D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

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Obe-Wan
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D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#1 Post by Obe-Wan » Fri Jun 05, 2015 7:45 pm

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.

matt61
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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#2 Post by matt61 » Sat Jun 06, 2015 8:18 am

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

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Obe-Wan
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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#3 Post by Obe-Wan » Sat Jun 06, 2015 10:14 am

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.

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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#4 Post by matt61 » Sat Jun 06, 2015 6:09 pm

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. :surprised:
Contact your bows manufacturer to see if your bow is fast flight compatible.
Matt

littlejohn59

Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#5 Post by littlejohn59 » Sun Jun 07, 2015 9:28 am

Hey Scott
The main designs in making a bow string are an endless loop or a Flemish twist. There are pro’s and con’s for both.

B50 and D97 are just different types of strings used to make bow strings.

B50 is a waxed polyester bowstring made by the company Brownell. It is also known as Dacron. It has been used for bow strings for many years. More so for bows pre 1995 and self bows.

It is a quieter string than D97 but its drawback is that it stretches a lot and takes a while to settle in.

D97 and fastflight are HMPE (high modulus polyethylene) materials. This product was originally developed by DSM in Europe and licensed to Allied Chemicals for production in the United States. BCY introduced Dyneema® to the archery market in 1995 with its DynaFLIGHT bowstring material which was made from SK65 Dynema. So basically they are the same but made by different companies
D97 and fast flight should only be used on bows with reinforced limb tips. This string has less stretch, settles in faster than B50 and will give the arrows a faster speed.

Always use the bow manufacturers string recommendations.
IMO

I hope that helps a little.



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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#6 Post by Obe-Wan » Sun Jun 07, 2015 6:06 pm

Thanks little john! :wink:

Cheers, Scott.

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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#7 Post by UPTHETOP » Thu Jun 11, 2015 7:10 pm

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
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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#8 Post by Ian Turner » Fri Jun 12, 2015 11:00 am

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

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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#9 Post by greybeard » Fri Jun 12, 2015 12:39 pm

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.
Bear Specifications.jpg
Bear Specifications.jpg (114.07 KiB) Viewed 7644 times
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.

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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#10 Post by Kendaric » Fri Jun 12, 2015 2:10 pm

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.

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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#11 Post by Kendaric » Fri Jun 12, 2015 2:19 pm

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.

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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#12 Post by Kendaric » Fri Jun 12, 2015 2:22 pm

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

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Re: D97, B50, B55. What's it all mean?

#13 Post by Obe-Wan » Fri Jun 12, 2015 4:40 pm

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.

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