Silencing a mamba recurve

[Instinctive1]

Greetings,
Can anyone help guide me in queiting my recurve?
Today i glued some soft leather onto the limbs, which worked for around the first 5 shots. Is felt better? Should i wrap the string tops with wool? I also read heavier arrows can be queiter. 

Here are details of my setup;
55# at 28" martin mamba
Draw 28.5" 
Brace 7.5" 
Split finger 
125gr tips
Nock 3/4" above 90 degrees
30" 60-65# cedar shafts
Factory string

[Wheels2]

Bow Hush.  And try a little different brace height.  Arrows are plenty heavy.  Nock seems a little high.

[Night Wing]

A pair of home made yarn wool puffs slipped inbetween the strands of the bowstring will also work.

[Mr.Magoo]

Some wool yarn 'puffs' in between the string at the thirds and quarters should help (length of the string between the points where it touches the limbs ... divide that length by 3 for the thirds and 4 for the quarters).

Also, if I recall, the factory string is more for rappelling than shooting.

[Instinctive1]

I have beaver balls on, are those as quiet as yarn?
I heard that you can use a b-50 string and it's quieter but you loose speed, i dont know what a b-50 string is really or if its slower, but i love the way the bow is shooting, its just a bit loud.
I have a hard time telling the differemce in sound as i play around with the brace height, i chose speed and feel of the draw because the sound difference isnt registering, maybe i should make a recording of it...

[Instinctive1]

Thanks for the suggestions btw.

[JRY309]

I don't have a Mamba but have a Hunter.On my 2008 Hunter I made a padded loop 10 strand 8125 string for it.I put on some Bow Hush and a pair of Whoolie Whispers and it is plenty quiet.I find that different string materials can sound different.I have bows the are quieter with D97,and some with 8125 and some with 450+.I make my own strings so I can play around with different strings

[Charlie Lamb]

Here's my take on it bud.

1.Your brace height is close to an inch too low. You'll find a lot of things change for the better when you find the exact right brace. One of those things is bow noise... it will be quieter.
Your bow will be more forgiving as well... no unexplained flyers.

2.After adjusting brace you may find you can go to a little lower nocking point height.... you are probably real close right now.

3.Don't mean to pick nits, but I'd look at a slightly stiffer shaft... 65-70. Stiffer usually means a gain of weight so that should help.

4. What you pad the recurves with should be thick and soft. I've not found anything that does the job better than BowHush (see sponsors list), but you're better off with cheap wool on the string than padding the limbs.

5. Silencers are more about what they weight than what they are made of. Just make sure you mess with them and find the "sweet spots" on the string.
As mentioned above measure the distance between where the string contacts the bow limb and divide by 4. That distance from the contact point is a great place to start in finding the sweet spot.

[Instinctive1]

Thank you, thank you!
I want to enact all of these recommendations.
The beaver balls are not placed right, I had the local bow salesman do it, and according to what you all say,they are way too close to the tips.
Stiffer shaft, bow hush, brace, proper string silencers... So if I do this, should I do it with the string that came with bow, or get a better(?) string before doing all this augmenting? I'd hate to do it all and then decide when a little wiser that I should have put on a different string.

Also, I built up the contact point with leather because the highest point didn't align with the depth of the grip, is that ok?

[JRY309]

Brace height range for a Mamba and Hunter are from 7" to 7&3/4",factory specs.Your right in the range,I brace my Hunter at 7&3/8" and it is very quiet.Sure you can build up the contact point,I did on mine no problem.You can get some wool yarn and make your own Bow Hush and some silencers.Cost around $5 to $7 for a roll of yarn and you will have plenty.I've done this and also use Bow hush to.

[Ringneck]

I just bought a new hunter and the string that came with it was junk. Loud even with silencers on it. I had Allen Shafer make me some new strings out of D-10 and they are top notch. Bow is much quieter now.

[KentuckyTJ]

If you have three different strings you will have three totally different bows. I would get a couple different strings with padded loops.

[Instinctive1]

Could you suggest a few types to try and where to get them please?

[Ringneck]

Silent but Deadly makes a great string and is a sponsor. Oliver Stacy has a good following as well. Several are listed above in the sponsors list above. Here is a post that might help you out.

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=103907

[Instinctive1]

I ordered an SBD string to try.
Thanks everyone so much for all the suggestions.

[Charlie Lamb]

Please update this thread when you get things straightened out and let us know what worked.
 That way we all learn
 

[Charlie Lamb]

Since it wasn't mentioned before, double check your arrow nocks for fit. If too tight it can up the string noise level.

You should be able to let the arrow hang from the string, but have it release with a light tap of the string with your finger.

[Instinctive1]

I will do that.
What I've ordered and intend to do is;
Trying a couple new strings
Wrapping the ends in yarn
Making some puff balls and making sure to messure for placement.
65-70# arrow.
Always playing with the brace height.
If it's not better after all of that, I will felt the limbs.
First I'm going to shoot the new strings with out anythng else and see how different that is.

My nocks are fairly loose,  would like them tighter. I just use classic nocks and in the past I would use a little floss to make the serving fatter. Hopefully this new string and my nocks will get along well.

My friend is test driving one of South Cox's bows, stalker recurves I think. He builds them here locally and it is very quiet next to mine, although I prefer my bow in it's shooting. We examined the bows side by side and it left us wondering if his was so quiet in part because of the obviously very nice string on it...

[Instinctive1]

Update;

1)
I'm a moron, or at least occasionally do moronic things. I realized I had used one of my daughter's hair ties to hold my string when it was unstrung, to keep it from untwisting. I removed said elastic with it's little metal noise maker. That cleared up the contact sound quickly. Incidentally, I have marked an old broken arrow with my brace height range, I can keep that in my quiver and make quick measurements. I decided to still continue with the quest of the whisper quiet bow...
2)
Went up in arrow weight. I also changed fletching at the same time, i shoot a traditional cut which flies great but has a wiz sound since it's ends are flared out. So I went to shield. The arrows flew horribly. 65-70# 30" with 125 gr tips. My theory is that the point weight is low and the stability of the fletching has decreased. Anyways, that kind of sucked.

I fletched one of my old arrows, 60-65# with the new shield fletching, it shot dead on, in the dead center of the target, but i think I noticed a winding flight. It's a little soon to say.

3) receive the new SBD string, out some silencers on it and strung it. All I notice is that it seems a little more "snappy", maybe faster, i need more time, and have to find my magic brace height.

4) felted the limbs, not all the way in the grooves.

5) i don't think I built up my contact point all that well because the marks that the arrows have left indicate that instead of a peak of contact point, I have more of a ledge. Might have something to do with my nocking point.

I've opened a can of worms. I feel hunting season closing in, i'm novice and have changed to many variables. The bow is quieter, yes. But now i feel like I'm back to some major tuning. I've done some bare shaft tuning and they always shoot right, even the very heavy arrows, I've snapped a few arrows bare shafting. Maybe i need a thicker pad on the riser?

I hope you guys derive some kind of entertainment out of this:)

[tbhuntr]

If you seriously want a quiet recurve, check out stiktamer.com. You'll be amazed.