String Silencers and burrs

[DV of WI]

If you use them and they collect all the baggers lice and turn into a ball of crap. Do you pick the baggers lice/cockleburs out or do you just remove the silencer and put new ones in? Or just not worry about it and use them as is? I use beaver silencers that I make myself but just never worried about it that much until I was picking them or trying to pull them out of the beaver ball and getting know were except pulling hair out and thinking it would just be easier to remove them and add new. Seems like though if I did remove them every time I went hunting I would be replacing them.
Why do I use them? Because I always have so therefore I still will.

[KAZ]

I use one Black Widow Spider & one woolie whisper on top & bottom. The burrs drive me nuts… That being said, no way I’m swapping each time. I pick them out and use a dog grooming comb to get the remainder. Probably not a big deal to leave some in if they’re not rubbing the string. But Things like that bug me so I clear them out…. The dynamics of one rubber type & one wool type work best for me so I’ll put up with it, for now….

[DV of WI]

If they get full of crap I assume it changes the dynamic of them. Not that I could really tell.  There are a whole lot of baggers lice this year. What is nice though as you sit on stand pulling the seeds out and dropping on the ground next year you have another really good crop right by your stand tree if you use the same one.

[woodchucker]

Best way I've found to remove burrs, it to get them good and wet....

[McDave]

Best way I've found to remove burrs, it to get them good and wet....

Interesting.  It's just the opposite with my dog.  If I want to get the burrs out, I have to do it before we give her a bath.  It's much harder to brush/pull the burrs out when she is wet.

Arrow tuning is somewhat sensitive to the weight of the string silencers, and also whether they are put closer to the string nocks or toward the middle of the string.  There have been times when my arrow has tuned very slightly stiff, and I have brought it back to center by trimming the wooly string silencers.

I just tried to weigh one beggar's lice and it wouldn't even register on my grain scale.  I can't find enough of them right now to add up to a grain, but I would imagine it would be 10 or so of them.  I don't know how many grains difference it would take to affect tuning, but more than a grain, I’m sure.

I don't know if we're talking about the same thing, but out here it would take 20 or so beggar's lice to add up to the weight of 1 cockleburr, judging by the size difference.

[Pine]

 

[Kirkll]

Why not just use rubber cat whiskers? They are water proff, very durable, and they don't pick up any burrs.

Kirk

[blacktailbob]

X2 Kirk
I've way better things to do than pick burrs

[BAK]

Kirk nailed it, that or string leeches.   

[Gun]

X4 Kirk

[Terry Green]

Every once in a while I run through a patch and pick up a few.  I usually don't even worry about it as some fly out just by shooting.  At times when I'm set up for an ambush, I'll pick them out to break up the slow times.

However, if I picked them up all the time I would definitely change to a different silencer. The wool I used to make BowHush was the best as it have crimp in it and the crimp helped absorb sound better that anything I have ever found, anything. It was also the best string wrap for quieting recuves, again, the crimp was like shock absorbers.

[Roger Norris]

If you use them and they collect all the baggers lice and turn into a ball of crap. Do you pick the baggers lice/cockleburs out or do you just remove the silencer and put new ones in? Or just not worry about it and use them as is? I use beaver silencers that I make myself but just never worried about it that much until I was picking them or trying to pull them out of the beaver ball and getting know were except pulling hair out and thinking it would just be easier to remove them and add new. Seems like though if I did remove them every time I went hunting I would be replacing them.
Why do I use them? Because I always have so therefore I still will.

I just shoot the bow. By end of season my gear is looking pretty ragged, String silencers full of burs, wool full of burs, fletching shredded...I find it has zero affect on hunting arrow performance.

[Roger Norris]

Every once in a while I run through a patch and pick up a few.  I usually don't even worry about it as some fly out just by shooting.  At times when I'm set up for an ambush, I'll pick them out to break up the slow times.

However, if I picked them up all the time I would definitely change to a different silencer. The wool I used to make BowHush was the best as it have crimp in it and the crimp helped absorb sound better that anything I have ever found, anything. It was also the best string wrap for quieting recuves, again, the crimp was like shock absorbers.

I was just thinking about your BowHush silencers....I am down to my last set. No longer available? Dang....they were 100% better than anything else.

[Terry Green]

Roger, I've been thinking about resurrecting BowHush... I just have to find the right wool yarn.

[Roger Norris]

Roger, I've been thinking about resurrecting BowHush... I just have to find the right wool yarn.

Please Please.....I have tried to duplicate your excellent idea for my own use.....not even close

[trad_bowhunter1965]

I don't worry I just shoot my bow and if I am eating lunch or setting in a blind or Treestands I might pick the burs out of my silencers.