From: shawn@ut-emx.uucp (Shawn Boyd)
Newsgroups: alt.archery
Subject: Re: How to quiet an Oneida Bow
Keywords: Oneida Bows
Date: 28 Sep 92 19:27:39 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas

In article <1992Sep23.123304.919@fccc.edu> reber@ceres.fccc.edu (John Reber) writes:
>
>I recently purchased an Oneida Aero-Force and after a few tedious days of 
>tuning it finally shoots straight. I love the feel of this bow, but it's the 
>noisiest bow i've ever heard. It makes a very distinctive cracking sound. 
>Last weekend everyone at our camp was making fun of the .22 i was shooting. 
>Does anyone have any suggestions on quiting this bow.

 Yep, following in the fine tradition of Oneida bows, you have quite a nice 
 little noise maker there.  I too own and Aero-Force, and let me just say 
 than the ribbing you're taking is going to settle down a lot when you get 
 used to your bow.  Unless those guys are just light years ahead of you in 
 their shooting skills, you'll very quickly reduce their laughter to silence
 when you start shooting the pants off them when you get used to your bow.

 By the way, your bow may not be fully tuned yet.  Most Oneida owners have to
 spend weeks gettting fully tuned up.  Have you paper tuned yet?  If not you
 can't be sure your arrows are spined right for your bow.  With an Oneida I 
 would truly recommend a rest with a fork style launcher and very stiff 
 arrow fletched/nocked cock vane down.  The weight of the arrow is definately
 a factor in how quiet these bows shoot.  The heavier and stiffer, the quieter
 the bow will perform.

 Of course, you can muff the string where the endstring serving loops meet 
 the outboard limbs.  With an Oneida, you definately are getting a clap 
 there, especially if your arrows are light weight or underspined for your 
 draw weight.  Cat whiskers help too.  I use four sets, two above and two
 below the center string server about two thirds of the way out.  Please note,
 if you muff the limbs or the limb area of the string near the limbs, make 
 sure that you keep a careful eye out for any signs of mis-seating in the 
 limb nock grooves where the string both where the string loop seats in the 
 nock during rest, and where it might be thwacking the outboard limb at 
 completion of launch.  Any sign of thwacking off of center, outside the limb
 nock grooves, should result in immediate disinstallation of any muff in the 
 area, and a replacement installation with an eay toward getting rid of that 
 off center launch.  A friend muffed the nock grooves on his Screaming Eagle 
 (older Oneida) and twisted the outboard limbs.  Very bad.  Very sad.  This 
 could also be bad for your timing wheels and VE cams' assemblies, especially 
 the insert modules.

 I'll tune to a 78-80 pound draw (I'm still not settled in completely yet) and 
 I shoot a nice big heavy arrow (30" 2512 with 125 gr. to 145 gr. broadheads).
 They're stiff enough to eliminate paradox to the extent that my TM Hunter 
 forks work well with the setup.  When I shoot lighter arrows I definately 
 get that snapping sound you complain of -- it's really more of a clack or a
 thwacking noise.  Although a stabilizer does help this bow as much as my 
 other compounds (I'm getting less torque with this bow) it does help some, and
 it lowers the frequency of the clack (when I get it with lighter arrows) from
 that snappy sounding high pitched thwacka(!) to a kind of ploowawhk.  Still 
 noisey, but better, so that helps too.

 Now this shouldn't be happening, but in case it is be sure to check the little
 rubber pad under the saddle that holds the yoke cable (that's the cable that 
 runs from the cam pylon on the riser around and past the power limb to the 
 outboard limb).  Note that the saddle is mounted to the outboard limb with a 
 square metal mounting on the inside of the outboard limb (sorry, can't draw
 pictures for you without assuming a bitmapped screen on your side).  That 
 little square of metal has four little "pimples" in it, one more or less in
 each corner.  Note the pattern and now look just opposite of the metal plate
 holding the saddly on and you should see a small, square bumber on the power
 limb there to keep the outboard limbs from recoiling into the power limb.
 There are two of these, one for each limb set.  If they are missing or torn
 up, they need to be replaced.  Since your bow is new, missing would mean the
 factory probably didn't install them.  Badly torn or one radically torn 
 differently than the other indicates an arrow that's too light for your draw 
 weight on this bow or an improperly tillered bow.  This will also cause 
 noise, and will also have a very pronounced and deleterious effect on the 
 life expectancy of your limbs. 

 The hinges where the limbs meet right there at the clevis might also be 
 thwacking if your arrows are too light.   I don't know how to silence this
 without checking first with the engineers at Oneida Labs.  I really hesitate
 to put any muff in there with out checking with them first.  I guess you 
 could call them at (315)474-1876, but I guess you already have that number.
 Personally, I'd try the catwhiskers and the arrow spine and weight change 
 first (unless, of course, you're into light arrows/overdraws/etc... and feel
 you can't sacrifice speed).  My bow is actually shooting my 2512's quietly,
 so I don't have to worry about muff or whiskers at this point.  You can 
 check to see how bad your string-limb slap is with some white powder.  Have 
 a buddy spray it on the underside of the string onto the nock groove and 
 nock loop serving at both ends while you're at full draw.  Then release and
 mark the length of the slap, then do the same thing with a substantially 
 heavier arrow and see if the length changes.  Let us know what you find out.

 Shawn Boyd
 Austin, Texas
Newsgroups: alt.archery