shooting in fastflight??

[Shleprock]

I'm trying out a fastflight string and was wondering if you have to shoot as many times as dacron to get her stretched and set?

[KY..Rob]

I have found it depends on the string material used. 8125 stretches quite a bit as does D97, 450+ was the one with the least stretch but still took some shooting to settle her in. I just left my Bows strung and this seemed to speed up the stretching a little, still took 100 or so shots. one note to this, they were all Flemish strings and not Endless Loops.

Rob..

[Shleprock]

Thanks. Happy 4th. Garlin.

[Chris Wilson]

With an flemish, the stretching you see is mostly the slack in the twists being tightened up.  With a good endless loop, you won't see much stretch with most of the more modern materials like 8125, D97, or 450+ and once they've settled, they're pretty much done.  With dacron, it never seems to stop stretching.  Particularly on those hot, humid August days on the 3D range.

[Dave Lay]

you can string the bow with a new FF string and rub it briskly with a cotton rag till it heats up this usually takes almost all the stretch out of it..kinda pre stretch b-4 ya start shooting...

[Raminshooter]

Humidity will make a well "shot in" fast flight string stretch all over again unfortunately.  Not as much as Dacron but it will be noticeable.  You can use friction heat to help the string stretch out but most of the future stretch will be in the braided ends of the string so don't forget to heat those up as well.

[tmccall]

I put a new one on about 2 weeks ago.  The fellow that made it swore up and down, "This string won't stretch at all!"

I guess it was the twists in the Flemish because it took it a few days to settle in.  Leaving it strung seemed to hasten the process but it seems to have stopped stretching now.

[LBR]

I pre-stretch my strings under approximately 300# of pressure, but they STILL need "shot in" to get the last little bit out.  

How much a string stretches depends on lots of variables:  how it's made, what type it is (endless or flemish), pre-stretched or not, number of strands, type material, heat, draw weight, etc. etc. etc.

All materials have some stretch/creep, and an endless string will have some stretch/creep, just not as much as a flemish (before either has been shot in or pre-stretched).

Heating them up with a rag or leather can damage the fibers--be careful.

Chad