silencing a carbon recurve

[ozy clint]

i love my border black douglas and have it shooting really well but the noise still bugs me.

it's the carbon 'twang' of the limbs after the shot that makes it louder than a glass bow.

i've tried moving the catwhiskers all over the string. tried two pairs of catwhiskers, it has velcro in the string grooves plus usually a set of limb skins over that.
played with the brace height and settled on 7 5/8". draw length is about 26". bow is 60".
bow weight is 58#@28" and arrows are 680gr so i'm at about 12.5gr/# at my draw so it's not lack of arrow mass.

not sure if some sort of limbsaver would help but i want to avoid that anyway because then i wouldn't be able to use the limb skins to offer protection in the rocky terrain i hunt. not sure bowhush would help either. i'm confident the velcro and limb skins are taking care of that issue.

it just seems to be limb twang after the shot. is it something inherent in carbon bows and something i'll have to accept or is there something that will quiet it down to glass curve standards?

[oldgoat]

Clint you might try putting or extending the mole skin further down the bow limbs from the string  grove. Had a friend that had a bow like that he did it too.

[damascusdave]

Catwhiskers are not the right way to silence carbon limbs...try something else

DDave

[wingnut]

Make sure your arrow shafts are not under spined.  A common problem with high performance bows is that folks under spine them and the tail of the arrow ends up hitting the riser.

Just and idea.

Mike

[BAK]

I've noticed my Border is noisy too.

[Charlie Lamb]

One reason I don't care for carbon limbs is the noise. By the time you get enough silencer material on them you lose some of the speed benefits.

I'd suggest losing the whiskers and velcro and going with all wool... Bowhush and Hushpuppies. Or whatever you can get down there.

[TxSportsman]

Originally posted by wingnut:
Make sure your arrow shafts are not under spined.  A common problem with high performance bows is that folks under spine them and the tail of the arrow ends up hitting the riser.

Just and idea.

Mike

Hopefully not derailing...

I've wondered this sometimes with a bow I shoot. When you say the riser, do you mean the riser itself or could they hit the shelf also?

[SC Bowhunter]

I have a carbon limb bow.
I had a B55 string on it and it was pretty quiet.
Made up a string with BCY-X and it twangs like a guitar string.
Couldn't quiet it down no matter what I tried.
I  going back to the B55.
I would rather have the quiet over the performance gain.

[NittanyRider]

I have a set of Morrison Max2s and they are not very quiet.  I tried a couple different string silencers, including cat whiskers, but found that the home-made merino wool puffs I made worked as well of better than the other things I tried.  I messed with the brace height and tiller a bit, too, but don't remember that having any real effect.  I also put some limbsavers on and that did help to dull the sound a bit.  I really like the performance of the limbs, so I'm willing to accept the fact that my bow makes a "thwack" sound instead of "thud".

[reddogge]

My carbon ilf limbs make a tiny " doink sound. Not at all loud. I do use limbsavers, coolie puffs, and wool wrapped loop ends.

[JRY309]

Maybe try a different string material,there are so many different low stretch string materials out there these days.

[DanielB89]

I have the new morrison Max 4's and in my opinion, they are as quiet as anything.  They may have a little bit of extra vibration after the shot, but they are not loud by any measure.  

I have noticed that if my release is bad, it is a little louder than most times.  They will absolutely sling an arrow too!

[Mitch Edwards]

I put some of the bow jax monster jax on my super kodiak right on the ends of the riser on the belly of the bow and they have helped that bow more than anything else has. I also wrap the ends of my recurve strings with yarn. It seems to help. Have been thinkin about wrapping cat whisker material around the string then doin my yarn wraps over it. Haven't tried it yet though. Just keep tryin different things and you'll find the secret sauce for that particular bow. Best of luck

[hybridbow hunter]

Brave height Is too high on that bow. Border advise 6.5 to 7"  Go down in BH it will help along with string end wool wrap and thick wool silencer

[ozy clint]

It's louder at the lower brace heights. Tried it from 6"-8"

As charlie said, I don't want go adding so much stuff that it brings the performance back to a glass bow anyway.

The reason I haven't tried wool stuff is they would be full of burrs and seeds after one hunt.

Sounds as if carbon limbs are inherently louder though.

[Steelhead]

I would use a nice pair of wool puffs.I used an SBD bowstring on mine.

I had a few black Douglas's and their ILF limbs as well.HEX 5 and HEX 6.

I did have limbsavers on all my limbs.They work great on the Border limb no doubt.I put them 3 inches above the riser fadeouts where they work best!

Some don't like the the look of the limbsavers.I understand that.But it can make a great shooting bow shoot quietly and with less vibration.I am sure they would make any bow shoot quieter.

I did put longbow size limb skins on them above the limbsavers.Longbow limbskins fit tight on a recurve.

My bows were quiet set up this way.Dampens out the vibration very nicely.

I also shot heavier arrows of around 11 grains per pound.Those were hunting arrows

[Jake Scott]

I'm in agreement with Charlie, wool is your best bet.  I also think Mike may be onto something with your arrows being underspined.  I have both carbon and glass/foam limbs for my Morrison and I have noticed that the carbon limbs aren't necessarily louder, but they do sound a little different.  Like Daniel said, a bad release with magnify the noise as well.  I've yet to come across a bow I couldn't hush up with wool, the proper arrow, and he proper brace height.  

In regards to to getting burrs and debris stuck in them....I can't speak to your local vegetation in Australia, but I have hunted some nasty country from blackberry thickets, to Florida swampland and never had burrs be a problem on my string silencers.  My clothes....that's another matter.

Best of luck

Jake

[hybridbow hunter]

Clint I do hunt in bushy area as well. Thick Wool wrap on string end and silencer are not a big deal with little care and the bill on arrow speed is 2-3 fps against a naked string. Anyway easy to replace if needed. You will still get anyway way more arrow speed than conventional glass recurve...  I found endless strings more noisy than Flemish and some string material more noisy than others. Astro flight or D10 with 14 strand Flemish works well on my borders.

[cch]

Go back and try a different tune starting with a brace of 6.5" and stay below 7". Set up center shot at close to center or just barely outside of string. You might need a stiffer arrow. I stopped putting Velcro in grooves and started making a small puff and sliding it up until it is just at the end of the groove. I make them about 1" in diameter.  I couldn't detect any velocity loss with my chrono.

I was having noise issues with my Covert Hunter and that took care of it.

[ozy clint]

Been there and done it. It's quieter at 7 5/8". Maybe because of my shorter 26" draw? Had the center shot from on center to a bit outside where it is now. Arrows are flying very nicely.

It seems to be limb vibration twang. When you pluck the string the recurve portion oscillates very fast the string isn't moving but the tips are vibrating.

I just had some clothes hanging on the string to dampen the string to the extreme. You can still hear limb twang when plucking the string heavily. Tried on my other glass curve and it made it dead queit. I feel it's a limb issue either because of material, extreme design or both.