I am completely new to this but it seems if your able to do without it just fine why would you need it. I am interested in this question also.

 

It comes down to understanding the purpose of a stabilizer. It's really threefold. One is to help reduce vibration. The other is to add weight lower on the bow to help with balance. The third is that by placing weight farther out in front of the bow, it helps prevent with small hand movements creating larger pin movement. The best example here is to take a push broom, hold it loosely with the broom head close to you and the handle out. Now slightly move your hand. Notice how the handle moves a lot. Now, flip it around, so the broom head is out and the handle towards you. Do the same movement. The head will want to stay in the same place as the handle moves around.

 

Great point. Agree

 

“Necessary” is pretty much subjective.

People have been successfully bowhunting for tens of thousands of years with nothing more than 2 pieces of wood and a string. For “bowhunting”, everything else is an option.

 

“Necessary” is pretty much subjective.

People have been successfully bowhunting for tens of thousands of years with nothing more than 2 pieces of wood and a string. For “bowhunting”, everything else is an option.

I’m not referring to the old fashioned recurve bows; they don’t even have a spot for stabilizers. I’m talking about modern day compound bows

 

Only you can answer that question. You need to experiment and see what works for you.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

not at all "necessary". most of the short hunting stabs are too short to do any real stabilization anyways, they are more a convenient place to hang a little weight on the bow and they look "cool".....and you don't really need them to put some weight on your bow. think about it,....if you really need a stab, all you need is a light weight, straight tube, or rod with some weight on the end. instead,... look at all the fancy designs the manufacturers come up with to make that stab a desirable accessory. it is only desirable because it's design is attractive to your tastes it's function has become secondary at best..

 

I don't have one on my current bow (Realm X), and I'm more than happy with my results.

 

Not necessary, but once you shoot a stabilizer/side bar setup that is balanced you’ll understand. I shoot a 8/6 setup on my hunting bow, and a 26/9 on my 3D bow.

 

this ^^^

 

I personally find my front/rear helpful and therefor necessary to me. But nothing wrong with nothing either. My son shoots with just a limb saver dampener deal and does just fine. I don't know if unless your a competition person or shooting longer distances that its necessary. It really what you like.....don't sweat it if you don't want one.

 

Stabilizers improve accuracy, especially at longer distances. The idea is to #1 better balance the bow, as more often times than not they are top heavy because of sights, rest, etc. And #2 they dampen the effect of minute shifts in bow orientation that occur in the milliseconds after the arrow is released before it has fully left the bow. If you've ever shot at 20 yards and had arrows in a circle 2" off the x-ring, but none in the x-ring, you've experienced this phenomena.

In hunting, they add confidence in the shot and prevent arrows from flying too wildly. Things get tense in the seconds leading up to a shot, and most likely you've sat in a stand or blind for awhile without shooting the bow or warming up, and you're taking a fresh shot. Sometimes reduction of that small margin of error can save you an extended track job on a hunt.

I've hunted with and without with success.

 

In my over all experience stabilizers are great if used correctly, what I mean by this is if you are using it for balance or dampening to help take a little shock out of your bow. Some stabs out there like the Doinker abomb is great for taking shock out of your bow. While a slender Bstinger type is great for stabilizing the bow on the shot 10 inch or better. Back in the day we had stabilizers with a silika like sand that would move to dampen on the shot worked good until you were shooting in freezing temps. Anothwr option when younhave a larger tube stabilizer U can fill it with foam to help dampen the over all shot. I can shoot both ways with or with out it is always good to see if it improves your over all shot sequence and maybe tighten up your groups. One of my all time favorite stabilizers to put on a hunting bow was a Doinker Chubby it did not do anything but take out vibration from the bow it worked great for that but that was when I was brush hunting on the coast but when I started open country hunting shot distances are farther out a longer stabilizer sure helped out to Balance the bow. Good luck on finding what works for you.

 

I started shooting my bow with a stab because thats what I've always done because on my older bow it made a difference. On a whim one day I opted to test the new bow without and found that the bow actually felt better in my hand and if anything it slightly improved my groups. I went back and forth a few times testing with and without over the next week or so and I found consistently better results without the stab. It wasn't a huge improvement but it was an improvement so I've shot without it since then. I also don't mind the weight reduction.

If you're at all unsure just spend some time shooting with and without. Go with what feels the best and yields the best and most consistent results. You may find like me you shoot better without, you may find it makes no difference so you have to decide if it looks cool enough to justify the extra weight, you may also find you shoot better with it or that you want to start testing a longer stab. Just go with what works for you.

 

iam not a target archer, im using the largest stabilizer ive ever used. i find it helps for steading shots at longer ranges and reduces vibration, that being said "necessary" no. i have a friend, strictly bowhunter and he likes to spot and stalk, he's never had a stabilizer on his bow. one time i put a string set on for him and i put a vibration dampner on. he says 'oh thats nice' but the next time i saw him shooting it wasnt on his bow
anymore

 

i have a friend, strictly bowhunter and he likes to spot and stalk, he's never had a stabilizer on his bow. one time i put a string set on for him and i put a vibration dampner on. he says 'oh thats nice' but the next time i saw him shooting it wasnt on his bow
anymore

lol. well at least he was nice about it.

 

Thanks guys. Every one of your replies are greatly appreciated. It’s also helpful

 

I've had bows that held on target better with stabs.... My current hunting bow does not have a stab out front but has a 4oz stack on the back of the riser.

