four fletch

[Terry Green]

I did not always shoot 4 fletch....I have shot 5.5 3 fletch since I was 8....

 That wasn't considered a lot of feather that was considered the norm.

 I have radial carbons with all sorts of fletch configurations in length and numbers....none shoot bad in the perfect shoot scenarios.

 I just didn't one day discover four Fletch...

 I found it superior for my hunting style. And that was only about 10 years ago.... And it has everything to do with what happens in the field.

 I never chose it to cover up a spine issue.. but to better serve my hunting style....for several reasons and not one was back yard shot issues.

 All of my shooting videos in the archives were done  with 3 Fletch radials....

Maybe that small amount you are finding really doesn't matter on these type arrows?....just wondering.

[pavan]

Many years ago, I got into the subject of stiff side with cedar shafts at an area archery shop.  they had an old dusty spine tester.  I showed them the spine difference at 90 degrees.  Their argument was that arrow spines were tested on spinning shafts, so no matter what, the average would still be good.   They were a bit surprised to see how the spine tester worked, I do not think that ever used it before that.  for those that don't know, the grain goes at 90 degrees to the bow string and if there are flare out grains, the part that is pointing away goes on top. I shoot both left and right hand in the same bows, I mark which way is up on the arrows that have flared grain with four fletch arrows and shoot them nock index in if I need to.

[fujimo]

Fujimo: If I understand you correctly, your arrow supplier stamps the spine and weight on the parallel grain.  That's a very nice feature. Basically finds and marks the stiff orientation for you.  That gives you two options for mounting the nock, either orienting the numbered side toward the side plate, or away from it -- its 180 degree flip side.   

Correct- it works really well.
with hand written spine results- they could be written anywhere on the shaft.
the other thing i like about it, is that there is no fudging or misreading the results, with manual testing and written, there is the possibility that there could be inaccuracies- intentional or unintentional.

[Terry Green]

Great thread BTW guys!!!