# Tubes or Flatbands?



## Balls to the Wall (Jan 14, 2018)

I've used mostly latex tubing with some decent accuracy. I started thinking maybe flat thera-band could be a little more accurate due to the fact that tubing has some rigidity. This may or may not effect the travel of the ball from the point when the tube has returned to it's relaxed length until it travels over the top of the forks. What do some more experienced shooters think?


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## Abenso (Apr 28, 2017)

Flat bands for speed tubes for longevity and brute strength.

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## Cjw (Nov 1, 2012)

I shoot almost exclusively 20/40 looped tubes. Have for few years. Work great for me.

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## mattwalt (Jan 5, 2017)

Tubes for me.


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## Tag (Jun 11, 2014)

Tubes are my choice. I will say one thing, give them both equal time.


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## MIsling (Sep 7, 2017)

I mostly use flats, but am starting to use tubes as well. They are definitely a different feel, and a bit harder to pull than flats, but they last quite a bit longer.


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## BushpotChef (Oct 7, 2017)

Not to hijack the thread, could anyone give a suggestion as to appropriate strength hunting tubes and their setup? I'm looking to give tubes a go but I mostly hunt so any help is appreciated.

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## tastetickles (Jul 3, 2017)

If hunting go tubes imo because they are not as noisy.


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## Ibojoe (Mar 13, 2016)

For me it's flats for accuracy. They draw so easy and smooth.


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## Cjw (Nov 1, 2012)

Took me a few months to learn how to shoot tubes. Almost gave up but shot nothing but an SPS with 20/40 loops and finally figured them out. Love them now.

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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

BushpotChef said:


> Not to hijack the thread, could anyone give a suggestion as to appropriate strength hunting tubes and their setup? I'm looking to give tubes a go but I mostly hunt so any help is appreciated.
> 
> Sent from my SM-J320W8 using Tapatalk


I have a hunting set up on a natural ring shooter I made with pseudo tapered 1745 tubes and it works pretty good, and kills rabbits, possums, ***** with .375 LEAD pretty darn dead. The big doubles push .440 lead hard enough to bash through most any sane target. To keep this on point for the OP, I much prefer flat bands though. You are looking at my one and only remaining tube shooter, and most the time it wears them file bands for shooting, 0 and 00 buckshot in the house when SWMBO'd ain't home. My other 100+ frames all get flatbands. I just prefer the feel, accuracy, and performance with flats a BUNCH more. YMMV of course.


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## VAshooter (Feb 10, 2015)

You guys are making me feel bad. I started out with flat bands and have been using TBG for a couple years. I wanted to try them so I started using various tube sizes, some which came from A. E. Monkeynips as a gift. The ones he sent are fairly light for shooting BB's and I have been using them plus some heavier tubes I got from SimpleShot. I have noticed that the tubes are quieter but I guess because I've been shooting lighter tubes I don't notice a big difference between tubes and flats. I have read on this forum people write about the different feel between tubes and flats but they all feel good to me. They seem to shoot well and I have no trouble switching back and forth between the two. It's making me feel like I'm to rough or crude or possibly not sensitive enough to tell the difference. Am I a failure or just blissfully unaware of what I'm doing.


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## chuckduster01 (May 30, 2015)

VAshooter said:


> You guys are making me feel bad. I started out with flat bands and have been using TBG for a couple years. I wanted to try them so I started using various tube sizes, some which came from A. E. Monkeynips as a gift. The ones he sent are fairly light for shooting BB's and I have been using them plus some heavier tubes I got from SimpleShot. I have noticed that the tubes are quieter but I guess because I've been shooting lighter tubes I don't notice a big difference between tubes and flats. I have read on this forum people write about the different feel between tubes and flats but they all feel good to me. They seem to shoot well and I have no trouble switching back and forth between the two. It's making me feel like I'm to rough or crude or possibly not sensitive enough to tell the difference. Am I a failure or just blissfully unaware of what I'm doing.


