Old bows and B-50???

[heydeerman]

I had an interesting conversation with Tracy Tricket of Tree's Custom Bows today. We were talking about why these old bows like the Bears and Pearson's ect. are still still hanging around. I asked him if it was the limb cores as most everything was made with maple limbs back in the day. He told me of a friend of his who is convinced that it's because of dacron strings. That was the only material for decades and all the oldies shot B-50 only. Custom bows gave us many choices for limb cores and veneers but it also brought on the fast flight materials and bowyers had to beef up their tips to be able to handle the "sudden stop" when the limbs return to primary. I guess only time will tell if the bows being made today will stand the test of time like the oldies. BUT that was a good point about B-50 being a factor on long bow life. Food for thought.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

That's good info to have right there......especially since I just bought a brand new spool of B-50 to make my own Flemish twist strings for my Bear Grizzly, and my home made Osage longbows. Thanks for sharing, now I feel like I made the right choice.  

[Bjorn]

That may be-no real way to tell. I am told linen has no stretch and linen was on the scene before B 50 and there are lots of bows still shootable from the era prior to Dacron. Also, there are lots of 50's bows being shot with the latest strings and no ill effects. Many people in the know-like Rod Jenkins, agree they have never seen a string that could be blamed for damaging a bow. And other so called authorities disagree. No disrespect towards anyone here; it is not cut and dried. Personally I have been using a D97 string on a '59 grizzly for over a year-bow stays strong and gets shot every few days. Not making recommendations, and I would not do that with my Kodiaks.

[Rooselk]

Interesting. The dacron theory certainly could be true. But I tend to think that a lot of those bows are still around today because archery was popular in the 50's and 60's. Many people during that era bought traditional bows, tried it for a time, and then went went back to their firearms or whatever. The invention of the compound was probably another contributing factor in that many archers set aside their recurves in favor of the then-new technology.

[cacciatore]

I collect old Bear bows and I own a fews;many of them look to be seldom used,this is for sure a reason of longevity.I own also many customs with ff strings and one of my oldest16 years is been heavily used firing thousands of arrows over the years;it had the misadventure of many dry fires,because the nock failures or because strings that broke.It is shooting good without any issue.My 2 cents is that the arrow weight is more important than the string material.Like Bjorn I am experimenting some D97 skinny string on my old Bear TDs and since last year I haven't
had any issue.

[JamesV]

I put a FF string on my Browning Wasp that was about a 1/2" longer, dropped the brace height about an inch. First shot ripped the top limb on both sides of the limb and inch. This bow didn't not have any overlays in the tips.