Longbow shooting, sensitivity to fletching

[GreyGoose]

I've returned to traditional archery (and traditional bowhunting, Lord willing) after a break of 33 years and 7 years of shooting and hunting with a compound.  I need a new challenge and the old magic.

I am breaking in a new longbow, and using a gap-guided instinctive approach. (This means I am intending to return to instinctive shooting, but gap shooting just enough to keep the range safe until I get it back together).  

One thing that made me want to take up the challenge of traditional shooting again is the widespread availability of uniformly straight, spined, weighted arrows as opposed to the mismatched wonders I shot in my teens, like a bad golfer trying to play his slice or hook.  After a couple of weeks I am able to shoot pretty tight groups at 15 yards, and having fun trying to get better.

My question is this - has anyone else noted how much more sensitive a longbow (or recurve) is to an imperfect fletching?  I could lose a feather when shooting my compound and barely notice.  I inadvertently let fly and arrow with a torn feather from the longbow, and it looked like a slider.  Did it again three times.

[McDave]

How well tuned are your arrows to your bow?  If your bare shafts are flying true, my experience is that feathers can be pretty torn up and the arrow will still fly true.  If you really need the fletches to correct wobbly arrow flight, I can see where a loss of fletches could have an adverse effect.

[GreyGoose]

Good question, the answer is (a) I don't know, therefore probably (b) not very well tuned at all, since I just started using an older set I had on hand for my compound bow (I'm on a budget like the rest of us these days).  If I checked a spine chart, I expect I'd find they're over-spined for the longbow.  I'll check, experiment some more, and let you know - GG

[McDave]

Generally speaking a traditional longbow (i.e. one that is not cut-in all the way to centershot) will require a weaker spined arrow than a recurve or a modern longbow of equal draw weight that is cut to or past centershot.  This is because the arrow starts out pointing more to the left (for a RH shooter) and must bend more around the riser in paradox.  Shooting a shaft that is too stiff can cause the shaft to impact against the riser unpredictably and could possibly cause the errors you describe.

[Don Stokes]

Greygoose, if you're correctly spined, when shooting field points a torn or missing fletching should have little or no effect.

[bucksbuouy]

I occasionally shoot arrows of different spines, weights, lengths, torn fletching, bent shafts etc. and have never seen an arrow fly like a slider. It is almost definitely your release. Your release is probably getting messed up because you are distracted by the torn fletch. It also could be your riser pad if your using velcro or something but it sounds like your release to me.

[hvyhitter]

Once I get my arrows tuned to my bow I can be missing part or all of one fletch and still have my arrow fly like a dart. Or have them soaking wet and layed down and still fly true. Sounds like you still need to do some tuning.....

 http://www.bowmaker.net/tuning.htm

[alaninoz]

Like hvyhitter, I've shot a target round with the feathers so wet they were lying flat. Didn't seem to make any difference to how they flew, except that I seemed to be getting more cast - maybe less drag.

[GreyGoose]

Thanks all - after I tune I'll let you know how things work out (Thanks hvyhitter, for the giving me the undeserved benefit of the doubt as to having actually started tuning) GG

[hvyhitter]

GG....I am the worlds laziest person when it comes to bow tuning. When I get a new bow I just grab some arrows that I already have on hand, find the ones that shoot best, play with the brace height and point weight a little and just leave it at that. I never get rid of arrows even if the bows go away so I have arrows in 1916,1918,2014,2016,2018,2020,2115,2117,2215,2216and 2219 so I usually grab the right arrow the first time.(I love aluminum arrows)The only time I seriuosly tune is if I decide to hunt with that bow and will then fine tune with the broadheads......when you tune your bow, take your time, shoot a few groups after each change before making the next to get a truer idea of your results, as you get it fine tuned its usually easier to see a difference in groups at 20 to 30 yds. A nice tight mixed group at 15 yds may turn into 2 seperate pieplate groups at 30 so it would still be off a bit...........hope this helps.....YMMV