Dacron strings

[Dave Lay]

how many of you shoot B-50 on a FF compatible bow? for noise reduction or what ever reason ? I think now a days alot of folks have never even tried B-50 (dacron), I know the typical bow will take a lesser arrow spine and is somewhat slower but is normally quieter, in your experience, whats the trade offs and your thoughts ??  thanks Dave

[Hot Hap]

I have B-50 on all my bows, new and old. I think it's quieter, and my arrows are fast enough. Hap

[O.L. Adcock]

They are may seem quieter for the same reason going up 1-2 gpp of arrow weight makes them quieter. You are just putting more energy into the string instead of the arrow....O.L.

[Bowferd]

O.L.,
 Hate to jump in,but I'm shooting some old 50/60 RWH's. My curiosity has peaked.
 I ordered some strings at 53 and 53 1/2 to brace them at 8 1/2" with very little to no twist in both 12 and 14 strand.
 Figuring the 12 to be a tad faster and louder, and the 14 to follow a recommendation.
Should I try a 10?
By the time I add the wool to the loops and the string, am I not defeating my purpose?
Fred

[JRY309]

I shoot dacron on my older recurves only but on some longbows it can give you increased handshock and I don't find dacron any quieter then D97 on my longbows.In fact I find D97 alittle more quiet then dacron.The bow feels more solid not springy like with dacron.

[LBR]

I get comments on a regular basis about how quiet my longbow is with a Dynaflight '97 string on it.  The main reasons I use Dyna is the greatly reduced stretch and creep, increased durability, and reduced handshock.  I'd use it if it were a little slower than dacron.  

With a properly made string, proper tuning, proper nock fit, proper silencer placement, etc. it can be made VERY quiet on most bows.  I've yet to see a bow made for FF be damaged by the string--I even use Dynaflight '97 on my selfbows.

Chad

[Roy from Pa]

B-50 worked for Fred so it's good enough for me:)

[SCATTERSHOT]

I just got a '50s style recurve (Chaparral Alpine) that is rated for FF string material. The string that came on it was very quiet, of some FF material, but it had wool wraps at the string grooves and fur silencers on the string. I made a new string for it from 8125, and it sounded like a .22 rifle. Scared me to death, as I thought the bow had delaminated (and I ain't afraid of nothin'!)

Anyway, I replaced that string with a B-50 dacron one, and it's back to being quiet again, with nothing on the string.

Ff has it's place, I'm sure, but with all the gyrations you have to do to make it quiet, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

I'm certainly no expert, but that's my take on it.

[O.L. Adcock]

Bowferd, If you are taking Dacron, you won't see much difference between 10 and 14 strands. Adding wool or whatever out at the tips/loops has little impact on performance unless it's a LOT, a lot being 200 grains+. As you move that weight in toward the middle of the string it starts making more and more difference. It's about a 5:1 ratio, 1 grain at the arrow has as much effect as 5 does in the tips.

Careful with strings with no twist, they can parachute/balloon, about 1 twist per inch is good for any string...O.L.

[WidowEater]

I use dacron on all  my non FF bows.  On any FF bow I use FF.  I do it bc I can more or less.  The bow stays quiet either way.  Heavier arrows always help though.

[LBR]

I have one small set of cat whiskers on my string--this on on the bow that gets comments about how quiet it is.  The string is Dynaflight '97.

Chad

[Old York]

O.L. -

"about 1 twist per inch..."

Per inch of what?

[30coupe]

My Kanati came from the bowyer with D97. It is quiet and shoots like a dream. Just for the heck of it, I made up a B50 string to see if it was any quieter. The sound was different, but the volume was about the same. There was a noticable (to the eye) difference in speed and arrow flight. The D97 was much better. Add to that the greater durability of D97, and the choice was pretty easy for me. I put the D97 string back on and will leave it there.

Hand shock with the Kanati is non-existent, so that wasn't a factor. Everyone who has shot or seen me shoot my 46# @ 28" Kanati is amazed at the speed of the arrows. I shoot 505 gr. aluminum and 525+ gr. cedars. The cedars do vary a bit from 525 to 545 (kind of the nature of wood). So I am not shooting lightweight arrows to get the speed. The lightest of my arrows still run right at 11 gr. per pound of bow weight. Jason Kendall's excellent design has much to do with the performance, but the D97 seems to help as well.

[Pointer]

I use both but Dacron is quieter for me. I can put 4 silencers on the FF and use a heavier arrow but it still is not as quiet for me as dacron. I have some friends with 26-27" draws and FF is real quiet for them. I draw 31" so maybe that has something to do with it.

[recurve1]

Ive found that on most recurves dacron works better as far as quietness goes,and it has a more pleasant feel when i release the string.But i like fastflt on most longbows ive shot.Ive never used ff for speed but for the feel on a longbow-makes it cleaner in the hand but i prefer dacron on my recurves. recurve1

[LBR]

"I draw 31" so maybe that has something to do with it."

I draw 30.5" on my longbow--a longer draw does seem to increase noise some, but it will be more regardless of the material.

Some bows seem to "like" one material better than another--one type of FF material may be quieter than another on a particular bow (danged if I know why).  One thing I've noticed that will make a difference is how the string is made.  Also, you can't usually just stick a different kind of string on a bow, set it up like the last one, and have it shoot the same.  You'll have to re-tune (brace height, silencer placement, etc.) for the best results.

Chad

[nontypical]

All my bows (Bob Lee/Black Widow) like the D97.They feel/shoot better than w/B50.

[dan ferguson]

My longbow was built for fastflight, one day in the summer I decided to play around with this subject, so I shot a bunch of arrows with the fastflight, then promply changed to dacron, the only advantage I saw was alittle quieter but I was not willing to give up the rest of what I lost, I feel you give up duribility, less performance, more handshock, I just lost the feel of the bow, went back to fastflight added some catwhiskers and ended the experiment.

[bowless]

No TS-1 shooters?
Quiet, and soft on the fingers with great performance.

[swamp donkey]

I shoot dacron , fastflight only gives me about 5 fps and makes my bows noisy , I don't have this problem on my bows but, I have noticed on a few bows designed for fastflite that dacron gives em limb flutter makin em seem shocky