'twangquilizers'- "put the sound to sleep". taming your hard to silence bow.

[ozy clint]

thought i'd share my idea for limb tip vibration dampeners with the 'gang.

i have a border black douglas recurve and it has always been louder than other bows i have owned or shot and it has lead me on a journey in the search for a way to tame the twang.

i had tried everything, brace height, skinny string, silencer position, two pairs of silencers,  heavy arrows, padded string grooves.....all the usual ports of call. i had somewhat of an epiphany one evening when i was looking over the bow and plucking the string, contemplating possible reasons for its unruly behavior. as i plucked the string an audible twang could be heard, not unlike when there is no silencers installed on a new string. however there was silencers on it, still the twang could be heard. then for some reason unknown, i plucked the string and then grabbed it quickly, providing instant dampening of the string. still the twang was there. i had eliminated the string as a source of noise. 'it must be the limbs vibrating' i thought. i strummed the one string guitar once more and sure enough i could see the limb tips vibrating like a tuning fork. 'i need to dampen the tips'

i reached down and grabbed a pair of socks off the floor, held the bow on its side and draped a sock over each limb tip and plucked the string again. a dull thud was all that could be heard. problem solved except what to use besides a pair of wool socks?

enter epiphany number 2, latex tubing. i cut some tubing off my bowfit exerciser and slipped it onto the limb tips. at first they were noisy due to being too long and creating a slapping noise on release. i trimmed them shorter while test shooting and soon had them dialed in. about 3/4"-1" overhang on the tip works great.

it completely transformed this bow, it's now as quiet as any recurve should be.
so i tried the idea on my more conventional glass recurve and it quietened it down too.

i used to run rubber tip protectors and the twangquilizers only weigh 10gr more than them yet they serve as a tip dampener as well as a tip protector. i have not noticed any difference in tuning what so ever.

if you have a stubborn, hard to quiet bow, check for limb tip vibration and make yourself some 'twangquilizers' and 'put the sound to sleep'

   
   
   

[ozy clint]

would love to hear any feedback if you give it a go. good and bad.

[Tedd]

Good path of thought! I don't have a noisy bow at the moment but that makes sense. And also would be a good idea for a tip protector if cut shorter. And it seems like the right size looser fit kept in the bow case would be good on the top limb to use as a string keeper when unstrung. I had a bunch of different sized tubes around here but I think I threw them out.
Tedd

[highlow]

I have a BD with one pair of cat whiskers and Limbsavers. Wouldn't characterize it as loud but will give the tubing a shot. Any idea where to purchase the tubing as I don't have a Bowfit exerciser?

[ozy clint]

that auction place. the tubing i trialed from the bowfit is natural latex tan colour. i sourced some black tubing of various sizes to suit different sized limb tips. the black fits in with the limb colour on my bows.

[Matabele]

Clint what happens when you cut them shorter than that? Does the vibration return

[ChuckC]

great idea there clint

Thanks for sharing

[hybridbow hunter]

Good idea          

[ozy clint]

matabele- yes, too short and you sacrafice dampening effect. too long and you create more noise from it 'whipping'.

it is something to be tuned since there is a myriad of tubing sizes available with different inside and outside diameters and different wall thicknesses.

during tuning, when you think you've got it close, the overhang length can be adjusted without trimming by varying how far you push them onto the bow tip.

[Burnsie]

Have you experienced the tubing flinging off after many shots?   Seems like the violent snap forward of the limb would eventually cause the tubing to work its way off?

[ozy clint]

no, it never moves. it grips very well.

[Carpdaddy]

Interesting idea, folks make money off stuff like this ya know.

[pdk25]

There are rubber tip protectors available, and I have used them, but only for the bottom limbs.  They are pretty stout, so I wouldn't doubt that they might help as well.

[ozy clint]

The tip protectors I used offer no vibration dampening what so ever. Unless there is some amount of flexible rubber portion allowed to vibrate at the shot.

[Friend]

May provide a valuable solution for some.

Thank you for sharing.

[ozy clint]

Originally posted by Carpdaddy:
Interesting idea, folks make money off stuff like this ya know.

I figure that but the idea is so simple to copy that I didn't think it was worth exploring.

[South MS Bowhunter]

Clint,

Have you tried it with the end of the tube sealed to keep out moisture and grit?  If so what effect did it have?

Very interested in trying this on a longbow that has a carbon "ping" that others don't seem to notice but I do when shooting.

[McDave]

Do you pull off the top one every time you want to unstring the bow?  I assume they're pretty easy to put on and pull off?

[Fisher Cat]

FWIW, I have found that bows with limb vibration tend to shoot quieter with dacron vs. low stretch string material, often with minimal loss in speed.  I believe the extra stretch in the string dampens the shock to the limbs in such bows.

I have also been tempted to try rolling cattle castrating bands onto the limbs to see if it helps.  Maybe rolling them down to where the string barely rests on them at rest would also help with string slap.  I haven't tried it yet though, and I imagine it would be tricky getting them past some string grooves.  Might be worth a try as they are quite compact and cheap. - John

[DanielB89]

Originally posted by South MS Bowhunter:
Clint,

Have you tried it with the end of the tube sealed to keep out moisture and grit?  If so what effect did it have?

Very interested in trying this on a longbow that has a carbon "ping" that others don't seem to notice but I do when shooting.

Just my thoughts here, but anything that keeps moisture out also keeps the moisture in, which is worse.  These bows SHOULD be sealed plenty well enough for moisture to touch them. I have holes in the bottom of my tip protectors to let the water drain.