It really comes down to you the shooter. I will say that most bars less than 10" are more for vibration damping than actual stabilization. For the stabs to work, you have to get the weight away from the grip of the bow, a 6" stubby rubber thing is not gonna do much if anything at all.

 

I've had bows that held on target better with stabs.... My current hunting bow does not have a stab out front but has a 4oz stack on the back of the riser.

It really comes down to you the shooter. I will say that most bars less than 10" are more for vibration damping than actual stabilization. For the stabs to work, you have to get the weight away from the grip of the bow, a 6" stubby rubber thing is not gonna do much if anything at all.

thats right

 

I can hit a pie plate (well within the vitals) at 60 yards with no stabilizers, no problem. But I can hit a softball at the same distance WITH stabilizers. So I run em all the time. Pin float is 40% less for me with front and rear stabs compared to no stabs at all. Its all subjective. If you dont wanna run one, then dont. Who cares what anyone else says.

 

And like some other people said, a stabilizer less than 10" isnt doing much for stabilization left to right. Maybe helping with lowing the center of gravity (less top heavy /side to side movement). And I wasnt sold on a back bar until I ran one. Especially with my heavy ass Fast eddie XL...man the pin just sits there, and my level is centered as soon as I come to full draw. I love it

 

I’m going through the process of setting up next seasons hunting bow. I’ve shot the bow with and without a stabilizer. What I did notice was a difference with a small amount of weight on a 9” stabilizer. Small being a single 1 oz weight settled the bow down vs no stabilizer. Did it improve my groups at 20 - 30 yards, nope. It did give me more confidence by not seeing as much pin float with the minimal stabilizer weight. It was a pure mental advantage of having a bow that settled down faster over not having a stabilizer. I was shooting great either way but was staying on target longer with a stabilizer. Necessary, no. And advantage, yes. My goal is to find the absolute minimum necessary for the optimal outcome. I might try a 6” stabilizer next.

 

My short front stab serves for balance taking the top heavy feel
off the bow for carrying, also as a device to hold the bow on my shoulder between the
stab and the sight, the backbar is a neat support when sitting holding the bow up cam
and backbar against my knee.

 

Nope. I don’t think I even tried a stabilizer the first 15 years I shot a bow. Put one on because it was laying around then tried some different setups and compared it to no stabilizer. No real difference for ME.
I use stabilizers on my target bow, but they’re long enough and have enough weight to make a difference. My pin doesn’t look like it even moves half the time with a non-magnified hunting set up. Stabilizers on a hunting bow would be the least important thing to me. I guess maybe a nose button would rank lower.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Depends if you want to be as accurate as possible...there's a good reason all target archers use them.

 

I'm still pretty new at this, but over the last year I've fooled around with the following stabilizer setups on my Vertix:

6" single
8" single
10" single
12" single
10" front/8" back

For shooting targets, I'd take the front/back setup every day. For hunting, I settled on the 12" solo front, mainly because the back bar always seemed to get in my way, and the 12" is very close to the front/back setup in terms of precision for me.

I'm not sure how much of my shooting improvement with these setups is necessarily due to the placement of the stabilizers, or just the additional weight. Can't disambiguate my data due to the fact that all I have is data with stabilizers, but it feels to me like I shoot the bow better the heavier the bow is, at least within reason. The Vertix is a heavy bow to begin with, but adding weight to it just seems to settle me down at full draw.

 

Necessary? No
Beneficial? Absolutely

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

 

I have to agree with johnno, ever watch the vegas shoot? Ever see a target or 3D shooter without one? Nope me neither. I run a 12" up front that is actually more like 15" by the time you add the quick release and the doinker rubber foot up front.

Good luck,

 

Even though I understand that for a TARGET bow, you do NEED a stabilizer; however, i was only referring to HUNTING bows. so the quick and simple answer to my question is; no, a stabilizer is NOT necessary (as long as you are hitting your target).

Thanks for all the replies

 

Even though I understand that for a TARGET bow, you do NEED a stabilizer; however, i was only referring to HUNTING bows. so the quick and simple answer to my question is; no, a stabilizer is NOT necessary (as long as you are hitting your target).

Thanks for all the replies

I took both my target and hunting bows to the range yesterday. The target rig has a 33” front bar and a 15” rear bar with something like 5oz on front and 10 on the back. I usually hunt with a 10” front bar with only 1 oz, that is to keep my sight out of the dirt, it does nothing at all for stabilization. I have a side bar with like 6-7 oz that offsets the quiver.

I didn’t have the quiver yesterday so I took off the side rod. I was testing the change in pin gaps after going up to 75lb. Anyway, I could shoot very accurately at 80 yards with no stabilizers. It’s just harder to do. The sight picture moves a little more and a lot faster. There’s also nothing resisting your movement so your execution needs to be flawless. With the quiver and side rod on there is a lot more mass weight so the sight picture is slower then.

I can shoot a well stabilized rig a bit more accurately and a lot more easily at very long distances than one without stabilizers. If you’re hyped up from an animal, stabs and mass weight help. If you need to go as lightweight as possible, stabs aren’t necessary but they do help with some meaningful things when hunting.

D

 

It depends on the bow and balance. I don’t like stabs if I can get away with not using them..

I’m shooting a Mach 1 and it has good natural balance, so no stab for me. Some bows need them.

you will never get a perfect balance without stabilizers, but if I can shoot well without (acceptable groups way further than I’ll shoot at a critter, then I’m not packing the weight)