Bow String Silencer

by PhilsTj in Outside > Camping

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Bow String Silencer

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A bow string silencer is a cluster of soft elastic or silicone rubber fingers/strings that when tied to the string of a compound bow, they will absorb the twang sound you might otherwise hear. You could also use it on a recurve bow.
I have been an "ible" voyeur for a year or so, but this is my first one to publish. I was just so excited once I figured out how easy it was I wondered why would anyone pay money for this?

Gather Supplies.

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You need about 5 inches of 1 inch wide elastic per silencer. I made two total for my bow. One each for the top and bottom string sections between the pulleys and the peep sight.

You could also try harvest elastic strings from a bungy cord.

Pick Apart the Elastic Strap

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This is a little tricky. The way the elastic strap is woven you will need to pick at the end to find the one master string to pull. If you start on the wrong end, it does not come apart easily and ends up in a knot. These are pics of my failure of the 50/50 guess at which end to start at. I use an actual dental pick for such work.

Start Picking Apart the Elastic Strap From the Right End.

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I didn't even need the pick on this end. Just pull the end threads with your fingers and the string that came off was the what I would call the master string. Keep pulling and the whole strap will fall apart! This is crazy easy!

Collect the Elastic Strings

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The 1 inch wide elastic strap material I had produced 16 individual strings and a pile of soft nylon ones.

Tie in Small Groups

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Pick up about 5 of the elastic strings you have harvested amd line up the ends to make a small bundle. Tie the bundle around the string hakfway between the pulley and peep sight.

Do the same with the remaining strings with the knots facing different directions. I think it will last longer if you do double square knots.

On my first attempt at this I tied all 16 in one square knot. This did not look good. I found that if I split up the 16 into two groups of 5 and one of 6. I imagine that even more smaller groups would be better. The key to putting them onto the bow string is to have each knot facing a different direction. That will produce a more uniform shaggy ball shape.

Trim the Excess

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Now go shoot some arrows.... in silence.

How did I do on my first ible?