Right wing VS Left wing?

[Grey Taylor]

Originally posted by traditionalman:
In theroy a right hand shooter should shoot left wing an a left hand shooter should shoot right wing. Your feathers should turn away from your shelf for better shooting.

This is one of the old "rules" of archery which has now been settled to be false. This whole thread is full of people showing that they have seen no difference in which wing they shoot.
As has also been mentioned, the arrow can not turn until it is off the string and high speed photography shows that they don't turn until well away from the bow.
However... some shooters, especially those shooting off their hands or with their hands very close to the arrow rest, have found they get better clearance with the old standard. Other people in the same situation don't find any difference at all.
As long as we've got this old archery "fact" rolling, perhaps we should ressurect the osage vs. white woods debate!

Guy

[Dave Worden]

Bowhunterportugal, yes they will be difficult to load into the wrong clamp.  The feathers have a natural curve and if that curve is counter to the helical clamp you're using, you'll have to fight them to get them into the clamp. You can do it, but why?  Left wing - left helical.  Right wing - right helical.  If you're fletching straight, either wing will work, but again, don't mix left and right wing feathers on the same arrow.  You can, however, mix a dozen arrows, some left helical, some right helical, and you probably won't be able to tell which is which by shooting/acuracy.

[BOWMARKS]

For some odd reason there are a few of us out there that have trouble with the right wing feathers cutting our bow hand.      

[7 Lakes]

Here is the real difference from an old timer.

Many years ago the guys that caught up the turkeys for transport to the slaughter house were mostly right handed.  It was easier for them to grab up more turkeys by the right wing in their right hand thus destroying more right wing feathers.  This led to an overabundance of left wing feathers for use in archery applications.  Left wing feathers became less expensive and more and more people began ordering left handed jigs. This is how left winged fethers originally became more popular than right winged.

I don't believe anyone can tell the flight difference between the two.

[Grey Taylor]

Bowmarks, I absolutely agree that some archers have clearance issues. Those folks should use what works for them.
But not everyone has that same clearance problem. I shoot right handed and have always used right wing feathers. I don't experience that clearance issue... go figure?
What I get my panties in a bunch over is people blindly repeating the old saw of right hand/left wing and left hand/right wing without giving any thought to the issue. Or saying that the feathers should rotate away from the shelf when we can plainly see on any number of YouTube videos that the arrow doesn't begin to spin until it is well past the bow. Even common sense would tell people that the arrow can't spin until it's left the string.

Guy

[dragon rider]

At the risk of being redundant, there is no sound evidence for the proposition that it matters whether you shoot LW or RW fletching.  Nothing happens until the arrow has flown well beyond the riser.  

There is ONE EXCEPTION - if you shoot single bevel broadheads, match them to your fletching.  Otherwise use whatever you want.

There have been several tests that suggest that straight fletching is quieter than helical fletching.

[Don_G]

Don't know much about general rules, but I read years ago that a RH shooter should use LW. But it's now much harder to find LW, so I used RW for years.

However, no less authority than Ashby says when using Right single-bevel heads, you should use RW, and vice-versa.  Also, he said(and my experience backs it up) that in general a Left Bevel and Left Wing combo has the advantage that the twisting acceleration tightens the head in the shaft rather than loosening it. If you glue your heads in, then this won't matter.

Edit to Add: I guess this took 7 minutes to type!

[Andy Cooper]

LW feathers spin an arrow clockwise, yes? Wouldn't that tend to keep screw-in heads from loosening...or am I thinkin' bassakerds?

[Orion]

Left wing feathers spin counter clockwise and loosen heads when they hit.  Right wing feathers spin clockwise and tighten the heads when they hit.  Spinning clockwise, the shaft tries to screw itself into the head.  Spinning counterclockwise, it tries to unscrew itself from the head.

[Don_G]

The LW w/left bevel is sort of self-explanatory.  

With a double-bevel head when a RW (clockwise spinning shaft) hits the target, the spinning stops and the head tightens in the shaft.

Left wing feathers tend to spin an arrow counter-clockwise, but the left bevel head spins it even faster when it hits flesh - and the acceleration tightens the shaft.

I think.