Different sounds of a Bow

[BowHuntingFool]

Has anyone ever noticed how a bow sounds different from standing behind it than next to it? I was shooting yesterday and someone wanted to shoot my bow. I knew it was a quiet bow, but man when I stepped off to the side a couple feet I was blown away on how quiet it is.

[GMMAT]

Sure, Joe.

When I was shooting compounds I noticed it a lot.  Used to always amuse me when people would talk about bow noise.  I'd ask them to stand (safely behind somehting) in front and have someone fire their bow....to get an idea of the "noise" from the deer's (target's) perspective.

Same thing with BH "noise" and fletching "noise".

In most cases, the first thing a deer will hear is his blood spurting out the exit hole.

[George D. Stout]

Mine whispers to me all the time: "Psssst, George, let's go shoot stumps. Or, "Psssst, George, let's go look for mushrooms and shoot some stumps."   Or, ..... well, you know!

[BowHuntingFool]

Jeff, I did the same thing, stood safely in front of the bow and it was even quieter than off to the side!  The bow sounds totally different when your not the one shooting it! I'm not sure if I was hearing the sound coming back at me from the limbs when I would shoot it or stand directly behind the shooter. Maybe some one hear has an explanation of how it works!

[earl baugher]

Just a guess... you're holding the "instrument" making the sound in your hand, sound travels through all mediums and your body is one medium, and it's "directional" unlike sound released in the air... or maybe not...

[BowHuntingFool]

That makes sense earl, but a couple times when my buddy was shooting my bow and his bow, I was standing behind him and the sound was the same as it does when I was the shooter. Standing next to him it was a total different story, quiet as a church mouse, 2 different bows, a Longbow and a Recurve!

[Smallwood]

sometimes we worry needlessly about things.

[bretto]

And then You get inside a blind and shoot and You want to throw Your bow because it's so loud. LOL

[mcgroundstalker]

Interesting Topic... I thought my bow was quiet until I stepped outside my basement, shot from under my deck and "BOINGGGGG!"     :eek:    

Now I just want a real quiet bow. Don't need FF, speed, looks... So I keep buyin' and sellin'     :rolleyes:     till I find the right one. Well, that's what my wife understands it to be.

... mike ...

[LPM]

Many years ago during my aviation career I was a project supervisor for noise cancelation technology applications on Beech King Air aircraft.  I learned alot about how sound travels and is deflected or absorbed.

Sound is a physical thing, a pressure wave.  Your string transmits a vibration causing a pressure wave. Your string also transmits energy to the limbs which also vibrate causing pressure waves.  The magnitude and direction of the wave depends on the surface vibrating.  

These waves change whenever they encounter an object.  Some objects absorb waves.  Some become excited by the waves and transmit their own waves.  Some objects deflect waves.

The result is a diffrent sound in your ear.  your ear decides what a given pressure wave sounds like.

The old question......If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?......Answer....No....just pressure waves.

Yeah I talk too much !!!!!!!!!!!

[nightowl1]

I thought my longbow was real quiet until my father in law shot it today... now i know its really really quiet. Just as quiet as his d shaped bows... beautiful

[GingivitisKahn]

Years ago, an archery shop owner buddy of mine (who bought a recurve for himself because he liked mine so much, btw) bugged me and bugged me and bugged me to draw his fancy new compound that he had just built.

He neglected to tell me that it had about an 80# draw and about a 90% let-off.  That bow sounded like >>BANG<< when I accidentally dry-fired it and *crash* when it hit the floor.

He never bugged me to draw another compound.  Man, did I feel like a dork.

[Smallwood]

           

[Zog]

I believe that the limbs are actually echoing the noise directly back at you.  They are in perfect alignment with you and the string to reflect right at you.

Or maybe it's not a physical thing but mental.  When you shoot you know it's coming so your ears are attuned and ready.  I wonder what would happen if you stand behind the shooter with your back to him, then stand in front of him (safely) and did the same?

Smallwood, I couldn't agree more.  However I submit that I'm fascinated, not "worried".

BTW Smallwood I am also fascinated by your photo - that must have been an excellent experience.  (Different thread.)

[razorsharptokill]

I'd like to see different bows tested in a sound proof chamber with a decible meter just for kicks.

[BowHuntingFool]

Good stuff here guys! I did try a new string on my bow, and there definitely is a difference in the strings. I went from a FF to a B-50 and I tell you what, I'll never use a FF string again! The bow was quiet with the FF but boy o' boy is it quieter with a B-50. I'm glad I decided to experiment with the B-50. As far as loosing speed, I couldn't tell the difference.