How long does your string last?

[songdog]

I've been unstringing my bow much more often this year than I had in the past. it may be totally unrelated but it seems like my string is getting frayed much more quickly than in the past. I'm still waxing it but it seems to get the fuzzies much quicker than before?

Or do I just need one of those infamous Grey Taylor hand made strings? http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-yellow.gif

[Speckmisser]

I&#39;ve already broken two strings since June, and the third one is looking "well used". I don&#39;t unstring the bow often, since I shoot every day. I do unstring it when I&#39;m driving out to hunt, because that long, hot ride in the truck is probably not real good for the laminates under tension.

Now that the season is over, I&#39;m shooting a little less than I was before (maybe 50 arrows a day instead of 100+).

[Grey Taylor]

http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-eek-blue.gif That cracked me up to see that. Seriously, hard to say how long a string will last, I sure haven&#39;t figured out any guidelines. Songdog, if we ever get to the same place at the same time I&#39;ll teach you how to make strings. 15 minutes and you&#39;ll be on the way. In fact, this Saturday I&#39;ll be at an event in Montebello and I&#39;ll be making some strings there. If you&#39;ll be in the area let me know and I&#39;ll give you more information.

If you want to order a really top quality Flemish string I can highly suggest Chad Weaver at www.recurves.com Great guy and he really knows his stuff. He&#39;s also one of the top dealers for Chek-Mate bows.

Guy

[PowDuck]

I second Chad&#39;s strings. I&#39;ve got two for my Crusader and they are TOP quality.
Champion Custom Bowstrings

[hickstick]

where do you guys find your strings fraying the most? in the loops? nock area? silencer area?

just curious. Since I make all my own bows I try to make the nock grooves really smooth to keep fraying to a minimum, and I unstring every time I use them (kinda have to with a selfbow). I really only see fraying around the plaits above the bottom loop from crawling through the god-aweful brush we got up here. Seriously...not tooting my own horn, I just hear alot of guys complaining about string wear and I just haven&#39;t seen it yet. granted, my selfbows certainly don&#39;t have the string tension some hig performance recurves do...

also, what materials you guys using? b50? dyna? fastflight?

[Grey Taylor]

All the bows I shoot are older recurves so I use B-50 exclusively. I&#39;d like to try B-500 sometime as BCY seems to have a really good color selection. The bows I sell are either self bows or laminated bows not built for high performance strings so they get B-50, too.

I don&#39;t seem to have much trouble with my strings wearing out. I&#39;m getting a little bit of wear on one bow at the nocks but it&#39;s not bad enough to worry about. I generally replace a string because I want to look at a different color http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-newlaugh-yellow.gif

One guy I sold a bow to was complaining about his string wearing out quickly at the bottom nock and just below the center serving so I watched him at the range one day. He just about gave me a heart attack when I watched him string the bow by planting the bottom tip on the ground and putting his knee in the center of the bow. Pushing with his knee and pulling the upper limb with one hand enabled him to slip the string on the nock. Once I got myself under control I gave him a stringer and made him promise to always use it. The wear below the serving turned out to be from a big white gauntleted glove he wears on his bow hand. The gauntlet is pretty stiff and beats the string up as it catches it on each shot. I made a new string and extended the serving down a few more inches and beat that problem. Now if I can just keep him using that stringer...

Guy

[Speckmisser]

My first one broke right at the nock. I saw it fraying, but it surprised the tar out of me when it broke. My second one broke at the top loop. I never saw that one coming. I kinda think I might have hit it on something while hunting.

I&#39;ve been watching the string I use now pretty closely. I don&#39;t see any extraordinary wear.