bow stringsShould you replace the string that comes on your deer-hunting bow with a custom string and cables that cost you another $75 or so?  I rarely do, but there could be benefits. Here are three from the 60x Custom Strings website.

–A custom string is pre-stretched under several hundred pounds of tension. This eliminates peep rotation and creep on your bowstring. If you’ve ever gotten a new bow and had it all setup and shooting great but then one day your peep was crooked in your string or your cams were out of time, then you know what we’re talking about. Most new bows require several hundred shots before the bowstring is fully settled, but a good custom string will be settled in less than 10 shots.

–Another benefit of a custom string is an increase in stability and consistency. With all the stretch eliminated from the string you will not have to keep retiming your bow or making adjustments. Oftentimes we see questions on Internet forums about a 70-pound bow that is now only drawing 64 pounds or so…it always leads back to a stretched-out string and cables that have gotten the bow out of spec.

–While there is no guarantee of a performance gain, it is not uncommon for your bow to gain a few feet per second with a good set of custom bowstrings. The most gain we have personally seen was 13 fps, with 2 to 5 fps being pretty normal.

My take: While #3 would be nice, #s 1 and 2 would benefit deer hunters much more.