Best feather length?

[Rob DiStefano]

imo, it's not just about the length of the feather, it's about its height, effective control surface area and the alignment whence stuck on the shaft.  to understand all of this requires personal testing.

i've seen 4" feather cuts with more surface area than some 5" fletchings.  these dayze i burn my own "fat" shield-like 5.25" shape and give it the full monty helical.

[Rob DiStefano]

oh yes, as with most stuff in life, there is no "best feather length".  however, there are less than smart feather cuts that don't belong on a trad hunting arrow and i do hope for the sake of this thread we don't go there ... please.

yes, you can do a full helical 5.25" feather fletch on a skinny beman ics 500 carbon shaft, that's what i use most ...

 

... the feathers are tape fletched, dotted with duco fore and aft and will not come off, even in a hog pass thru (4-fletch 4" offset banana feathers) ...

 

... or even after laying in the carolina woods for 3  years (4-fletch 4" offset banana feathers) ...

 

[Tajue17]

if your bareshaft tuned to perfection you can use a 2" feather but I opt for 5" and if I'm using woodies I like high back 5.5's just because they are wood and don't stay straight.

with that being said I have some wilderness arrows that he did with 5" and so far they are shooting very nice for me even with 2-blade broadheads.

me personally I do not and have never liked 4-fletch unless its a flu flu.