I just got into shooting traditional by building a laminated longbow. It shoots great but was wondering how much of a speed gain I would get by switching from B-50 to FF. It has reinenforced tips so it will take FF, but is it worth it? I know, speed doesn't kill but if I can flatten the trajectory a little I might be inclined to give it whirl. Also does any body know anything about B-75? I havent been able to find any info on this material,like can it be used the same as B-50? And what kind of performance characteristics does it have? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

You probably won't gain a whole lot of speed, but will pick up some. When I use B-50 on my longbows, I notice a lot more handshock. Much less with FF.

I dislocated the base joint in my bowhand thumb - right where the bow's grip lays when shooting - playing basketball in college. (Good grief, that was nearly 35 years ago!![:-]) That joint is really sensitive to shock and vibration. Bad, very bad, for an aging longbow shooter. So, that's the main reason I use FF on my longbow.

Dynaflight '97 is my favorite string material, but not because of any big speed gains. I like it because it's much more durable, has a lot less stretch and creep, and reduces handshock in a bow. Whether it's worth using on your bow....you will have to decide that.

B-75 from Brownell and it's BCY counterpart, PENN 66, were taken off the market a few years ago. The reason is they broke without warning, usually at the nocking point. They would not hold up to constant flexing, kind of like a wire. They also had very low abrasion reisitance. They did offer a tiny speed increase over regular dacron, and less stretch, but were very lacking in durability. I would not put either of them on one of my bows.

Chad

You Da Man Chadster!!

Art:

Interesting information regarding FF strings. That is the very subject that my hunting pard and I have been discussing while awaiting the arrival of our custom-made bows that have limbs made to handle FF. We assumed just the opposite. We considered that the non-stretch aspect, or less stretch, might cause a greater hand shock and string vibration, so we are also having custom-made Dacron-type strings sent with the bows so we can try both.

The lack of elasticity is why the "high performance" materials have less shock. They put more of the bow's energy into the arrow, less resonates down the limb and that is where hand shock comes from, along with a little more speed. You may need to go up in arrow spine with the FF string due to this. Try stretching a piece of twine taut and a rubber band. Pluck them both, see which has more vibration. Kinda over-simplified, but you will see what I mean. You can also generally go a bit lower in brace height with the low stretch strings and gain a little there also.

Chad

Makes very good sense. Should have concluded such. Complexity is sometimes caused by over-thinking.

On some bows, you can actually feel the stretch in B-50 when you're drawing the bow. One bow I had, I swear I could pull the string nearly 3" before getting much movement in the limb tips. I had to really raise the brace height on that bow to tune it and keep the string from beating my arm guard to death!

Seen those guys bungee jumping? Boing! Bouncing up and down a few times due to all that energy being absorbed and then expended by the elasticity of the bungee cord. After all the energy is spent, the guy just hangs there till he's rescued.

Your bow's limbs do the same thing with B-50. As the arrow leaves the bow, they go a good ways past their normal brace position, then the string pulls them back. The elasticity of the string and limbs go to work to expend the excess energy the arrow left behind.

You've got at least a three phase recoil at the shot. Phase 1) Limbs and arrow start forward, pushing the handle into the hand. Phase 2) Limbs go beyond brace, pulling the handle forward, away from the hand. Phase 3) String pulls limbs back into brace position, pushing handle back into the hand.

And the limbs and string can repeat phases 2 and 3 multiple times before finally expending all the excess energy and coming to rest! (Vibration!)

The low stretch FF, Dyna, 450 strings don't entirely eliminate that kind of recoil, but it's cut w-a-y down.

Thanks for all the great info. But I still have one question, if FF develops less hand shock& and is quieter why is it harder on the bow, and how much more stress is placed on the limb tips?Sorry I guess thats two questions. Also now that I think of it I have one more ?. I constructed my tip overlays with whitetail antler over brown glass,is the antler material strong enough to take the extra force applied to the tips?

Another dumb question is FF the same as D-97?And can I use D-97 in place of FF?
Thanks Dan