Can someone explain to me please is their a benefit in a long one over a short one? does it have something to do with helping the bow stay still? also as in kill the noise, i have a hoyt stablizer i paid alot for but it is like 4 inches long but i see some longer ones on the market, and i remember in the olden days we had big metal ones, so please explain to me the benefit of big and smaller stablizers Thank you William Daughenbaugh Pecatonica Illinois
Stabilizers do alot of things. If you have a real long one up front, it keeps you from torquing some, but one needs to be v-bars to balance out your bow. With a real long one, your bow might want to tip forward, and that makes people build up a habit of grabbing their bow.
Myself, I try to keep it short as possible and mine are to balance the bow, and dampen some noise. I am a hunter, not a tournament shooter.
For hunting, shorter stabilizers, under 10" or so, the stabilizer is going to give you a quieter shot and better balance.The best way to select one is to shoot your bow with different ones on it to see which looks, feels and sounds the best to you. Sometimes the best stabilizer is no stabilizer.
Is longer better? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on you and your setup.
Longer stabilizers in the 24" to 36" range are almost strictly for competition target shooting. The purpose is to help hold the bow still during the shot and to give you something to rest the weight of your bow on during a long match. Target bows tend to be much heavier than hunting bows. BC is right about back weight. It takes a lot of experimentationto get a target bow stabilized & balanced without making it too heavy or awkward to shoot.
Bow stabilization may not be all about 'balance' either.
Some tournament archers like a VERY forward weighted bow- some like a neutral, balanced setup. Very personal to what you'll find that works best for you, and that particular setup.
Bow design, grip type and grip angle can also factor into how the bow reacts to differenet weight distribution. I have one target bow that I was surprised how much forward weight I put on it, but it held better for me that way. Now I have a different target bow, and that same amount of forward weight did NOT work for me at all. I had to change it all around to a different weight distribution for that bow.
Lots of trial and error involved in finding what works best.
But for a hunting bow, the stabilizer can be about silencing and removing vibration as much as helping to balance out the bow. There's no ONE magic stabilizer for all bows. Some stabs work better on different bows than others. You need to try a lot of them to find what works best on your bow.
Long or short stablizers?
