Gear Check: Is Your String Ready for the Woods?

Brace height, serving, Fast Flight versus B55, and why every bowhunter needs a shot-in backup in the pack.

You put the time in. You shot all summer, through the humid evenings and the mosquito hatches, and your bow feels like part of your arm now. Your arrows fly where you look. Your broadheads are spun and sharpened. You're ready.

Or you think you are. There's one piece of gear that's been doing all the work all summer and gets the least attention, and that's the string.

Your string has been stretching all summer

Every arrow you shoot puts load on that string, and over hundreds of shots it gives a little. Not much, but enough. That shows up as a lower brace height, and a change in brace height changes how your bow behaves.

Drop below where your bow likes to sit and you'll usually hear it first. The shot gets louder, with more twang and more slap. Your arrows may start flying a little differently than they did in July, and you might pick up string slap on your arm guard that you never had before. None of that is what you want with a deer at twelve yards.

So before you head out, grab a bow square and measure. Your bow's maker will have a recommended range, and you probably found the sweet spot during summer tuning. If it's dropped, the beauty of a Flemish twist string is that you can unbrace the bow, add a few twists to shorten it, and bring your brace height right back up. Write your number down somewhere you'll find it again.

Check your serving

While you've got the bow in your hands, look hard at the center serving. You're looking for separation, gaps, fraying, or a spot worn shiny and thin under your fingers. Check that your nock point hasn't crept, too. A serving that unravels in the field is a hunt-ender. And while you're at it, run a little string wax down the strands. It keeps moisture out and fibers together, and it takes thirty seconds.

Fast Flight or not Fast Flight

There are two families of bowstring material out there for traditional bows.

Fast Flight-type material, which for us at Lost Nation is DF97, has very little stretch. Less stretch means more of the bow's energy goes into the arrow, and you'll gain a few feet per second. The catch is that the low stretch also sends more shock into the limb tips. Bows made to handle it have reinforced tips. Older bows weren't built for it, and putting Fast Flight on one is a good way to crack a tip. If you aren't sure what your bow can take, check with the maker or give us a call before you string it.

Non-Fast Flight material, which for us is B55, has a little more give. It's safe on any bow, old or new.

Here's where I land. I shoot B55 even on bows rated for Fast Flight. To me, it's a smoother, quieter shot. That small amount of stretch soaks up some of the noise and hand shock at the release. Yes, I give up a few feet per second. In a treestand, with a whitetail that's already wired tight, quiet matters more to me than speed, and I'll make that trade every time.

Silence it

Whatever string you shoot, a pair of silencers takes the edge off the sound. A traditional bow is a quiet tool to begin with, but in the dead calm of an October morning, any twang carries. Silencers dampen the vibration in the string right after the shot so the bow goes thump instead of twang.

There's no wrong answer here, just preference. Beaver and otter fur are the old standbys and look right on a wood bow. Cat whiskers shrug off rain and snow. Wool puffs are light and quiet. Most folks set them roughly a quarter of the way in from each limb tip, then shoot and move them an inch or so until the bow sounds right to you.

Carry a backup. Seriously.

Every season my phone rings with the same story. Somebody's string broke, or a loop frayed, or the dog chewed it, and they need one right now because they're hunting this weekend. I'll always do what I can, but nobody wants their season riding on shipping times.

A backup string is about twenty bucks. Get one in the same material and length as your hunting string. Then, and this part matters, put it on your bow and shoot it in. Let it settle, set your nock point, twist it to the right brace height, and add your silencers. Then take it off and keep it in your pack or truck. If your main string goes, you swap it in a few minutes and keep hunting with a string you already know.

Get set for the season

To help everyone get squared away, all of our strings and string silencers are 20% off for the first part of the season. Every string we sell is handmade here in the shop, Flemish twisted with loops that fit most recurves and longbows, and available in one-inch increments. When you order, give us your actual string length, not your bow length. The easiest way is to measure the string you're shooting now.

Check your brace height. Check your serving. Pick up a backup. Then go sit in the woods and enjoy it, knowing you've got it covered.

See you out there,
Blake