HALO serving material . . .test.

tuskntine · Post by **tuskntine** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:10 pm

Thanks , gonna give it a try .

wabi · Post by **wabi** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:18 pm

Do you just cock the bow and shoot immediately for this test?
I've noticed definite flattening on my servings if I cock the bow and let it set for some time (as in hunting situations) before I shoot. Not sure if the flattening thins & weakens the serving or not?
I make my own strings, so I don't bother to keep track of how many shots I get, but it seems like the factory type serving does have a pretty short life.

sumner4991 · Post by **sumner4991** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:36 pm

wabi . . .yes, I shoot very shortly after I cock the bow. A lot of times I will speed shoot, therefore if I'm rushed for a shot while hunting, maybe I'll be ready and accurate. I couldn't get much more than 100 shots from the factory servings. The BCY gives me an average of 240 shots with the max of 267 shots. This HALO should surpass that number easily. However, the cocking motion needs to be smooth and straight back. Try to stay inline with the railing. If you get too high and away from the railing then you end up off the rail and into the bolt hold down spring or worse. However, if you pull hard down and against your body then you are also pulling the string hard against the rail. This motion will cause excess serving damage. I learned this lesson the hard way . . .I noticed my servings breaking at the contact point at the edge of the rail. I have no other explaination. Of course, I've only been keeping track for less than a year. More data is needed.

wabi · Post by **wabi** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:57 pm

I guess what I'm trying to say is that most of the wear I seem to notice is the flat spots from being hooked in the claws under tension with my serving. I don't shoot a great amount of targets, but come hunting season the bow is cocked for a few hours about every evening.
The pictures you have posted look to me like most of the wear you're experiencing is from the friction of contact with the rail?

sumner4991 · Post by **sumner4991** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:27 pm

wabi . . .I think you are right. It will be interesting to see where it breaks. However, looking at it here . . .the deeper cuts seem to be at the claws.

It would be very time consuming to leave the bow cocked for a few minutes between shots. However, the results would be interesting. Maybe if I had more than one bow . . .

sumner4991 · Post by **sumner4991** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 2:55 pm

It's a record breaker! The HALO serving has made it to 300 shots. It's looking worn, but, the bolts are still shooting dead on target. Here are a couple of pictures.

Here is the serving at 280 shots . . .

Here is the second picture at 300 shots . . .

I've got a busy weekend planned . . .I may not get to shoot again until Monday. The Halo material has certainly lasted longer than any other I have used. Still a 50/50 chance of breaking along the railing area of the serving vs. the trigger claw area of the serving. There is more visable wear along the railing, but, deeper wear at the trigger area.

sumner4991 · Post by **sumner4991** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 10:02 am

I shot another 21 times this a.m., no real change in the shooting or the appearance of the HALO serving. That puts me at 321 shots. Way more than I had expected and I'm surprised the accuracy has not suffered.

I've had a couple of pm's about the turning of the string. Every 20-30 shots I wax the serving and/or adjust the brace height. On every brace height adjustment I take the left loop off the limb and twist it 1/2 a turn clockwise, then I twist the right side loop clock-wise until the brace height is exact. This moves the stressed areas of the serving away from the rail and the trigger hooks where most of the damage occurs. It's not a perfect turn each time, but, it definitely helps.

When the string was new, I was turning the string 2.5 to 3.5 twists on the right side to get the brace height back(I substracted the 1/2 turn on the left). At 215 shots, this number dropped off to 1 twist. At 300 shots, it only takes 1/2 twist to adjust the brace height. This string is fully settled and I expect a lot of great shooting from this string. Normally, I only shoot 20-30 shots per day. So, part of the twisting was incurred as a result of the bow sitting overnight. My goal is to have 3 strings fully settled and ready for hunting season.

Sean McKenty · Post by **Sean McKenty** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:55 am

If your impressed with that you will astounded by my results with Brownell Crown serving,I have over 1100 shots with the same serving and still going, the bow is a Horton HD175 bolts are GTL2 at 400grs at 305fps. I will post the picks as soon as I get the camera back.

I used the stock string (Dacron) for about 100 shots, saw the wear and reserved the same string with crown#26. I used it for the National 3-D champs a few weeks ago and still going. Halo is the closest material BCY has but based on the pic posted after only a few hundred shots the crown serving is far ahead.

sumner4991 · Post by **sumner4991** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:13 am

Sean . . .I would be impressed with those results on my Exomax 225#. I hadn't had a serving to last much longer than 250 shots until I tried this HALO material.

Where do you buy the crown #26?

Thanks for the information.

Sean McKenty · Post by **Sean McKenty** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:28 am

Anyplace that sell archery target gear should have or be able to get it, Lancaster will definatly have it. It is really slick stuff so you will need to serve with an over lap to lock to top end to the bottom end. I am going to run a dry test to see how long it will last that way as well.

My string hasn't been turned at all, I did turn it on some excals I used to own to gain some more life too

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:22 am

Shawn, the only problem with Crown is that it is not made in a thickness of .030" or greater, .026 is as thick as it gets but yes it is durable . I've tried Crown but you end up with a thinner serving section. I made a string for Matthias but I had to pad the string too much to end up with a desirable thickness. Serving over padding is a pain in the butt. I tried serving over serving but it didn't look very nice and the serving didn't seem as dense as a single serving. The purpose of that exercise was to improve long range TARGET accuracy and at the same time lower string mass.
Scott, I've got some different serving material coming in two weeks. Will you have time to lay a beating on it?

sumner4991 · Post by **sumner4991** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:29 am

Don . . .I'll make time to shoot. Actually, the mortgage business is very slow. I have a lot of time for shooting.

Shawn . . .a lot of the issue with the Exomax's serving wear comes from the 225#s sitting on the trigger claws, and the 16.5" powerstroke. The serving takes a beating from the claws and has a longer distance to travel up and down the rail. The Exomax is mean to the servings. Our theory is . . .the serving that lasts longest on the Exomax, will last longer on the rest of the bows out there too. Anyway, your bow should get more shots per serving than the Exomax. 1100 is a great number. Have you been logging all your shots?

Sean McKenty · Post by **Sean McKenty** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:43 pm

The serving thread was at .030 on the stock string,I just replaced it with .026 crown with no string size issues at all so I never saw it as any sort of problem. The trigger gate design will play a roll but that is a platform issue,alittle polishing and angling will fix that.

I started logging my shots the day I got the bow, when I decided to go to the National 3-D's I started shooting a few 3-D but also did several Fita's as well (90-70-50-30m) 144 arrows each day till the Friday I left,along with testing several bolt combinations(300g-1100gr) it didn't take long to get the shot count up there.

I have a Legacy 225 comming as well and will for sure be testing it out on that one.

sumner4991 · Post by **sumner4991** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:48 pm

Well . . .up to 350 . . .taking a beating and hangs in there. Still too hot here for me to shoot a lot. Suppose to hit 100 degrees here again tomorrow . . .good news, I'm saving a lot of money on gas, grill the burgers and don't even have to light the burners!

Also, this isn't a dry heat . . .ten minutes and the sweat is pouring down, that's how I keep my yard looking nice and green, I'm the human sprinkler.

Here's a photo of the HALO after the 350 shots . . .

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:59 pm

Scott, your patience and determination astounds me. I just do not have the patience that you have to test these kind of things. The information that is brought to light by your efforts furthers this sport!