Strings Another Story

Credits: Simon Needham

The determination of how many strands in a string is dependent on how the arrows are tuning in, how they are grouping and the poundage of the bow.

If the arrows are whippy you can increase the amount of strands, this slows the bow down making the arrows act stiffer, conversely if the arrows are stiff decreasing the amount of strands will make the arrow act whippier, so aiding in the tuning of the bow.

This is of course dependent on the poundage of the bow if you use too few strands the string material will be prone to stretching, I use a 16 strand fast flight, with 43 pounds on my fingers, personally I would not shoot fewer strands than this on my bow. On a 30 pound bow you could quite comfortably drop that to 12 strands. The more strands you use the more forgiving the bow but the slower it will shoot, and your sight marks will go down.

Bracing height, contrary to some beliefs this is very important, for me if my bracing height is low by as little as 1/8 of an inch I will go from shooting 590+ Portsmouth to about a 570 which is quite a difference. One method of obtaining the best bracing height is to make a string that is too long so you start with a very low bracing height, e.g. 1 inch below normal then shoot for groups at 20m, putting a few twists in every end, you will find that your groups will get better and better as you raise it then start spreading again then come in again. Usually there are two heights that your bow will shoot better at the lower one is more forgiving as a whole. Once you have determined the best height, make a new string which is more the correct length, and shoot that, at your bracing height .

Try making strings with more or less twists, with bigger or smaller end loops, with more or less strands. It will make a difference. Try different materials, ensuring they are suitable for your bow, personally I like S4 but that doesn’t mean it will suit you.

In the end it boils down to ‘What gives you the best groups.’