I have three Browning bows, a Midas,82# with 2419's, Mirage,73# with 2419's and Maxim Hunter, 73# with 2317's. The Mirage is faster and uses a heavier arrow. I use fingers with the Midas and a release with the other two. I can use much more poundage with a given arrow shooting fingers.
My first deer was with the Maxim, shot in the morning when the woods was noisy. Wind, squirrels and crows. No problem.
In the evening when it got real calm and quiet, I could not hit a deer with it. They turned inside out at the shot. I stuck all of those new rubber dampers on the bow and special string silencers and stabilizer. It has always had this problem and I have spent years on it plus money.
I had to take the Mirage for my second deer and she didn't move until the arrow was through her and stuck in the ground. Half the arrow was still in her chest though and she broke it in half. She crashed in 30 yd's.
I had a friend stand by the bows in my basement with his eyes closed to listen. He said the Maxim sounds a little higher then the other two.
How do you pick a bow off the shelf today and know it won't scare deer?
If I only had the one bow I would have to hunt next to a construction site or a chainsaw.

that is a quite a prob. there must be a way to test the noise level- maby it has a really high piched noise that we cant hear but they can

I know for a fact that high frequencies scare deer but I get in trouble here for saying that. Even the maker of all of those rubber vibration dampers tell me I am wrong and it is just any noise that scares them.
I bought a recorder today and downloaded a program to see the freqs. I am going to try and test each bow.
I wish I had a freq generator and a remote speaker so I could find out at what freq a deer starts to unwind.
The question still remains as to what you do when buying a new bow and at the prices they ask today, what do you do if it makes the wrong noise? They have no value when they leave the store and they won't take them back.
I refuse to aim at the ground under a deer because it is going down at the shot. What if it doesn't? That is the solution I read here, aim low!
I have almost 230 bow kills and there were only several bows that gave me trouble. The new bows are high strung and fast, they MUST make noise that we can't hear. Some might not but how do you pick the right bow? Just sounding quiet to a human doesn't work.

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Originally posted by bfrshooter:
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The question still remains as to what you do when buying a new bow and at the prices they ask today, what do you do if it makes the wrong noise? They have no value when they leave the store and they won't take them back......

Never buy a bow before you shoot it. I have walked out of shops that do not offer a test shoot; whether it is lack of a shooting lane or just bad salesmanship.

As far as returns, Cabella's, Bass Pro Shops, and other large retailers do allow returns within 30 days. I have also found that the customer service in those stores usually exceeds the service found in the mom & pop shops. Being a small business owner myself, I find that to be very disappointing.

You don't understand! The sound that effects deer the most can't be heard by the human ear. It does no good to shoot it at a target. My bows have always been quieter than everyone elses and one will be impossible to hit a deer with and another will not even make them turn their head.
A bow that is very loud might not make a deer move.
I killed four deer with a crossbow in Ohio that sounded like dropping a piano 40 feet. None moved an inch.
I shoot deer every year with the .44 mag, .475 Linebaugh and 45-70 revolvers. If the one I hit doesn't run, none of the rest do. I have had to shoo the deer away after my shot. I dropped one one time and the rest laid down like it did. Yet a bow at the wrong frequency will make a whole herd bolt like Thor struck.