Mountain Man Beaver Ball String Silencers

Lightweight, long-lasting and reasonably priced are just a few of the reasons to use Beaver Balls string silencers by Mountain Man Furs.

Beaver Balls are the original string silencers and still can't be beaten for their ability to quieten your bowstring.

A must for the traditional shooter.

The Beaver Ball will outlast all rubber style silencers and will quieten the twang which is emitted from a bowstring, after the shot.

They hold up very well under all kinds of weather and are naturally waterproof so they don't need to be treated with chemicals.

Works as well, if not better than most other silencers out there.

Made from premium tanned beaver fur or hide, an all natural material, so Beaver Balls are environmentally green. They do a fantastic job of reducing the sound of your bowstring by between 50% to 75% more than other string silencers on the market.

They are extremely popular with traditional archers but today's modern compound bowhunters are also discovering just how great they perform on their bows. In fact Beaver Balls will work well on all types of bows.

Natural brown colour. Comes in a pack of two beaver balls.

• Works better than most other silencers
• Quietens twang emitted after the shot
• Eliminates string vibration & super quiet
• Made from premium northern beaver tanned hide
• Strong, quiet, lightweight, durable & long-lasting
• Reduces sound by 50% to 75%
• Extremely lightweight
• Naturally water repellent, retains very little moisture
• Resists matting due to rain
• Reasonably priced & will outlast rubber silencers
• Suits compounds, longbows & recurves
• A must for traditionalists
• Easy installation instructions included
• Natural brown colour
• One pair per pack
• The original string silencers

Get a pack of Mountain Man Furs Beaver Ball string silencers today and your bow will be quieter.

From May through the end of September, Mike Nowak works a regular job like a normal man. But when the 1st October rolls around, Nowak turns into a mountain man. "I roll back the clock 100 years," he says. A cement finisher/bricklayer by trade, Nowak turns into a full-time hunting guide and trapper seven months of the year. And though he guides hunters for deer, bears and geese, he specialises in trapping beavers. "There's plenty of them, they're a nuisance and I make the most of them." he says.

Mountain Man Mike, as he's known throughout Dickinson County and the rest of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, USA, is the owner and operator of Mountain Man Furs. He makes hats, gloves, coats and decorative wall hangings out of beaver pelts. The wall hangings, stretched pelts lashed to wooden hoop frames with buckskin laces, are his favourites. "That's the way they stretched beavers 100 years ago." says Nowak. "Mountain men carried their hoops with them on their horses. That's why I started making these hoops to preserve the heritage of the mountain man." As with any other objet d'art, a Nowak hoop is numbered and signed. Prices range from $70 for a plain hoop to substantially more for items that are jazzed up with feathers, beaver bones or even limited edition art prints centred within the pelts.

Most outdoorsmen find Nowak's clothing especially appealing. The hats, gloves and coats are appreciated by the late season bowhunters, trappers and dog sledders who brave the Upper Peninsula winters. And his beaver fur string silencers, called Beaver Balls, are all the rage with Upper Peninsula bowhunters. (From Field & Stream Magazine of January 1994.)

The North American Beaver (Castor Canadensis) is native to North America and the Eurasian Beaver (Castor fibre) is native to mainland Europe, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. The Canadian beaver's range is all of North America except for the extreme northern regions of Canada and the deserts of the southwest United States, Florida and Mexico. Between 1853 and 1877, the Hudson Bay Company harvested over 3 million beaver for sale in England. Pelts were so valuable that they significantly contributed towards the westward settlement and development of North America and Canada. In the 1930's, over-trapping almost led to the North American beaver's extinction. However, since then, laws have been enacted to protect them from over-exploitation which means natural reproduction and human reintroduction have now re-established the North American beaver over most of the continent, to the point where they have become an agricultural pest in some regions, a sure sign of success. Around the end of the 19th century, overhunting reduced Eurasian beaver populations to approximately 1,200 animals. However, thanks to protection, natural spread and reintroduction during the 20th century, their population has risen to an estimated 593,000 animals in 2002.

Beavers are found in streams and lakes in both remote and settled areas and live in family groups. Beavers are almost entirely aquatic, but can go on land to cut down trees for their dams. The entrances to their lodges are sub-surfaced for protection from predators, resulting in their predators not attempting to dig through the thick walls of the lodge. The beaver's lodge is between 8 to 12 feet (ft) or 2.43 to 3.66 metres (mtrs) in diameter, around 3 ft or 0.91 mtrs in height and can be found as large as 16 ft by 6.5 ft or 4.88 mtrs by 1.98 mtrs high.

An adult can grow to 22 to 27 inches (ins) or 56 to 68 centimetres (cms) long, their tail 12 to 16 ins long or 30 to 41 cms and their weight can be 30 lbs to 68 lbs or 13.6 kg to 31 kg. The Canadian beaver is the largest rodent in North America and are relatively short and fat with webbed feet to help them swim. It can start breeding at 3 years and the mating months are January to February and gestation takes 105 days. A beaver is also able to have up to 8 young beavers (known as kits). When they reach maturity, the beaver's chewing force is 176 lbs or 80 kg compared to a man's 88 lbs or 40 kg.

Their body is a sleek shape to make diving and swimming away from predators graceful and easy. They have a special respiratory and cardiovascular system enabling large amounts of oxygen to be stored in their lungs, blood and muscles and allows them to dive to great depths and stay under water for up to 15 minutes. The beaver fur has two layers, long guard hairs and many soft under fur hairs. The tail acts as a rudder in the water and as a balancing prop on dry land. The tail can also be used to radiate excess heat from the body and it stores fat for when food is scarce.

The average height of a dam is about 6 ft or 1.8 mtrs tall, with an average depth of water behind the dam of 4 ft to 6 ft or 1.2 to 1.8 mtrs. The thickness of the dam is often around 5 ft or 1.5 mtrs or more. The length will depend on the stream width, but averages about 15 ft or 4.5 mtrs long. The longest beaver dam on record is 2,140 ft or 652.2 mtrs long, 14 ft or 4.3 mtrs high, 23 ft or 7 mtrs thick at the base, found in Three Forks, Montana, USA. It takes a beaver about 20 minutes to cut down a 6 ins or 15.2 cms wide aspen tree, by gnawing a groove around the trunk in an hour glass shape. Beavers are as sensible to the danger of a falling tree as a human lumberjack, as the tree begins to fall, the beaver will run! On land a beaver walks or runs with a waddling gait, between 6 and 8 mph or 9.7 and 12.9 kph. During winter, beavers do not hibernate, but stay active in their lodges, sealed off from the outside world by the frozen layer of winter ice on the river, which gives rise to the claim "busy as a beaver."