If you like what you are doing who gives two poops what others think? Then again it may be a mind/matter thing. No Mind/ No matter is open for interpretation and can be used several different ways however. :lol:


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## Genoa Slingshot (Oct 29, 2015)

Balls to the Wall said:


> I've used mostly latex tubing with some decent accuracy. I started thinking maybe flat thera-band could be a little more accurate due to the fact that tubing has some rigidity. This may or may not effect the travel of the ball from the point when the tube has returned to it's relaxed length until it travels over the top of the forks. What do some more experienced shooters think?


That may not effect the travel of the ball from the point when the tube has returned to it's relaxed length until it travels over the top of the forks.
The accuracy of both is potentially the same. It depend of you.
It's true that flatbands have easy pull due mostly to the air inside the tube so could appear more accurate, but for truth, the feeling and the accuracy is personal thing. Somebody is more accurate with flats, somebody with tubes and somebody is equally accurate with both.
I shoot 90% flatbans so I'm more accurate with them, but when I shoot tubes for few time I can have the same accuracy...


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## KawKan (May 11, 2013)

BushpotChef said:


> Not to hijack the thread, could anyone give a suggestion as to appropriate strength hunting tubes and their setup? I'm looking to give tubes a go but I mostly hunt so any help is appreciated.
> 
> Sent from my SM-J320W8 using Tapatalk


If you're shooting butterfly with about 12 inches of rubber, it doesn't take much in the way of tubes. 1842 or 1745 singles. 2040 or 1842 pseudo tapers with 4 inches on the loop and 8 inches on the single part.

If you're shooting shorter rubber (6-7inches), full loops 2040 or 1842, or pseudo tapers with 3 inch loops and 4 inches on the single part.


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## Water Snake 2 (Dec 16, 2017)

On my double power cam setups use tubes from Kent Elastomer products INC. [3/16x 3/32x 3/8 latex rubber] very powerful lasts great!WS


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## Balls to the Wall (Jan 14, 2018)

chuckduster01 said:


> BushpotChef said:
> 
> 
> > Not to hijack the thread, could anyone give a suggestion as to appropriate strength hunting tubes and their setup? I'm looking to give tubes a go but I mostly hunt so any help is appreciated.
> ...


I recently found a perfect Y fork in the woods and worked it down to something almost exactly what you have here. I'm a tube shooter and could not figure a way to attach bands that worked. I ended up tossing it out. I wish I'd seem yours first. Very cool.


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## Samurai Samoht (Apr 6, 2013)

You can achieve excellent accuracy with either tubes or flats so definitely try out Flatbands and see how it goes. Both have pro's and cons as the other guys have said and you will probably get good with whatever you use the most.


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## flipgun (Nov 14, 2012)

"I recently found a perfect Y fork in the woods and worked it down to something almost exactly what you have here. I'm a tube shooter and could not figure a way to attach bands that worked. I ended up tossing it out. I wish I'd seem yours first. Very cool."

When in doubt? Tabs.

But, to address the original question; The Chinese shoot tube mostly exclusively. No problem with accuracy there. I use tubes mostly for the ease of build and shooting life. The Spanish and Italians shoot thin cut gum rubber. Again, no accuracy problems there. Treefork and others here shoot the eye out of a gnat with Flats. So... It basically falls back on the old adage, "It's not the Arrow. It's the Indian."

What you dedicate to is the most accurate. If you check around, you will find Vids that show that the ball leaves the pouch long before the bands/tubes start to stack. That tells me that the stiffness of the tubes is mostly irrelevant in regard to accuracy. IMHO


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## Balls to the Wall (Jan 14, 2018)

flipgun said:


> "I recently found a perfect Y fork in the woods and worked it down to something almost exactly what you have here. I'm a tube shooter and could not figure a way to attach bands that worked. I ended up tossing it out. I wish I'd seem yours first. Very cool."
> 
> When in doubt? Tabs.
> 
> ...


Very good info. You addressed my question to the point. I had tried to find slow-mo vid of a tube set-up with no success. I started thinking the stiffness of the tube could bunch inward and deflect the ball. I guess it would make sense that the ball has already moved on by that point.


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