4 or 5

[coltar]

I shoot a 44# bow with 29" arrows. My draw is 28".I use heritage 90's with 145 gr points. Is 5" or 4" fletching more efficient? Thanks,

John

[mrpenguin]

More fletching makes the arrow spin and stabilize faster, but it slows down the arrow as well. Try both and see what works for you!

[Jake Fr]

do you have your arrows fletched with a few of each and see wich ones fly better i personaly think the 4"feathers would proly do better and if you wanted to try this fletch tape works great to test this then peel off wich ever one you ike better good luck jake

[rastaman]

I doubt you will be able to tell the difference.
Here are a couple of old threads on the subject..

 
   Feather size search 2  

 Feather search 1

[Mike Vines]

I'm a stong proponant of having as much fletching on an arrow without it making noise.  During hunting situations, you never have the shot you have at the 3D course.  By that I mean, your release might be off a little, you might nick a branch, you might not be able to get back to full draw or a plethera (PHEW, I'm impressed I knew what that was,let alone used it in the right spot)of different scenarios that having more fletching on the shaft with do more to correct the arrows flight, than hinder it's performance.

[Jeff Mundy]

Go with the 5" if you hunt, if not 4" might work better for you.

[Night Wing]

Experiment. Take two arrows. Fletch one with 4" feathers and one with 5" feathers and see which one you like best.

[Hoyt]

I like to get broadhead stable then pick up speed anyway I can without destabilizing broadhead. Right now I'm shooting 3 4" shield cuts and no wrap. I hated eliminating the pretty, pink, wraps cause they saved me some arrows last season, but don't plan of missing this yr.

[Wheels2]

How good is your release?  a consistently smooth release can use less fetching than mine...

[wtpops]

Do you hunt, if so then consider the shots that you will be taking, with this in mind is why i shoot 5".

[coltar]

Thanks for the input,I have always shot 5 inch but was shooting 61 lbs before shoulder surgery but am now shooting 44 lbs & wondered if it would be a big difference in the lighter poundage.

[jamesh76]

Imo at hunting distances it makes no difference.

[paperenginner]

I always say more feather length is like a good insurance policy but as jamesh76 points out it is very negligable.  Probably more a visual and a mental choice.

[Rob DiStefano]

most hunting arrows should be reasonably heavy (10gpp+) and have enuf fletching area to stabilize the shaft *fast* after release.  more feather is better than less feather.  more twist to the feather (helical or offset) is better, too.

i use a 4" offset banana 4-fletch and a 5.25" helical shield 3-fletch for all my arrows.  there is slightly more surface area with the smaller and lower 4-fletch.  imo, more is better .....

[Javi]

I’m often presented with this question by new students. My stock answer is; why would you want to decrease the stability of your arrow flight by using smaller fletching and what do you hope to gain when doing so… The savings in weight and the consequent gain in FOC and speed is negligible and in most cases unidentifiable to the average archer.

[LONGSTYKES]

I use the almost the same set-ups as Rob. After many years, I settled in on either 4" parabolic helical LW 4 fletch and 5.25" shield helical LW 3 fletch They work for me well.