? for you arrow builders - Feather positioning

[neonbutterfly]

I've been fletching my own arrows for about 12 years and have tried different positions for the feather.....i use a bitzenburger jig (left wing) had tried straight placement, off center, helical, etc....

and i can't see the difference in arrow flight...and i shoot gold tip traditionals......the last batch i did are 5 1/2" shield cut, with a helical twist...i'm using the vario chopper that i've had forever.....

i just curious how other arrow builders are positioning their feathers on the shaft....and can you see a difference in flight performance.....thanks for looking..

Bob

[bowberry]

I've only been building arrows for about 1 year, so i'm no expert.

I don't have a jig so I was tying feathers on old school (very rewarding but time consuming)I always did them with a slight helical. They fly great.

Recently I built a home made jig that does straight fletch only. my arrows fly great. I can't tell the difference.

An old timer that I work with said to me "you only need helical for broadheads to fight the effects of wind shear"

"Oh no"! I thought . I'd put alot of work into that dozen arrows and maybe they wont fly with broadheads. well poop.

I ran home and tied on a trade point that I plan to hunt with. I shot it at 10,15,20,25 yrds and I think it flew better than my field points! hurray for beginners luck.

So in my limited experience it doesn't matter. Maybe helical was just a marketing fad that stuck. Im sure there must be some benifit to some one, somewhere.

[damascusdave]

The bottom line is this...if an arrow is the correct dynamic spine for a bow it will even shoot a good broadhead pretty nicely (with no wind) without any fletching at all...consequently the type and orientation of the fletching is relatively unimportant in my experience...I have hunted with 2 inch feathers with complete confidence

DDave

[bear bowman]

I'm using 4" feathers with a straight clamp that I set up with a slight offset. That does well for me.

[tomsm44]

I've shot 2, 3, and 4 fletch, 4"-5" feathers, and both straight and helical.  I haven't seen any difference, but I try to get my arrows very well tuned to my bow bare shaft before I even think about feathers.  I think tuning is the real key.  If you did a scientific test from a shooting machine at relatively long range with heavy crosswinds, shooting various sizes, numbers, and orientations of feathers, I'm thinking you'd find that more feathers, longer feathers, and helical fletch would be slightly more accurate, just because, in theory, that should produce greater spin, which should create more stable flight.  But I doubt the difference in accuracy would be significant.

[katman]

The greater the fletch size, helical or offset the greater stabilization effect at the expense of down range drag. So at longer than my normal hunting distance it will slow the arrow quicker.