silencing a recurve bow

[Bob Lord]

I have hunted solely with a longbow almost all my life.The last time I shot a recurve was in 1959. Recently I bought a Bear Grizzly recurve to try in tight ground blind situations. My problem is that it is noisy. Jim Duclos of Green Mountain bows was over the other day and like me, is strictly a longbow shooter. We hashed over some solutions,but before I do anything I figured I would get advice from some recurve hunters. I hunt in thick cover from both ground blinds and tree stands. I also like to still hunt. Most of my shots are taken within 20 yards so I have to have a quiet bow. Where I live, one good shot a year is about all you get if you don't bait, and I like to actually hunt.

[Pete W]

Proper brace height, Padded loop strings and silencers with heavy arrows should help.

[Steve P]

Last year bought a 3 pc recurve for my son. Could not believe how loud that bow was. I used some bow hush & hush puppies and it quieted it down more than I thought would be possible. If I were to return to shooting my recurves it is what I would use.


Steve

[Ian johnson]

bow hush and mink fur silencers

[BenBow]

Mole skin under the string where it slaps the limbs at the recurve is a light & cheap way to cut the noise. Also put your string silencers on the 1/3s and or 1/4s of the string length that doesn't touch the bow.

[Bob Lord]

Thanks guys- I'll try the moleskin first. Also, I may try a new string (flemish). I shoot ash when I hunt. I live near Mike Lalumiere of Silent Pond shafts. However, he went out of business, but a still have a couple of dozen of his tapered ash shafts. I also shoot only bows in the 45-50 pound range. My Green Mountain longbow is a 60 pounder. Jim Duclos said he will research my bow, and he may be able to drop it to 50lbs. If so I will definitely hunt with it. I'm 60 now and don't want to mess up my shoulder with heavy weight and I like to shoot alot of arrows. By the way, Jim is thinking of starting to build bows again. This would be great, because the guy builds a beautiful bow. He is thinking of building self bows and just had 5 big black locust logs dropped off at his place. He definitely is getting the bug again. My other longbows are a 54lb Meigs bamboo longbow and a 46lb Meigs bamboo longbow. The 46lb is my main hunting bow. With an ash arrow fletched with wild turkey feathers, I get total pass-through on deer. This bow is an exact copy of the bow Tim Meigs uses.

[bentpole]

Black velcro under the area where the string slaps the limbs. Doesn't stand out like moleskin.That and a good pair of catwhiskers. I learned where those whiskers are placed has a lot to do with it on certain bows. Some bows 8 to 10 others around 13 inches. It was another factor in making the switch to hybrids.For strings b-50 or TS-1 helped also.

[joe skipp]

Bob...when you see Mike tell him I said hello. For years I purchased my Barrel tapered Ash shafts from him. It was a sad day when he went out of business.

For my recurves, I use heavy duty Catwhisker type silencers, cut them thick and granny knot them in. Unless your string is hitting the limbs, I wouldn't use moleskin. What may sound loud to you, are your limbs when you release.

Have someone stand about 10 ft away then shoot some arrows. Place your silencers about 8" down from the limb tips. If you want some heavier rubber strips just PM me with your address and I'll send some up to you.   Joe

[chrisg]

most all of above! I put a nice  soft strip of leather under strings over the curves,nearly as far as the grooves, it lasts longer than moleskin and is same colour as my bow. Also be sure your arrow nocks are not too tight on the string. Nocking point just a little higher than LB and be sure your arrows are spined right, centre shot curves usually need stiffer spine to avoid arrow slap on riser. There's a list for ya!
 
chrisg

[duck'n]

I found the Bow Hush to work wonders on my Bear Black Bear Hunter.  I messed up the set of Hush Puppies when installing them so all I have on there now are a sad looking set of Wooly Whispers...I need to break down and order Hush Puppies for all my bows.  Anyway, you may want to check into them...Bow Hush is on the sponsor list up top.

[fredbear92]

I've got a 45# 56" Bear Grizzly.
 On it I use brush buttons(just like fred) and wisker silencers. works like a charm!  

[Tilbilly]

I'll second the Velcro! Just tried it last night on my little 50" 'curve. Wow! It's thicker than moleskin, comes in black. May have to do away with the string silencers.