Fast flight strings

[bowdude]

Guys - and Gals.  You are spending BIG money for some awesome bows.  I have also.  This is just an FYI for you on fast flight string.  It will eventually kill your bow.  Don't use it.  If you do and try to quiet it down with more silencer material you lose the little extra speed it gave you.  I have seen the damage the strings do to plenty of bows so called made for it.  Have you ever had an arrow knock break on a shot? Ever had an arrow come off and basically dry fire the bow?  It happens.   Think about it.  The phenolic and epoxy glues used are no different than what was around 40 years ago.  One guy came out and said his would stand up to fast flight and they all had to follow suit in order to stay in business.  Most don't shoot enuf to destroy the bow in the first couple years of most warranties.  After that its old news, and most warranties expired.  Those of you with clear glass limbs shooting fast flight, hold a light next to the limb tips with the string off and see if you still have a good glue seam.  Do this in other areas to know that when you see that area next to the string grooves and the wood grain is milky and washed out, thats the glue let loose.  It has a definate different look to it.  Just an FYI folks.  Save your bows and shoot dacron.

[SCATTERSHOT]

Good advice, but most here seem to be in love with the stuff.

[Falk]

From all bows I own only ONE is "designed" to accept low stretch materials, BUT I AM a "Dacronist" - and will always be one I suppose. And this is only partly caused due to the many spools of it - filling the shelf behind me right now  

Yes, good advise, to take advantage of the clear glass possibilities.

[Bjorn]

Well now; how come the progressive boywers like OL Adcock and Morrison don't discourage the use of modern strings. It is just the old school guys that want to void your warranty and tell you to only use Dacron. I spend a lot of money on bows, and I would not buy a bow from a bowyer who was not building bows with modern low stretch strings in mind as an alternative.

[SilverTip]

Every bow I buy new, I pay extra for the fast flight limbs. But to be honest I have never used fast flight strings. I always use Dacron Strings.I am willing to pay for the strongest limbs offered by the bowyer. I know of a few others that do the same thing.
 I guess only time will tell who is right in this ongoing debate, but it sure is a good subject to rattle the cage a bit.  

                      Billy

[Pete W]

Steve:
Have you ever seen a bow with dacron fail?
 What do you blame that on?
 How do you know that a failure is the fault of the string and not the limb material or workmanship , or design?
 The last bow I had that the limb failed on is a Bear that had only shot dacron and was built with the "old glues etc". What do we blame this on?

 I would be interested to know what "quality" bows you have had that fast flight type strings ruined the limb and how you know it was the string's fault.


Bows have failed since the cave man days. Man has always looked for some reason to blame the failure on other than himself.

[Shawn Leonard]

Agree with Pete. I use D-97 on all my modern bows. I know a lot of self-bow guys using it. If the bow is desined to use it, than it will be fine. I have been shooting modern low stretch strings for 12 years, with no ill effect. Shawn

[LBR]

I've only been at this sport for 15 years or so, but in that time I've been able to shoot a lot of bows, plus make thousands of strings.  I've heard rumors about strings damaging bows, but I've never seen a bow made for high-performance materials damaged by the string, never had anyone tell me that a string I made them damaged their bow, never had anyone I know tell me a FF type string caused a failure, or even heard of any definate evidence of such.  I've seen a few bows break with dacron strings, and I'm with Pete on this one--what do you blame it on when a bow breaks with a dacron string?

I've been shooing the same bow for 10 years or so and it's never had a dacron string on it.  I draw 30.5", and I'm the type that can tear up an anvil with a Q-tip without even trying.  It may blow up tomorrow, but it shows none of the signs you warned about.  I've used this bow for 99% of my shooting since I've owned it--I couldn't even guess how many thousands of arrows have been through it hunting, practicing, playing, and shooting tournaments.

The only instance I know of where the string could cause more damage being a FF type is during a dry-fire--and that's not good regardless of the string that's on the bow.

I really don't know why a bowyer would charge extra for limbs built to handle a FF string, or shorten the warranty.  I've only heard about one that does this (shortens the warranty), and I don't know that for fact, so I'm not in any way trying to target anyone here--I just don't get it.  Seems to me the bowyer would want to make the strongest limb he can, regardless.  If they don't want their customers to use FF type strings, just don't warranty them at all for those string materials.

I don't claim to know it all, but for my part I need more than an opinion here.  Improperly made bows, improperly made strings, dry fires, light arrows, etc. can all cause failures regardless of the string.

FWIW, I don't use these materials (Dynaflight '97 being my favorite) for the extra speed.  I like the added durability, reduced stretch/creep, and reduced hand shock.  I've only got one small set of cat whisker silencers on my string, and get lots of comments on how quiet it is.

I wasn't shooting bows at the time, but I've heard from many an archer that's been around for a while that the same kind of rumors were floating around when B-50 first hit the market--warnings about that "new fangled" string material blowing up bows, etc.  Obviously those folks were mislead.

Finally, every serious tournament archer I know uses one type or another high performance string material.  Very few people shoot as many arrows as these guys do.  I know Rod Jenkins was (and probably still is) shooting 4 hours a day, pretty much every day.  Rod would be one of the first to notice if a bow was damaged by the type string, and I'm sure he'd let it be known if that was the case.

Don't get me wrong here--I appreciate the concern, and understand wanting to warn fellow archers.  I just think you have been mislead, based on my own experience.

Chad

[SteveB]

I was going to respond, but Pete, Shawn and Chad pretty much said it all.

Steve

[bowdude]

Okay then - we're all happy here.

[SHOOTO8S]

Chads right I do shoot a lot,with for the most part light arrows and always with low stretch string materails...fact is, I'd shoot low stretch material if they were several FPS slower. As far as reducing the life of a bow.. a friend of mine, when he was competing shot more than I do....most days 6-7 hrs and shot the same bow for a few years...thousands upon thousands of shots at 6 GPP and 31 3/4'' draw.... then I shot the same bow for a couple years, at least 4-5 hrs a day and still shoot it at times for indoors...the bow has never had a dacron string on it.

[Bjorn]

Hey Rod! Great to hear from ya' hope the crane is treating you right. We miss you already.
Bjorn