xbowbarry

I had a doe fawn nealy turn herself inside out at a range of only 16 yards before the bolt got there. Never would have believed it but we caught it on video.

xbowbarry

wabi

Was she looking at you when you shot?
If a deer is watching you and sees the limbs fly forward it can react to sight instead of sound. At 16 yards it would have about .16 seconds to react before the arrow got there from a 300fps bow, if it reacted to sight.

I've found (my personal experience only)with a 250fps arrow @ 30 yards a deer can have time to drop a few inches before the arrow hits, but with a 300fps arrow the reaction is much less - if any.

I have taken my crossbow along when merely observing deer at a feeder and shot (not at the deer, just into the ground beneath the stand) to see reactions. At out to a45-60 yard rangethe deer usually react to the shot, not always running off, but they usually move (duck - or "jump the string"). Beyond 60 yards or sosome react, some don't. I've seen them continue to feed without even looking up! I know they heard the sound, but I have a therory that each deer has it's own "danger zone" which it reacts to. They hear a lot of noises where I hunt in a rural area. Traffic in the distance, sirens, dogs, shouting, loud talk, machinery,etc. I tend to believe they can become somewhat accustomed to noise and don't react unless it's close (in that "danger zone")in a lot of cases. Another factor to throw in is the question of whether any of their other senses have detected danger. If they smell human scent nearby they may not run away, but simply go into an increases alert mode. If they hear an unnatural noise or see movement then,it may be enough to make them react instantly. It may take two or three senses detecting danger with some deer! I have had a button buck at the feeder when I walked into the food plot 15 yards from the feeder. He looked up, then went back to eating. I went to my stand 70 yards away (across the open food plot)and he watched me climb in. 20 minutes later he was under the stand eating acorns! No, I didn't shoot him - we even cautioned other hunters allowed on that property to leave him alone. He was either very brave, or very stupid!

One year I was checking the sights on my muzzleloader before gun season opened. We have a 100 yard range, but I wanted to check it at 200 yards so I had to move the shooting benchback to a point where I was about 70 yards behind where our deer feeder was located, and the bullets would pass about 15 yards to the side of the feeder. Imoved the bench,but had to leave before I got to check it at that distance. The next morning I resumed my shooting and since it's on private property and there's a good earthen backstop behind the target I just went to the bench and visually observed there was nothing on the range. I fired a 3 shot group, then started out to pull the target I had left from the day before. The feeder was behind some low brush and not visible from the shooting bench. When I got to the edge of theold fencerow and could seethe feeder there stood a doe munching away at the corn! We shoot on that range year-round and I'd say the local deer have learned to ignore the noise.

KLS

from what I've seen you use the whisker sliencers in your strings, have you ever used the "tarantula" string silencers?

my use of thewhisker type is very limited butI've used the tarantula's on my compound for years and have them on my crossbow now(with the stock string), they do a pretty good job of keeping things on the quiet side too, I was just wondering how they compare to each other...

Dnk

KLS, I wanted the toughest material that was also reasonable price wise. I found that in order for the buzz to be reduced the most the dampening material had to be really tight against the string. There are two layers of fast flight string material around the cat whiskers. They are served on so tight that I need leather gloves with duct tape wrapped around the fingers. I also have the string stretched well beyond normal for the bow so when the string is in the compression of the material is increased. This stuff is pretty tough as well. The cat whiskers I use are the newer thicker stuff and there is three widths of cat whiskers compressed around the string. The whiskers don't come flying off either as some expect.
KLS, that is twenty cents (CDN) for the secret! I take Paypal, LOL!

KLS

LOL,the check is in the mail...


actually, I hope I didnt come across as questioning your use of materials... I was just wondering how the two silencers compared to each other, if someone thats used them both givesa bignod toward the whiskers, I'd be temped to give them a try on my crossbow, otherwise I'll probably just stick with what I have until I get a different string...


my birthday is on the 31st and I put the "hint" outtoward my wife and kids about the DNK string again, surprisingly it didnt fly at christmas, we'll see if it does for my birthday...

Dnk

I didn't think you were being offencive at all KLS. I did not try the Tarantulas. There isn't enough mass to them. Rubber seems to make sense. The principle is to divert the energy in the string and use it by having the rubber vibrate. Cloth just does not need much energy to vibrate. On Trad bows the non-rubber silencers sit closer to the center and simply slow down the vibration freqency of the string via air resistance. The theory behind cat whiskers is to acutally change the dimentions of the rubber to eat up energy. Much like a rubber stabilizer on a compound bow or a rubber end stop on a door stop or a bumper rubber on car. The rubber "eats" vibration or energy. The other thing it does is add weight to the string to change the vibrational frequency. In the automotive field they put weights with rubber between an car part and the weight to snub vibration or change it's fequency. Same thinking in my noggin!
I've seen the rubber Tarantulas as well but they are way too big and thick and I couldn't begin to figure out how to serve them on. Aside from that I think it would make tons of noise slapping against the limbs. I am betting they'd fly off too!

Safety Off

HMMM, brings up an interesting thought. I have two spear guns which are around 5' overall. I like shooting my wood gun better then my aluminum one. I found the shaft traveling down the wood makes a lot less noise then the metal one. Fish don't get as jumping with the wood gun.

Has anyone tried both a wood and metal frame CB? Is the wood one quiter?

xbowbarry

wabi,
The doe I shot had her head down and showed no sign that she knew we were there.

xbowbarry