Ultimate string silencer? Now with PICS.

[Otto]

I got to lookin in the basement today and I've got 5 or 6 recurves that all need string silencers on em.  Now I've been down the path on string silencers.  I mean I've tried em all.  Fox fur, beaver, muskrat, dead cat (well, not yet), woolie whispers, jig skirts, eventually ending up using the Quiveeute Musk Ox wool from 3 Rivers.  But #$@% the bed Fred....at $10 a pop, that's $60 for string silencers.  

Nah Bubba Nah......

So we went to town tonight to eat dinner and I asked Momma where to buy some wool yarn.  So we drives to the fabric shop and I hop out & head inside.  I axes the gal behind the counter where the wool yarn is.  She points out a rack and my eyeballs zero in on a dark grey wad of Merino Wool.  Now that's what my Ulfrotte long undies is made from, so it's gotta be primo stuff.

So we git back home and I commenced to doublin up and cuttin wool yarn till I got about 25 or so strands, maybe 1 & 3/4 long.  I tied em into a bundle, wrapped em into the string and voila!!!!  I never had a bow so quiet.  This was one of my SA III Widders.  I mean it sounded like a longbow.  It was THAT quiet.

So for all you guys who already knew this...ya shoulda told me earlier.  For all you guys who've never tried this but wanted to...git on it.  There ain't NUTHIN better at quietin down a bow.

[Wudstix]

Quivete is awesome.  Coyote fur is the nice choice.  Got some from a fly tieing place.  Wool yarn is third.

[Jerry Jeffer]

Beaver fur has worked fine on my lighter draw bow, but for my heavier bow I have to use rubber type silencers. The fur just doesn't do it. I use a couple sets of string leaches

[Otto]

Wudstix

I've used the Quivete on a couple of bows.  It was better than fur.  But the merino wool ones I made tonight make the Quivete sound like a .22 going off.

Maybe Texas wool ain't thick enough!!!  

[buck-tamer00]

make the outta yarn like i do. they work almorst as well as my string leaches, just by a roll of any color for like bucks, and u can have hundreds of fuzzy balls to be shot!!!

[buck-tamer00]

3 dollars a roll

[Roy from Pa]

You boys have taken up knitting hain't cha?

[Stone Knife]

I just use rubber cat whiskers there cheap, waterproof and they work.

[DarkeGreen]

Yep, been there and done that. I'm not sure I've tried them all but I've gone thru a bunch. I agree that yarn works better than anything else I've tried so far. It does have two down sides over some types of material. One is when it gets wet it looks like a wet rat. It will dry but this has to effect sound ans speed. Next is the more you shoot it the more it frays. Even though that makes it work even better it helps it pick up hitch hikers, burs and such in the woods.

[barebow]

Otto, you said,  

I tied em into a bundle, wrapped em into the string and voila!!!!  

I wonder if the way you tied the bundle and wrapped them into the string was a contributing factor to the silence. Could you explain in detail or show some pictures please? Thanks.

[dosbow56]

pics,pics,pics,pics..........

[Dano]

It's a shame a guy hasta go thru all this to make a Widow quiet    

Now where did I put my knitting basket???  

[JRY309]

I have been making mine out of merino wool for the last couple of years.I have black,gray and brown.Works great plus I have enough to last a long long time.

[Otto]

You guys are killin me.

[Jerry Jeffer]

You say pics? ok here are mine.
  http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f196/jjeffer/bows.jpg


 Pictures deleted...over 600 pixels wide.

[Naphtali]

I'm getting mercilessly whipsawed in another thread about bow noise. If 50 people tell me I'm drunk, maybe I should sit down?

In the universe of string/bow silencers has any been tested on elk or deer at, let's say 35 yards or less? By tested, I mean shooting, preferably at the same animal, with no intent to kill but to verify that the silencer renders the shooter undetectable/not heard?

Or is the function of these silencers analogous to sound suppressors on rifles -- noise occurs, but from where is very difficult to identify?

[owlbait]

Oh, you said dead cat! My arms are all scratched up trying to tie a bobcat to my bowstring!

[Roy from Pa]

LOL Dano, you know what they say.

If they don't shoot well then just dress em up pretty with wool.  

[Jerry Jeffer]

Naphtali, are you like a scientist or some thing?

[Dano]

Roy,I'm just jealous    :rolleyes:    

Steve know's I'm kiddin, I hope      

The next road kill Kitty is in serious jeopardy of loosin his hide.   :D