quiet bow or more speed

[Dave Lay]

I have been shootin trad bows for about 30 years and have always been crazy about getting a bow quiet. And never really worried about a arrows speed. But been thinkin a little to much I guess, and thinking in terms of KE/Momentuem (sp) etc. Ie: one of my longbows is 62@27 and with dacron string shooting about a 560gr cedar,is as quiet a bow as i have ever heard. put a fast flight on it and everything changes, it becomes louder,yes brace/nock mea.etc all checked as are the silencers etc..I have to shoot about a 5lb stiffer shaft also,I guess my thinkin is I am losing some "thump/speed" with the dacron, but have a VERY quiet bow. same applies to my recurve, as well as other bows. I have in the past never really thought about how hard a bow shoots but have been VERY concerned with it being quiet. I know bows such as wes wallace that are dacron only are very quiet and stable but not the great performers. I posted a similar question a while back and got plastered for giving up approx 5lbs of performance when a bow can be made "quiet enough"   I shoot in the 60lb range and use it on deer and hopefully elk.. any thoughts??

[James Wrenn]

With 60lbs you have more than you need no matter what kind of string you use.I would not worry about it and shoot what you like.    I shoot light weight bows and choose skinny fastflight strings.I can get them quiet enough and just don't care for b-50.It all works.  

[robtattoo]

Unless your arrow's moving faster than the speed of sound (HINT; it never will!) then quiet is far more important than quick, in my opinion.

[Bjorn]

Fastflight can be loud on some bows; but there is no reason why a well made 8125, TS1, or Dynaflight string can't be just as quiet as B50, or even quieter in my experience. You can make your own, or check out Chad at LBR and he will make you a killer string.

[ishiwannabe]

I will take quiet over fast anyday...

[LBR]

One string material isn't always going to be quieter than another on a given bow, and what is "quiet" is a relative term.  People generally pick up more on higher pitched noise, although if I recall correctly lower pitches travel further and will spook an animal the same as higher pitches.

I like quiet, but I get it with a Dynaflight '97 string and a pretty fast (187 fps w/9-10gpp) longbow.

I will say the quietest bows I've heard and shot (to my ears at least) were among the slowest, with a very few exceptions.  Even the feathers on an arrow will make more noise when they are travelling faster.

Chad

[Bowsey Wails]

Quiet rules. A heavier arrow may quiet the fast flight string for you.

Tim

[sticshooter]

What Robtattoo said.. says it all IMO.<><

[bayoulongbowman]

QUIET!!!!!!!!!

[Orion]

I doesn't have to be either or, but it does depend on the type of fast flite material.  I've begun using Dyneema on my longbows, and it's just as quiet as dacron for me.  I silence each the same way, with Puffs silencers a little less than 1/3 the way from each limb tip.  On the other hand, BCY 450 plus and 8125 are noisier than dacron and dyneema on my bows, mostly Hills, Robertsons, Dwyer's and Great Northerns.

[Curveman]

Quiet over speed. I just raised my brace height and got bigger beaver balls on it. At 61# it is fast enough.

[Shawn Leonard]

Quiet anyday, but my bows are quieter with D97 or TS1 than they are with dacron or B-50, as Doug said, pad the loops. Shawn

[Dave2old]

Depends on what you're hunting. Deer or turkey up close, I'll go quiet. Pronghorns far off, or elk, caribou or moose at any range -- they're not fast enough to jump the string, in my experience.

Looking at it another way -- maximizing penetration -- I prefer to use the heaviest arrow I can shoot well for a given animal, except lightweights like turkey and antelope. That dictates that my shots are generally quieter than they are fast.

Frankly, none of this gear stuff, although it's important, has ever been a big problem for me in an embarrassingly long bowhunting career. Rather, the challenge is finding the durned animals and getting them to stand broadside at close range!

[Cutty47]

I also know quite a few guys who will vouch for the quiet speed of the Soverign Ballistic with it's static tips.

[bentpole]

Quiet. A deer won't duck a string he can't hear. Some folks here are probably tired of me posting this but I had a Mahaska recurve years back shot a 2016 arrow 145 grain head b-50 string,  cat whiskers, 53#s at 28"s.Quiet as a church mouse. Chrono'd at 169 FPS killed a lot of critters with that bow.Now if you want quick AND quiet you get yourself one of them Bowchef bows.I always liked B-50 better than fast flight but TS-1 made a beleiver out of me. And yes some bows like some strings better than others noisewise.

[joe skipp]

Without a doubt....its quietness. I'll sacrafice a few ft per second for a quiet bow anytime.

[JEFF B]

quiet is way better than fast  

[pseman]

I think this debate as well as the heavy vs light arrow debate can be summed up in one word "balance". What I mean is an extreme of either one is not preferable for most people. If you have a super-quiet/super-slow bow then you will lose out on the performance capability of your bow. If you have a super-fast/super-loud bow then you will spook alot of game and your extra performance may still lead to poor shots. You are also likely shooting a dangerously light gr/lb setup.

A balance of each should lead to a set-up that performs well and is deadly effective.

IMO!!

[mcgroundstalker]

Quiet Is Cool!  

[redfish]

I vote for quiet.
I remember reading several accounts of different hunts that were put on in enclosed areas to thin deer. These were some years back.
The result is that the hunts reported that the LONGBOW shooters got the most deer and got their deer faster than any others. I believe that they differentiated longbows from recurves as well.
They didn't offer any reasons why, but I always figured it was because they were quieter.