4 inch VS 5 inch feathers

[Bowmania]

I'm thinking of trying 3 four inch feathers.  Has anyone taken their 5 inch feather off a shaft that was tuned perfectly and put on 4 inch.  If so what was the results??

I'm shooting a very thin carbons and my ultimate goal is to have 160 Snuffers and 160 STOS tuned.

Bowmania

[ishoot4thrills]

Skinny carbons generally don't need a whole lot of feather, if things are properly tuned. I have great success using 4" feathers on my Beman MFX Classics.

[30pointbuck]

My Gold tip Traditional's shoot great with 3, 4" feathers.

[magnus]

Try doing a search. This has been a hot topic lately. Lots of good input in the other threads. No experience with carbon here.

[chad graham]

you should be fine with four inch,you may even give four fletched arrows a try.i use 4-4" shield cut and 190 el grande broadheads,i now shoot wood again but that also worked good on skinny carbons when i tried them.

[Margly]

I think it depends on what kind of broadheads you use!
If you use wide bh's you should go for 5" feathers for better flight!

Margly

[kibok&ko]

I was on 3X5 for years

i'm on 3X4 for one one year / no differences on my GTT ou CE heritage , yes one, less noisy ...

i'm going to try 3X3 to see ...

[Ragnarok Forge]

I use 3 inch - four fletch, which has the same fletch surface area as 4 inch - three fletch on my skinny carbons.  They work great.  They work with both wide and narrow broadheads.  With skinny carbons you end up with higher FOC than aluminum or wood which also helps a lot with good arrow flight.

[Friend]

My 32.4% (608 grain) Ultra-EFOC set-up with the three 4" feathers positoned 2.1" from the nock throat, shoot the Big 3's better than any of my numerous previous set-ups.

They shot fine on a windy day a couple of day ago at 20 yards.

[Easykeeper]

Friend - What shafts and point weight are you shooting to get that high a FOC?  Found any disadvantages to your setup at normal hunting ranges?

[Friend]

Easy Keeper--

No secret –just an untapped valuable resource


Victory HV shaft options that will work for me out of a 51 @ 28”(28” actual), with a shelf cut 1/8” past center and using a 13 strand DF-97 string.

Option 1
Victory HV 400….6.2 gpi-29.0” arrow~318 up front~ 515 gn-total-~30.0% FOC

Option 2
Victory HV 350… 6.7 gpi-29.6” arrow~350 up front~ 565 gn-total-~30.3% FOC

Option 3
Victory HV 350… 6.7 gpi-28.5” arrow~400 up front~ 608 gn-total-~32.4% FOC (100 gn insert & 300 gn BH)


Note: I shoot option 3.
……..My FOC calcs are slightly higher than Stu’s due to fletching positioned 2.1” from
……..nock throat

**The Victory HV shaft accepts the standard insert 3Rivers carries.

Option 3 works great for me out to 25 yards and served me well at last weekend's 3D shoot. Fifteen yards is my max for turkeys and 20 yards for deer. I may try Option 1 in the future, however I have found turkeys to be tough customers.

[rdoggsilva]

I shoot 2117 aluminum shifts with a 125gr Eskimo BH on a 75gr steel adapters. I use 3x5 feathers. I tried 3x4 and 4x4 but did not work as well as 3x5" feathers.

[Rob DiStefano]

the bestest and easiest answer - TRY out different fletch sizes and shapes, and see for yerself!  

[Javi]

Here’s how I look at feathers, I use large Flu-flu feathers when I don’t want my arrows going too far, as in shooting flying targets and squirrels up in trees..  When I shot field or lawn archery I used 3” feathers which kept the arrow stabilized with only a field point, but when I screw a BH on the shaft I want to provide as much control as I can yet not slow the arrow down anymore than necessary.  Restricting my kill yardage as I do to the range where I can assure a kill if I do my part I prefer to use a 5” feather with a hard helical when brace height allows. Sure this will slow the arrow if I were to shoot at game over extended distances but it also assures the least flight upset should I tweak the string, hit my sleeve, catch a leaf or a twig on the way to the boiler room of target.. I take every advantage I can to assure a clean kill…