What are the advantages of an archery stabiliser?

Question

I have recently taken up archery. I notice a lot of people have stabilisers on their bows. I asked a few people why and they say it reduces vibration. I can't notice any vibration.

Can anyone give me a technical reason for these things.

Answer 1

Those people are correct, they also help reduce noise.

Answer 2

I have been in Archery for several years but I must admit I cannot give too technical of an answer.

The vibration that a stabilizer controls happens in hundredths of a second. I have seen slow motion photography of arrows as they leave the bow, and they shake tremendously once the string is released.

The differences between a stabilized and a non-stabilized bow are pretty dramatic.

Answer 3

A stabilizer is not only a vibration damper.  The main reason for a stabilizer is to act as a torque rod.  It places weights far away from the bow's center, that reduces torque and yaw from the archer's hand upon release.  You see, an olympic style archer usually open their bow palm, they don't actually grip the bow.  They let the bow jump out of their hands and be caught in their sling.  This reduces torquing, but if you twitch or your hand pressure is off by a few ounce, you can still send that bow twisting left to right by a tiny amount.  These tiny amounts of twisting is enough to send an arrow into the red at 70m.  The increased inertia of the bow from the stabilizer helps counter this twisting.

A second reason for stabilizer is more apparent.  Have you ever noticed camera crews?  When TV cameramen has to run around with their cameras, look at the bottom of their rig, and you'll notice the camera is attached to a rod with weights at the bottom.  This makes the motion of the camera less jerky.  The same thing applies to bows.  With a stabilizer on it, when you're at full draw, your movements will be much smoother.  

The third reason for it, is to swing the bow.  Because we hold our palms open, the bow will jump out of our hands.  You don't want the bow to jump forward and then fall down vertically, this is not comfortable, the bow can slip through the sling and fall off.  Eventually the archer will develop a habit of anticipating or punching the release.  You want the bow to swing down as it hits the sling.

The fourth reason for a stabilizer is, like others said, to dampen vibration and reduce noise.  But if your bow is noisy, there's usually something else wrong with it, like the brace height, and a stabilizer will just mask the problem.