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Arrow Fletching

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straitshot

Guest
I was wondering if someone could explains some of the reasons and differances in using the various sizes of flething on arrows. I've talked to several people and each use differant fletching depending on if they are shooting with thier hunting or 3d Arrows.
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I use a drop-away type rest and 5" vanes with as much helical as I can put on my arrow's.
The reason I do this is for stability with solid head's.The other thing I would add is that I turn my bow down to about 230 fps or so or the stability is harder to achieve.
Most people use 4" fletch but the way I look at it is that the more fletch I can wrap around the shaft the better the arrow should fly,I am getting perfect flight with my currant setup,
Matthews legacy
66#
29" draw
28" arrow's
Thunderhead 100's
Trueball release with a loop off the string.
Trophy ridge drop zone rest
Here's a pic just to show the helical that I put on my arrow's.
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I just ordered 1/2 dozen arrow with as much helical as possible. I am going to start playing with my setup next week. I would have never considered turning the poundage down so much for stability. I am trying to achieve broadhead flight as close to my field tips as possible. Shooting 100 gran three blade muzzy I was nowhere close. I'll let you know how thing change over the next week or so.
 
It kind of depends on what you're looking for out of your arrows. Some people, like myself, use helical fletching because they shoot fixed bladed broadheads. The extra spin from the helical fletching helps to keep the fixed blade broadhead spinning at a fast rate, and hopefully not plane from one side to the other.
I used to shoot expandable broadheads and never had a problem with shooting standard straight 4" vanes.
Some people who have their bow and arrows finely tuned might only use 2 or 3 inch fletching to get the most speed out of the arrow.
Like I said, it just depends on what you want out of your arrows. As a simple rule, the longer the fletching, and the more twist that fletching has, the straighter the arrow is going to fly for you.
Hope I helped.

CRITR
 
hey straightshot, are you talking about the length of the fletching itself? if so the reason that some are a lot shorter then others is just for speed and weight. i was told this is to lighten the bow and give more speed, also some of the new fletchings, like quick snap fletchings(i think that's the name) have the have a place on the back of all the fletchings right on the edge that is thicker then the rest of the fletching, this is supposed to make the arrow spin faster and fly more true. it's had for me to explain would it help if i send a pic? if you are considering this smaller shorter fletching for hunting i would re-think using these for hunting. thse are not necessarily made for hunting with mainly target bows only, where it is important to have speed, you do not need a bow that shoots 310 fps for hunting, so therefore your hunting bow will not shoot the arrows with this style of fletching on it consistently and accurately over and over again!
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I build 12 to 15 dozen cedar arrows a year and use all 5" left wing feathers with a lot of twist. With self bows shooting off of a shelf it is almost impossible to get a true center shot so the shaft must bend slightly arround the bow. Cedar with big sheild cut feathers work best for this with either feild points or broad heads. I use 2 blade Zuwicky heads mounted horizontaly and don't see much difference in arrow flight if the head weights are the same. About the only tuning I do is to raise either the nock point or the brace height, which also raises the nock point, for broad heads. Feathers work much better off the shelf than vanes and are much quieter. The only draw back is rain, but if you keep them dry they work great. The great thing about these bows is that you don't have to experiment and fiddle with things all the time. You can just shoot and have a lot of fun, and the more shooting the better you get and the better you get the better you feel, and the better you feel the more you shoot and have fun. Try it you might just like it.
 
For a hunting set-up there are several ways you can go, and a good portion of it is personal preferrence. Whether its 3"-4"-5"... vanes - feathers... helical or offset, you've got to find what works best for you. When it comes to vane length, the shorter the vane, the faster it will project from the rest where as with a longer vane you will achieve more stability. Myself, I find that 4" vanes are a nice medium. Split G3, even with a shorter vane, your hunting bow will shoot consitstantly shoot as well as you let it... that is if it is tuned properly.

Vanes, in my opinion, are much more durable than feathers, although feathers tend to be more forgiving, but have a tendency to damage easier. You will achieve more stability with a feather, but you will also have more resistance because each feather strand will tend to drag more than the flat surface of a vane.

When it comes to helical v. offset, a lot of it depends on the rest. I believe a helical is much better for use with dropaways because you have plenty of clearence. The helical will get the arrow spinning much faster, causing it to stabilize quicker.

For a two-prong rest go with a straight (2 degree) offset. With this rest you dont have as much clearence, but it takes a little longer to stabilize.

I would recommend using a helical with fixed broadheads.

The difference in speed with vanes is Negligible. We tested a 3" Offset vs 3" Helical, and the difference in downrange speed at 50 yards is not more than 0.5 fps.

Three Inch feathers lost approximately 7 fps more downrange speed at 50 yards than vanes.

There was mention of the new "quick-spin" vane f/ NAP. They are really quite a cool concept. They have something similar to a "spoiler" on the end of the vane, and ribbing on the opposite side to achieve maximum rotation. Their claim is that they will spin up to 3x faster than a regular vane...more rotation, the flatter the trajectory, the better. They are also about twice as thick and 4 grains heavier than your average 4" vane. These should be great for fixed blade broadheads.
 
I use the older style of Whisker Biscut, the one that has a full circle of bristles. I thought about going to 6 degree offset from 2 degree(?) but reasoned that on a curved vane/feather there will be alot more contact with the bristles than with the straight(2 degree) vanes/feathers. To put it another way, using three vanes/feathers per shaft at 2 degrees of offset the vanes/feathers will contact a total of 6 degrees of the brisltes (where the biscit has 360 degrees of brisltes) and with a 6 degree offset the vanes/feathers will contact 18 total degress of bristles. Which I think will add extra drag on the vanes/feathers. And the longer the vane/feather the more drag too.

What do you think, am I close? Usually if I have to think this hard I'm wrong.

The 'Bonker
 
Thank you everyone. This is truly the best site I have ever been on. It is great to have all the knowledge and experiance everyone is willing to share.
 
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