Ozbow

G'day guys, I'm about to get another string for my Bear Montana, I understand I need a Flemish twist string, but what does B50, B55 , D97 Dacron etc mean? The D97 was listed for use with high performance bows only? And what's fast flight?

Help a newby understand all this thanks folks.

Cheers, Scott.

B50 is called Dacron, I personally make all my strings using it as I like the fact that I can get my bows to shoot with very little noise which I like for hunting. It doe's stretch quite a bit, but stops stretching fairly quickly.

D97 is called Fast flight and has very little stretch and for me a lot more noise when shooting and as the name says it shoots faster , about ten feet per second compared to a Dacron string.
Matt

Thanks Matt, as I understand you can't use fastflight on a lot of traditional bows.

I've ordered a B55 Flemish string at 61" for my 64" Montana, it currently has a 60" string on it which is giving it quiet a lot of brace height. I've notice my 64" Toelke has lower brace height and shoots smoother, and has a 61" string so I'm going do the same to the Montana to lower the brace height and see if I can get it shooting a bit nicer.

I'm told I'm on the start of a slippery slope that is called "Bow Tuning"..

Cheers, Scott.

Its mainly the older bows that you should not use fast flight on like the old Bears with thin wide limbs and I
personally know guys who have tried it and blown up their bow.
Contact your bows manufacturer to see if your bow is fast flight compatible.
Matt

Thanks little john!

Cheers, Scott.

Obe had a Bear Montana in 45lb made up an 12 string D 97 STRING FOR IT. Padded the end loops with an extra five to make it a little more quiet shot like a rocket for a low poundage bow. Still check your brace height for the first few weeks until the string settles, even the D97 stretches a little. You must first find your sweet spot brace height with the arrows you are using then right it down. Then on the odd occasion check it against what you have written down. You may have to change the brace height if you youse different arrows and weights as well/ Welcome to tunning your bow.

Cheers Wayno

Hi mate I checked with Bear as to what to use on Grizzly's and Montana's and was advised to use Dacron.
I use it on all my bows except one where the manufacturer nsaid use FFLYTE.
Many bowyers on this site will make strings for you out of Dacron at very reasonable prices.
Cheers
Ian

To my mind Bear have gone cheap with their Grizzly recurve.

The latest one I saw had only one core lamination which was glued to the belly of the riser and little in the way of a tip overlay.

Note the number of their bows that can use D97.
I run D97 type material [pre stressed Flemish twist strings] on all the bows I make and sell, selfbows, longbows and recurves and have never had a problem.

Daryl.

greybeard wrote:To my mind Bear have gone cheap with their Grizzly recurve.

The ones I've seen don't even have the string grooves in the recurve section of the limbs either, though I can't say what effect, if any, this would have.

I don't know how true this is, but I heard of a stretch test done on Dacron B50 and Fastflight many years ago.

Heavy weights were hung from both these materials for many months.

It was found that Dacron stretched a lot to start with, then settled, then stopped stretching altogether.

Fast Flight didn't stretch much initially, settled quick, but was found to continually stretch, all be it only fractionally.

littlejohn59 wrote:D97 and fast flight should only be used on bows with reinforced limb tips.

Agreed.

Thanks for the info guys, I ended up ordering a B55 Dacron string from Swift Bowstrings. Arrived yesterday. Shot the bow today and it's a noticeable improvement over the original string (which was an inch too short). I'll measure it later just as a reference, then I'll start experimenting. Shots pretty damn good as is though!

Cheers, Scott.