Fur string silencers — usually beaver, sometimes otter or rabbit — are the wet-weather answer to wool. The guard hairs shed water, the dense underfur damps vibration, and a properly installed set will outlast several sets of yarn puffs. If you hunt rain, snow, or river country with a recurve or longbow, fur is the better choice.
Why beaver
Beaver pelt has two layers: coarse guard hairs that repel water and a fine, dense underfur that traps air. That combination is what makes it the traditional pick. Otter behaves similarly. Rabbit is soft and quiet but fragile, and it mats within a season.
Buy pre-cut strips (typically 3 to 4 inches long and about a quarter inch wide, leather backing intact) or cut your own from a tanned hide with a sharp knife, cutting from the skin side so you slice leather and not hair.
Where they go
Same placement rule as wool: about one third of the string length down from each limb tip, roughly 8 to 10 inches from the nock groove on a 58 to 62 inch bow, one above and one below the center serving. Keep the pair symmetrical.
Step by step
- Unstring the bow and wax the string at both install points. Wax makes the strands grip the leather and keeps the silencer from creeping.
- Open the string. Twist slightly, then split the bundle in half with a pencil, marker, or a string separator.
- Tuck the first end. Push one end of the fur strip through the gap so about a half inch pokes out the other side, leather side against the string.
- Barber-pole it. Wrap the strip around the string in a tight spiral, keeping the leather flat against the strands and the hair pointing outward. Three to five wraps is normal.
- Tuck the tail. Split the string again at the end of the wrap and push the last half inch of leather through, exactly like the first end. That is what locks it — no glue and no knots needed.
- Fluff and check. Work the hair out with your fingers so the silencer looks like a fur ball, not a wrapped cigar. Tug it: it should not slide.
- Restring and shoot six to eight arrows. Retighten the tuck if either end works loose after the string settles.
For a side-by-side of installation plus a sound comparison before and after, this test is worth the four minutes.
How much fur
A pair of beaver silencers usually adds 25 to 50 grains to the string, similar to trimmed wool. More fur is quieter and slower. If your bow still buzzes after install, add width before you add length — a wider strip packs more damping mass in the same span of string.
Do not run fur all the way to the center serving. Silencers near the nocking point add mass where it costs the most speed and does the least damping.
Care
Fur's advantage shows up in the rain: shake the bow, squeeze the silencers once, and the guard hairs shed most of the water. After a wet hunt, let the string dry at room temperature — never near a heater, which cooks the leather backing brittle.
Replace when the leather cracks or the fur mats to felt. Two to four seasons is typical.
Fur vs. wool
- Fur (beaver/otter): best in wet and cold, most durable, slightly heavier, costs more.
- Wool: cheapest and easiest to tune by trimming, absorbs water. See our wool string silencer install guide.
- Rubber whiskers: maintenance-free, noisier in cold.
Bottom line
Tuck, barber-pole, tuck. No glue, no knots, ten minutes per bow. Beaver fur silencers placed a third of the way down from each tip are the most weather-proof way to quiet a traditional bow, and they hold their damping through the same storms that turn wool into a wet sponge.
If you are also chasing quiet on the shot cycle, check your brace height and confirm your arrow spine still matches after any string change.