how badly are your arrows affected by a crosswind?

[O.L. Adcock]

Bottom line is it effects them A LOT! One fun thing to do is shoot fluflu's into a good head wind, they'll land at your feet!        The only things that reduce it's effect are shooting faster arrows and reducing drag so velocity isn't bled of as rapidly down range. The velocity thing is a catch 22 cause drag increases by the square of the velocity. Velocity increases without a huge reduction in drag to go with it will actually make things worse.....O.L.

I'll add one thing as an edit, the arrows are not effected at all by wind. All they do is stabilize into whatever wind they see. What is effected is their ground track and our preception of it....O.L.

[O.L. Adcock]

3under, You bring out good stuff.."I've noticed when shooting in heavey crosswinds that the EFOC carbons(Carbon extremes 150's & 3555 GT's with 250 grains up front)"tail wag" more then my wood arrows (non-EFOC's) but they are not blown as far off as the woodies."

The "faster" an arrow will stabilize when disturbed by twigs, wind shears, small childern, ect...The less drag they'll have and the more velocity they'll carry down range. The further forward the FOC is, the more stable the arrow is. Again it's maintaining velocty that's helping you. The high FOC is "wagging" cause it's "correcting" while the low FOC is not(as fast), it's just drifting down wind!    

"I prefered the 150 grain longer bullets to the 130 grain projectiles. The 150s started out a little slower but retained velocity better and were faster at 300 yards and delected less due to the crosswind less than the 130's."

Yep, the flight arrows that go the furthest(flatest) aren't the lightest(fastest). In fact the best ones are VERY heavy for their size. (and very high FOC) That cross sectional density thing effecting the drag coefficient. Skinny carbons the same weight as fat woods will shoot flatter and penetrate better even though they start out the same speed....O.L.

[d. ward]

The smallest fletching you can get away with will also help a lot at long distances as mentioned much less drag.Harry Drake shot the smallest lightest shaft(about 120 grains)he could get away with safely and the smallest plastic fletch he could make with no tip what so ever on his arrow but rather just a tapperd end with no footings.Harry was going for the distance rather then the bullseye though.May try a smaller flecth on your arrows.bowdoc

[O.L. Adcock]

"Harry Drake shot the smallest lightest shaft(about 120 grains)he could get away with safely and the smallest plastic fletch he could make with no tip what so ever on his arrow but rather just a tapperd end with no footings."

Yep, I know. Some of his thinking is/was correct, some not. I can say that cause I have more of the records then he does/did. I'll have them all before it's over!   ....O.L.

[jake the snake rhea99]

mine some times fly of when it is windy

[d. ward]

Here's a pic of the smallest fletch I've seen.I'am pretty certin these may be way to small for hunting arrows not sure on that.If a guy could bare shaft test them he may not need much more then this size fletch.It would sure help cut down on the drag form the cross winds...O.L.are you shooting the flight shots with the same type static tip bows Harry was shooting ??? I have'nt done much since I sold my Drake flight bow to Lance...bd  

[O.L. Adcock]

Hey Don, It's getting off the subject..There are different "classes" and realistically one can only go after 1 or 2 records a year due to the way they have their rules set up. We've only gone after the longbows and just started in the "field and target" recurve classes, but shooting "longbows" in the recurve classes. You are talking the "flight recurve" where he (and everybody else)used short (36-38") static tipped recurves. I've only entered that class once, last year, in the 18KG weight class. I used a 50" "longbow" and set a FITA world record in that class. I only beat the old one by 100 meters or so!    By the way I shoot fletching both feather in the wood classes and plastic in the others smaller then that. I have a Drake arrow just about identical to your's.

Back to wind drift...the things flight shooters do to get max distance and the target shooters do to shoot good groups and reduce drift at 90 meters, the same priciples apply. Same with arrow penetration, it's all drag reduction. The fletch sizes....An arrow needs to have a set amount of stability...Below that distance, wind drift, and penetration will suffer. Once "enough" stability is reached, more won't help if it increases drag. Which is what fletching by themselves does. The trick is to increase stability with FOC and reduce the fletching. We can have the same stability and reduce drag at the same time...O.L.

[Soilarch]

I have to throw this out there for the "flight" guys.  Have you guys seen or heard of the FOB.  It's a strange/new type of fletching for the "other" bows that really really shine in crosswinds.  Anyone know if anyone's played with trying to make a solid-shelf version?


  http://www.starrflight.com/

[O.L. Adcock]

Soilarch, Hadn't seen them but they wouldn't work for "flight"..Way too big, way too much drag. Might call it an SOB!    Just some trivia, last year there was a compound competeing in the compound 45# class. My 39# (18KG) "longbow" if you want to call it that out shot it....O.L.

[d. ward]

Actually I think it was two subjects going at once.I was kind of tring to stay on track with the fellow TGers cross wind and thought he might like to try a smaller fletch.I do or did have a little interest in flight shooting at one time until we lost our place to shoot.bowdoc

[tradwannabe]

at 20 yrds with 800 grain arrows, not much.