Because I had the Chrono Out... "Cat Whiskers & Speed"

[Ryan Sanpei]

A few years back, I was curious to find out how much cat whiskers adversely affected my arrow speeds. I played around with the size of them and placement on my bowstrings. I tried to get a fine balance between minimal affect on speed and acceptable noise reduction. After a bunch of testing, I found out what was working in regards to my set up. The only thing... I forget to document it.

Yesterday I had the Chono out, so I decided to run some tests with my wife's bow. For each cat whisker ball, I'm currently using two 1 1/4" strips (the round ones). They each weigh 17grs per ball. I use a total of four on each string.

 

First I chrono'd my standard set up. For strings under 52", I have them set 8" and 14" away from the end loops on both sides.
With this set up, I got an average of 158fps.


 

To replicate a larger, single cat whisker, I situated both cat whisker balls at 14". This got an average of 157fps.


 

Next I left one at 14" and slides the other to 20". The average here was 154fps.

[Ryan Sanpei]

Then I slid the other one to 20" and both were at 20". This got an average of 152fps.


 

After those series of test were done, I decided to cut off one ball from each side. So now, there was only one at 14" on each side. 159fps was the average here.


 

Finally, I cut off the reminder two and shot it through the chrono. An average of 160fps was reported.

[nineworlds9]

Cool!  Thanks for going to the trouble.  Neat to see some numbers

[Ryan Sanpei]

Please keep in mind, although I tried to be as consistent as possible, I didn't use a shooting machine. It was shot with fingers and Staci double checked my draw length mark on every shot.

As expected, the closer you move the silencers towards the arrow, the slower the speeds get. Given that you add the weight in the same areas, the more weight you add, the slower the speeds get.

Given my "unscientific" results, I've found that I can find a nice balance between speed and noise reduction for my bows.

[Matty]

Pretty cool test Ry.  So does this change anything in your set up permanently? Did you happen to notice how much noise or vibration changed when you changed placement or removed them all together. Maybe the bow got quieter, but slower. Faster= louder?

[Ryan Sanpei]

Matty, years back I did a bunch of testing, including size of the cat whiskers. I found that I really like this set up and never found a reason to change. For strings in the 53"-55" lengths, I have them at 9" and 15".
The only problem is that I never posted my results back them. I had the chrono out, so I though I'd do a "quick test".

With my human ears, it did seem to get more quite as I moved the silencers towards the arrow. Vibration was hard to tell as I'm using a really heavy arrow for my wife's bow. I would like to re-do the test one day with a 9gpp set up.

[Marshallrobinson]

Way to go in getting this up here. I really enjoy this type of discovery. Thank you.

[ron w]

Interesting........

[pdk25]

Thanks for the specs.  Was always curious myself.

[bigbadjon]

Looks good. I use the same size and construction of puffs that you. I only use two on the string at the top and bottom quarter marks though. I think most people that report large losses of speed and ineffective noise reduction are using too big a piece. The small 1 1/4" puffs are the secret to using them.

[Ryan Sanpei]

I agree Jon,

When I have more time, I need to test some cat whiskers that are long and bulky, maybe even "tied in a knot".

[Wannabe1]

Very interesting test!

[Matty]

These tests are always good to have as reference and re tested with other methods. I don't have a chronograph. But this would be interesting to see how a bow performs with say string leeches or hush puppies, beaver balls or the like.

[Ryan Sanpei]

We're on the same page Matty. I just need to buy all the current, popular silencing materials.

The only thing is that people may think my data is invalid because I choose not to use a shooting machine for my personal tests.

Maybe someone who has a machine would like to test this out for the Gang?

[Jwilliam]

Great stuff Ryan!!! Really appreciate all your work.


Bill

[monterey]

Ryan, I think if your extreme spreads are pretty low it would indicate a machine is unnecessary.  A machine might give slightly higher averages, but if the spread between shots is not varying too  much then the overall results should be reliable.

[Ryan Sanpei]

Thank you Monterey,

I totally agree, it's just I like to be cautious when I post "testing info" publicly.

I really enjoy testing with my tuned equipment and finger release. I had access to a hooter shooter, but I really didn't like how the arrows flew out of the machine given that it was a mechanical release. It gave me consistent data, but it wasn't giving me "real world" application of data.

I have my wife there with me on every shot and I have an arrow marked with my exact draw length. She either calls short, long or on during the whole time. I usually don't shoot until I'm "on" for a few counts. If she observed that I was too long or short right before the actual release, I'll scratch that speed. I also have an indoor lighting kit as it seems to be more consistent than the shade kit in the outdoors. On average, I'll hit a duplicate reading out of this system.

I appreciate your insight!

Thank you!
Ryan

[Hopewell Tom]

Appreciating that arrow speed is important, I've mostly been concerned with noise level. I use your 4 ball system and like it a lot.
What difference in fps would one need to see a difference in arrow speed or penetration? Bare string is out perhaps as noise would be too high (in most cases), but is 5 fps difference noticeable in speed or penetration? Although I appreciate this test had nothing to do with penetration. And there is probably a host of parameters around that one.

[LBR]

Great review.  The two big problems I see with cat whiskers is attaching them the wrong way, and leaving them way too long.

I'm glad you noted that the closer they get to the serving, the more speed is affected, even though they weigh very little.  

That's one reason you don't normally gain much if any performance with a tiny string if you double-serve or use a really thick serving--all that extra weight goes to the most crucial point on the string.

I'm using a small ball on two points on the string and it works great.

[RedShaft]

How do you get you cat whisker so nice?
They are perfectly round.