Who sells REAL feathers?

[DngrsDan]

It seems like all the feathers I've seen, and used, are synthetic and make a lot of noise as they fly. Does anyone sell real ones? I would imagine they'd be quieter in flight.

[Grey Taylor]

Anything labeled as Trueflight, AMG, or Gateway is a real domestic turkey feather. It's about all that is available from the site sponsors.

Guy

[Hot Hap]

Look at Little John's ad in the classifieds. Hap

[Benny Nganabbarru]

I once thought all feathers were synthetic, due to the absence of the all-important hyphen in most advertisements for "Artificial Barred Feathers". They should read, "Artificial(ly)-Barred Feathers". My mate, Tony, calls me "Sheldon", from a television film called, "The Big Bang Theory", but I'm really not that bad (or smart)!

[Orion]

Feathers aren't synthetic, but the quality has gone downhill in recent years due to the way turkeys are now raised.  The birds are grown so fast and killed so young nodadays that the feathers don't develop as large/fully as they used to.   That's why the full length feathers that most vendors are now selling are labeled "commercial grade."  They're generally 7-8 inches in length.  Full length feathers used to be 10-12 inches in length. That's not a problem on wild birds,of course.

[DngrsDan]

Thanks all for the responses. I thought the feathers were synthetic because they feel so stiff, not at all like what a feather feels like. Must be the coloring or whatever that they use on them.

[Jeremy]

The feathers from wild birds are just as stiff, if not stiffer, unless you switch to using the secondary wing eathers or goose primaries.

I like using the wild feathers b/c they have a higher oil content.  The cleaning/dying process strips the processed ones of the natural oils.  The wild feathers hold up to wear better as well for reasons Orion said.

If your issue is noise, use a lower profile feather, a shorter feather, or reduce the offset on your clamp for a straighter fletch.  Not much is louder than the 5.5" highbacked shields with a heavy helical