Left helical

[SpeirHunting]

Hey guys, new guy here.

Quick question for ya, it is regarding the use of left helical feathers.

Why left helical?

I am right handed, my uncle shoots traditional righty and shoots left twist.

[Roy from Pa]

Left or right doesn't matter one bit in arrow flight. But for some guys, with the way they grip their bow, they may choose right or left helical to get the front of the feather away from their hand placement.

[SpeirHunting]

Ah, makes sense, thank you Roy. Ryan.

[old_goat2]

What Roy said, I shoot both, had a right hand jig from compound days and really like it better because it seems like it is easier to place the clamp in the jig. I bought the left wing jig because I had a crapload of LW feathers I aquired in a trade and I want to be able to use the feathers off both wings of a turkey when I get one

[SpeirHunting]

So I take it that its a preference thing as well (kinda).

I bought a bunch of full length feathers (lw) and a chopper, hope this works!

[Roy from Pa]

Cool, just remember you will need a left wing helical clamp for your Fletcher.

[Hawkeye]

There are lots of ways to go about the task (fun) of building arrows, but one idea that may give you better result from your chopper right away is to cut the feather to length before chopping.

This allows your chop to deal only with shaping the barbs without also having to cut through the quill.  I get WAY more uniform results when I do it that way.

Just a thought...

[SpeirHunting]

Awesome tip Hawkeye, thank you.

Roy, I did order a left helical clamp for my fletcher.

[Roy from Pa]

Hawkeye, good idea, thanks.

[bow_man_66]

When I first got into trad archery years ago, I had a guy building arrows for me that had done them for many years. He always suggested lw feathers. When I asked him why he had a theory. With lw feathers the arrow spins counter clock wise. This loosens the point from the arrow as it comes into contact with the target. His theory is that lw feathers gain you penetration with a broad head as when the head comes into contact with the animal it stops turning but the arrow can continue to spin loosening from the head slightly. In theory rw feathers would stop spinning immediately due to the clockwise rotation causing a loss of forward energy. Not sure that this would amount to allot but does make sense some what. I have shot lw feathers every since.

[Shakes.602]

My Bows seem to shoot either, but they Prefer Left Helical.  

[The Whittler]

Welcome from Maine.

[Sirius Black]

Welcome!

[SpeirHunting]

Thanks for the welcome and advice guys!!

[Joshua Long]

RW fletchings tear up the top of my bow hand.  I am a righty and need to use LW or straight or I end up a bloody mess.

[Sam McMichael]

You used to hear this explanation for the commoness of left wing feathers a lot when I was youner. Most turkey feathers come from commercially raised birds. It is common to clip the wing feathers so that they can't fly. Since most people are right handed, the natural way to hold a turkey is so the worker can use his right hand to do the clipping, which just happens to make the right wing the obvious one to clip.This leaves only the left wing feathers for usage. I have no idea if this is valid, but at least it does sound reasonable. Any turkey farmers out there to comment on this possibility?

As for performance, I agree that either right or left wing feathers work just fine. I have never noticed any difference, nor have I had the issues that some of the guys have reported.