day.  3. Your ends will look bleached out and scraggly if thats a word.  The wax helps to keep the string appear clean and without frays.  Once you take the wax out of the ends of your strings, you will tons of little frays that the wax was hiding.  These frays actually act like a bowhush or other silencing material without clogging up your string groove with additional material.  According to Rob Lee, its very important to keep the string grooves clear so that the string can always go into it.

[BD]

Brent-I'm gonna try it-I was told to keep the string in the lacquer until the loop ends turned white and limp. I'll let you know how it works.

[Ian johnson]

bow hush and hush puppies

[Brent Hill]

BD, that sounds about right.  My loops get close to white but still have a slight shade of their original color.  I've considered redipping my string loops a little longer to get them white.  Look forward to hearing from you.

[Bill Tell]

Originally posted by scriv:
You could always try shooting handguns without hearing protection in the off season.  Over the years I've met several guys who have done this and they say the don't hear anything.    

What?   :p