Silencing the Bowstring

By Brian Sorrells

            String silencers, like most things in traditional archery, are a matter of personal choice and most archers have their favorite.  What most people don’t realize is the importance of choosing the right material and understanding what role string silencers play in the performance of your bow.  They actually have the ability not only to deaden the vibration of the bowstring but also to affect the tuning and performance of your favorite longbow or recurve!

            I remember many years ago, seeing a recurve with not one, but two sets of the big, puffy yarn type silencers on the bowstring.  I thought that looked really cool until I stood beside the guy while he shot and realized how noisy they were.  Not only could I hear the “whoosh” of the silencers catching the wind, I could still hear the vibration of the bowstring after the shot.  It dawned on me then that anything that big would have to generate wind resistance and slow down the bowstring and I decided that I would take the subject seriously.

            There are many different styles available and natural materials seem to be “en vogue” though some of these may actually create noise as opposed to stopping it, depending on how the materials are processed.  Take my friend’s Black Widow recurve, for example.  He had dressed it up with some beaver fur string silencers and soon noticed a strange “buzzing” noise when he shot the bow.  He made sure the limb bolts were tight and checked everything over, but could not find the source of the noise.  Fearing that perhaps some of the takedown hardware was coming loose, he sent the bow back to the manufacturer, who proceeded to completely disassemble the bow without finding the cause.  As a last resort, the beaver fur silencers were replaced and the noise disappeared!  Evidently the tanned fur vibrated at such a rate that it actually created noise.

            Silencing your bow is a fairly simple matter but you can do a lot to help the cause by simply shooting heavy arrows.  The noise after the shot is created not only by the vibration of the bowstring, but by energy left over that was not absorbed by the arrow.  Heavier arrows absorb more of the energy stored in the limbs, so there’s less left over to cause noise.  Between 9 and 11 grains of arrow weight per pound of bow weight is a good rule of thumb.

             Different materials have different properties, so they obviously vary in their ability to absorb vibration.  The yarn silencers mentioned at the beginning may look cool, but the ability of yarn to absorb vibration is minimal at best.  They also have a tendency to absorb water, so if you’re hunting in wet weather, be prepared for a face full of water when you shoot your bow.

            Wool silencers are advertised to absorb less water but, like yarn, they definitely absorb stick-tights and weed seeds.  During the brief time I used wool silencers, I spent way too much of that time picking sand burrs and weed seeds out of them.  While they are a bit more efficient at silencing than yarn, they’re not very effective when matted together.

            The natural fur silencers can be effective as long as the hide still attached is soft and supple instead of hard tanned.  Fur silencers are also a bit more water resistant and shed weed seeds better than wool or yarn.  The downside is that fur silencers don’t last as long as other types.

            The spider shaped silencers that came with one of my custom longbows were a big disappointment, I must confess.  Even when both sets supplied were placed on the bowstring, they did little to silence vibration and the “legs” on the spider even created their own noise!  A closer examination of the material revealed what appeared to be rubber coated cloth, much the same stuff that conveyor belts are made of.  While they looked really sporty, they were useless on my bows.

            We finally come to my favorite, the plain old “Catwhiskers”.  In my humble opinion there is no better string silencer – period.  Rubber is the best material for absorbing vibration and dampening sound.  I’ll bet that you’ll see more Catwhiskers on more traditional bows than any other string silencer.  That’s because they work, they’re waterproof, and they usually last as long as the bowstring.  Some folks tie them on with serving material or floss, but I just tie them directly around the bowstring and trim them to length.  Use care not to trim them too short or they won’t do the job.

            When positioning the string silencers on the bowstring, make sure you place them equidistant from each limb tip to keep things balanced.  By plucking the bowstring and sliding the silencers up or down, you can find the “sweet spot” where they’re most effective.  Using the right silencers in the right place on the bowstring and you’ll turn that annoying “twang” into a satisfying “thump”!