Why do we silence our strings?

[Mr.Magoo]

Or, more to the point, why didn't folks like Fred Bear silence theirs?

I was thumbing through a book about Fred Bear and I noticed that his bow just had a bare string.  In all the pictures of him, old or young, posing with deer or tigers ... bare string.  

Then I looked at the Schafer Silvertip website.  Looks like the same thing in the pictures of Paul Schafer.  Bare string.

So I took my most quiet recurve, put a bare string on it and ... it sounded like crap.  Heavy arrow, lighter arrows, lower brace, higher brace it didn't matter.  Much, much louder with the bare string; almost a bang.

I can't imagine it never occurred to Fred or Paul to twist some yarn on their strings.  I can only assume they didn't want or need it.  Were their bows that much better tuned?
 
 

[DannyBows]

That's an excellent observation! I never thought of it. I'm anxious for the Pros to chime in on this, should be very educational.

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Good question. Now that I think about it, I don't remember my grandfather or any of his buddies having silencers on their strings either.

[SL]

I shot b50 with just the brush buttons on the string for along time. FF is a diffrent animal.
SL

[suttoman]

I have always wondered why you guys put anything on your stings.  I shoot R/D longbows, which naturally are a bit quieter than recurves.

However my bows are whisper quiet without anything on them.  I would not have anything on my strings on priciple - robbing valuable fps from my arrows.

If you have the brace-height right, a good release and a quality bow (high percentage dynamics) - then you don't need it.

So there you have it - the old boys had it all along!!

Sutto

[John3]

but...fur silencers are just too cool.. LOL


John III

[Autumnarcher]

There was an article I read a while back, I think in TBM, about silencers. THey tried all types of them, and found any myth of losing arrow speed to be unfounded. They have no effect on speed.

[Earl E. Nov...mber]

I've seen at least one picture of Fred with string silencers.. He's standing in front of a cabin holding a Take Down.. There are what appear to be small chunks of felt weather stripping threaded into the string.. One top one bottom

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Sutto, if you get fur silencers big enough, it helps with stalking as you can simply hide behind them and move right up to the unsuspecting animal who thinks you're just another furry friend!

 

[suttoman]

Ha Ha Ben!!  Now know why you are so successful!

Sutto

[Bjorn]

If they shot 10 gr/# then with the strings we use today-B50 or D97-it would be noisy.
I did a study of a number of actual strings from late 50's and early 60's bows, and found mainly 18-20 strands of B50, contiuous loop,teamed with those rubber balls, and sometimes propellers-that's what they used; and surprisingly quiet!

[Apex Predator]

Noise is relative, and many have never heard a quite bow!  Some of the old timers were spraying and praying arrows at long range as well.  Most of the self bow shooters have a bench mark to strive for in their fiberglass bows.  I want mine whisper quiet, and can get close on my glass bows.  I don't shoot recurves any more, and the noise is one of the reasons.  My recurves were very quiet, for recurves.  I like to shoot them inside 20 yards, and they never hear the shot.

[John Dill]

Fred used brush buttons quite a bit. Which did a good job of silencing a bow. Also dacron strings were the norm(much quieter). Also, they knew how to tune their equipment.

[HATCHCHASER]

Probably cause they shot at animals 100 yards away.  A bow can be quiet without string silencers but why not make it quieter?  Quiet before speed anyday.

[ccarp00]

If you have ever read the book "I remember papa bear"  it talks about how fred bear always used heavier bow strings than what came on his bow for two reasons one was to help silence the bow and the other reason was in case you cut a couple of strands on a sharp rock or broadhead so he could finish the hunt without safety issues.

[JDinPA]

In the stories I've read about Paul S., he seemed to be always just finishing a bow before he headed out for a hunt. Maybe he was just happy to have it finished and dry.

[Anvil]

Wow. Great observation. I just went through Bows on the Little Delta and your right, not a single bit of anything on any of the strings. Interesting...

[James Wrenn]

The animals they hunted back then did not have the hunting pressure on them like the animals most hunt today.Like someone said they never worried too much about getting close before they let the arrows fly either.Thay would make a big difference.jmo

[SOS]

Because we can!  And mainly because many are anal retentive about the details.  Sometimes it's the details that make the difference.

[BlackDog]

I would think no matter how quiet your bow is (unless of course it is just super quitet), if an animal is 40yds. or closer it is going to hear it anyhow. I would say it's just personal preference.