Wet Fletching

[Bear Heart]

How much does having wet fletching and wet bowhush affect arrow flight?  I was shooting 145 grain field point and they were flying like darts.  Before I could test my broadhead of the same weight it started pouring and the flight was so-so. Can the water do that?

[Jerry Jeffer]

The wet bow hush and wet fletch can slow down your shot.

[Falk]

Wet feathers will lay down and react as if you are bare-shafting your arrows - and you wont want to bareshaft a broadheaded arrow, wont you?!
A perfect bare-shafted arrow will shoot great with field points when wet, but not so with a broadheads. Even if wet, the feather surface has to be big enough to guide the broadheaded shaft, or the broadhead will take over controll and your shafts might go all over the place ...

[Rick McGowan]

I don't totally agree, perfectly tuned arrows will fly well with wet feathers or even NO feathers, thats one of the reasons I make a big effort to tuned my setups as good as I can, because there have been times I have hunted in rain for a week straight and there is no way you can keep your fletching dry in those conditions. Make sure your broadheads are on straight, tune them well and don't worry about it. I DO flick the fletching end of a wet arrow before I shoot it to remove the excess amount of water AND because of the reduced feather surface, your arrows will be more susceptible to a sloppy release. A lot of sins are hidden by big dry feathers, but we don't always get to hunt in those conditions.

[Bear Heart]

I went to the range yesterday.  Dry conditions.  Arrows flying beautifully.  Better spray the no sno.

[Holepuncher]

Goose feathers! naturally repel water.

[TradPaul]

I bareshaft with field point first and a BH second, and since i'm a hunter first, i want to make sure that my set up for that is spot on. As long as i take into account the cant of my bow and the angle of my BH on the shaft i know i am good to go.

I know most of you know this but.....

Example: If i cant my bow ever so slightly to the left(i'm a lefty)at say...11 O,clock or so, i will mount the BH on my shaft so that it is vertical to the target, not horizontal( i use a two blade) The reason i do this is because i am most concerned with the up and down movement of my arrow, and since i have tuned the spine of my arrow i dont need to worry about side to side movement. Since i use a two blade BH it acts like a big fin on the tip of the arrow exaggerating any bad movements that the arrow may have. I should also make it clear that no matter what i do i get a slight up and down movement to my arrow, trust me when i say i have tried to make it go away with all the tricks. Anyway, to kick a dead horse...   :rolleyes:   since i have the up and down problem, i need to make sure that the BH will not dive on me with that big fin on the front, so i put it vertical....Geez that took longer than it should have    


P.

[katman]

"How much does having wet fletching and wet bowhush affect arrow flight?"

Can be quite a bit if your feathers lay flat when wet and you have a large steering broadhead. The wet bowhush being wool won't absorb water but will be slightly heavier and may cause a stiffer arrow reaction. Have you bareshaft tuned? I would guess you are a little off spine covered up by the dry feathers.

As a side note my favorite feather to date is the Adcock talked about by Dr. Ashby. Basically it is 2.5" long and 0.5" high right triangle 4 fletch at 90. After exchanging messages with Dr. Ashby I went full bore and soaked the fletched end in a bucket of water for ten minutes pulled it from the bucket and shot the wide Magnus 2 blade since it is the most difficult broadhead for me to tune. The feathers worked perfectly and failed to lay down. Impact right with field points and bare shafts without wobble out to 25 yards. Even after numerous shots and soakings feathers continued to work flawlessly. These are also the most quiet fletches I have not heard.