Originally posted by Lazy Ike:
...It seems to me that they are quieter than my 20 strand , but it seems as though the accuracy is less consistent. Have you done very much in the way of accuracy experimentation between high and low strand count? Like maybe 300 round averages...
Thanks,
Ike
Part of the beauty of making my own strings is being able to experiment. A few years back when I noticed Ron LaClair sending his Shrews out with skinny strings, I decided to make some very thin strings of my own 4,6,and 8 strand strings. The "skinnys" seemed to work fine. I shot them for a few months but then I stopped shooting them for a couple reasons.
I was shooting with my friend who owned a Shrew and his string blew up upon release. It was a bit disconcerting and it led me to question the yield strength of the thin strings.
I also noticed that my groups opened up when I shot skinny strings. Like Rod I found that I prefer shooting a string count of 12 strands or more of Dynaflight 97, or 15 strands of 8125. My current strings are 14 of D97 and 16 of 8125.
Lastly I shot a weekend tourney with one of the uppity ups at Easton on my target, he explained to me that they did extensive shooting tests with number of strands being the variable. The bottom line was shoot as many strands as you can. Fat strings with thin center serving was more accurate vs. skinny strings with fat center serving.
My take on the reduced noise is that a skinny string stretches more and absorbs energy yielding less noise vs. a thicker string that stretches less and yields more noise. Furthermore a thinner string has more deviation due to its flex and results in bigger group size.