Is a Flemish string quieter than.....

[Bob L.]

An endless loop fast flight? I'm trying to quiet my TD recurve and was thinking about putting a good old Flemish string on it. What are your thoughts? I have already fooled with the brace height over and over and it just isn't quiet enough for me. It also has cat whiskers on the endless loop.
Thanks
Bob

[bornagainbowhunter]

I like a flemish string, but the B-50 instead of the fastflight will help alot. You can also put felt in the string grooves, it will take away that snap when the string comes back in contact with the bow.

[bushytail]

Woolie wispers are real good string silencers.I use a 16 strand FF flemish twist string with 2 woolie whispers and 2 string leeches.I had to play around with differant areas on the tring for the sring silencers.Number of string strands makes a little differance too.Some people say they can`t tell the differance between endless loop and flemish twist strings.I can tell a little differance,with the flemish twist being the better string.A arrow on the heavy side will help too.My arrows are 577gr.

[Novaln1975]

The location of the cat whiskers and or beaver balls  on the string can make a big difference in sound.

Simon

[dragon rider]

I can't say I can tell much difference between the two, assuming you have equivalent string silencers - cat whiskers or whatever.  Some bows are louder if you shoot 3 under than if you shoot split-finger, and the felt in the string groove will definitely help.

I have had one bowyer tell me that he prefers Flemish twist because they will pull straight, no matter how much you have to adjust them, while endless loop, if tightened too much, will try to rollover in the direction they're being tightened thereby increasing the risk of limb twist at the tip.

Based on that, I'd use cat whiskers, felt in the string grooves and heavier arrows before I went with endless loop.

[Bob L.]

Thanks for the comments. I also heard you can run a risk of limb twist with an endless loop. Im shooting a 625 grain arrow out of my 51# bow. I may just try a b50 flemish.

[SteveB]

I also heard you can run a risk of limb twist with an endless loop.

If you mean a greater risk then with a flemish, you heard wrong. I've had at least 40 bows built for ff - never had one that was quieter with b50. And flemish/endless made no difference.

[LBR]

There's been a lot of misinformation (ok, some of it was just flat b.s.) posted about strings, on pretty much every message board I've ever seen.  Here's my opinion, based on thousands of strings--take if for what it's worth.

For a string to twist a limb, it's going to have to be really bad, and the bow is going to have to be really touchy and/or really light in draw weight.  It's not likely even a pitiful string will twist the limb on a well made bow, especially a hunting draw weight.

How the string is made will affect how noisy it is.  A well made flemish or endless can be quiet, although in my experience flemish is usually quieter on a recurve.  

Proper tuning and silencer placement goes a long way in quietening a string.

A nock that fits too tight, arrow spine off, or a bad release will increase noise.

A well made endless will probably be quieter than a poorly made flemish, and vice-versa.

Silencer placement goes a long way, especially on shorter/finicky bows.

Bows tillered for split but shot 3-under (or vice-versa) have a tendency to be noisier.

Chad

[Chortdraw]

A well placed set of Hush Puppies,a good flemish type string and the right brace heigth will make the bow fairly quiet. Last is bow style. Some are just quieter than others.

[natale.donald]

Hi,

Does anyone notice string silencers affecting accuracy?

What I mean to say is accuracy, not precision.  For example after the addition of string silencers your shots still group, but the group moves as a whole.

-Don

[30coupe]

I have found that Bow Hush works better than felt or mole skin in the string grooves.

I also agree with Chad on everything he said. I would love to have someone demonstrate twisting a limb, on any bow, by twisting the string.    

I skinny string with tapered (padded) loops will be quieter than a heavy string as a rule. You don't say what weight you are shooting, so it is hard to say how skinny you can go. OL Adcock has done lots of experimenting with skinny strings. I use an 8 strand D97  endless loop string with the ends padded to 14 strands (#4 nylon serving) on my 46# Kanati and it is about as quiet as you can get. Then again, it's not a recurve.

I had a 49# Kota Killum recurve that was kind of loud when I got it. I ended up with  a 10 strand D97 Flemish twist string with padded and tapered loops and Bow Hush on the ends. Mole skin in the grooves did almost nothing for it. I think it liked to be braced at about 8-1/2 inches. In the end, it was as quiet a recurve as I have seen. Your mileage may vary.

[Bjorn]

I have a 3 pc R/D longbow that seemed to be a chronic noise maker. The usual stuff failed, so I put on a 6 strand D97 flemish string with padded loops (made by Chad). Even without silencers I knew the bow was going to be great.
I only installed a single yarn silencer on the upper part of the string-no point in doing any more........I don't think Flemish is quieter than EL if both are properly made; and I certainly don't buy into the stuff that one threatens bows more than the other; but personally I find Flemish Twist to be a lot more user friendly.

[Curtis Haden]

Originally posted by natale.donald:
Hi,

Does anyone notice string silencers affecting accuracy?

What I mean to say is accuracy, not precision.  For example after the addition of string silencers your shots still group, but the group moves as a whole.

-Don

Yes and no.  I don't think silencers have any effect on accuracy, but they DO have an effect on tuning, which in turn affects accuracy.      

Any weight you add or take away from the string will slow it down or speed it up.  I shot arrows that were close but not perfectly tuned for a while.  It was frustrating to say the least.  A well tuned bow and arrow combination is much easier to shoot accurately.

As to the OP, I don't know if one string is inherently quieter than the other, but I do know Chad (LBR) has built enough strings to know.    

[mickeys4]

I just finished reading The Archers Bible by Fred Bear.Although some of the info was a little dated I read that the sound a bow makes travels 6 times faster than an arrow.I assume this still holds true for traditional equipment.

[AkDan]

yup..speed of sound (1129fps) vs the speed of your average trad bow (180 to 200ish) hasnt changed a ton in quite a few years!  Add to the fact, a deer supposidly can drop 3 times the heigth of it's body in less then 3/10ths of a second.

I'm not a heavy arrow advocate...but a heavIER arrow will help dissapate SOME of that energy.   I know when I was shooting ash out of a 55lb martin howatt hunter with a b50 string..that bow was whisper quiet!  And I STILL had a doe jump the string at 7 or 8 yards.  We spent all nite looking for that arrow in the tall grass, thankfully finding it clean as a whistle but frustrating none the less.  

I can only speak for one skinny string but I immediatly noticed how quiet it made the bow without silencers.  I need to do some more playing around with these things before I end up switching, but it might be something I'd look at also.  The string was 8 strands out of a 60lb longbow with loops padded to 14 strands.