Broad head steering

[3_dogs]

Hey, sorry to be the guy that does nothing but ask questions, but I figure y'all know way more than me    so I bought some gateway 2" razyr fletching because I thought they would be cool on some arrows I'm making up for my first time. I never even thought about needing more fletch for broadhead flight. Do you think if I did 4 fletch with these, it'd be enough to steer a 200 grain broadhead? Any help would be hot because if I don't have to go through the hassle of sending them back, that'd be awesome....I need to learn not to order stuff like that until I really think haha

[3_dogs]

I should also mention that I'm all bareshaft tuned. So it's just the fletching I'm worried about.

[creekwood]

If the arrow is correctly tuned to the bow, you shouldn't even have to use fletchings.  All the fletching should be doing is assisting the arrow flight when we have a bad release, cross-winds, etc....

In other words, if you need more feather to correct broadhead flight, you probably have the wrong arrow shaft to begin with.

[Schmidty3]

Try it out and report back! If everything is right you should have no problems. The width of the head and how straight it is will be critical. Also form, release, all of that stuff will need to be good.

I really like my 3x 5" with a super fat helical that's only possible when using fletch tape as my jig won't quite seat the feather all the way to the shaft.

I'm currently working on tuning my bow.
Bare shafts are about 4" right at 20-25 yards. But my fletched shafts with field points and MONSTER WIDE zephyr sasquatch's seem to be hitting together and flying beautifully. I think my flecthing is definitely correcting some things. So there's more tuning to come. The only two things that may be an issue are that the trajectory may be influenced after 30 or so yards (But it's fine within hunting ranges), and I think the fat helical makes the fetching noisier in flight.

I believe Terry green has mentioned shooting 4x 5". The reason being that at super close range the arrows were still in paradox and not penetrating critters as they should. The large amount of feathers corrected the paradox faster.

On the opposite spectrum, the super high FOC guys are using 2" feathers to keep the foc high.

So there's no right or wrong answer (as long as you keep everything near perfect on your end).

[Etter]

Jerry Russell on here uses super short blazer type fletchings and he seems to kill piles of stuff. I have worse form and stay inside 20 yds when hunting so I stick with long helical fletchings to account for the idiot behind the wheel

[3_dogs]

Okay! So I should just give them a try is what I'm getting. The guys over at RMS gear  (amazing company) helped me bareshaft, so it's pretty well tuned. It's just my form that may not be the best. I'll give them a try and see what happens.

[creekwood]

Originally posted by Terry Green:
I'm not sure where this information comes from about not needing fletchings with broadheads... that's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard...

I hope you are not referring to my previous post.  That is not what I was saying! I was trying to say that adding fletching to compensate for a poorly tuned arrow is not the best solution for arrow performance.

[creekwood]

This arrow needs larger fletchings.  

   

[creekwood]

My postings have suddenly gone "wacky".  I'm going to blame it on my eclipse glasses.      :cool:

[3_dogs]

Terry, I've been lurking here for years and I respect your opinion because from what I've seen you've been doing this a while and have lots of information. Unfortunately, you didn't actually give me any information, just seems like I upset you with my lack of knowledge which wasn't my intention. Recognize I used the word "cool" but also meant that I thought they would work. Again, I respect what you have to say but I'm new to making my own arrows and tuning broadheads. I used to just buy arrows, see if they flew straight with broadheads and went with it.  As I'm a recent graduate without a ton of money, it'd be nice to know if I need to send these back and get something different.

[Gdpolk]

The purpose of fletching is to help the following:  

• Correct for inconsistencies in release
• Help orient the shaft to track more straight during windy conditions
• Correct for wind planing caused by the broadheads being inherently less aerodynamic/stable than field points
• Help to stabilize the arrows from archer's paradox as quickly as possible.

Of these functions, for traditional bowhunters, stabilizing the arrows as quickly as possible is going to have the largest effect on arrow performance as it'll be directly related to shooting smaller groups and directly related to improving penetration on game animals.  As a general rule, more is more when it comes to fletching.  A larger surface area of fletching will help make all of the functions listed above happen more consistently and make it all happen quicker.  Larger fletchings will also slow your arrows down quicker (more pronounced arc to learn to shoot through) and create more noise.    If and only if your arrows are tuned perfectly to your bow and your accuracy/release is clean and consistent enough to know the difference between arrows being out of tune vs having a poor release, would I recommend going with tiny fletching.  In order to cut fletching sizes down, however, I would recommend looking into and testing things like the amount of time it takes to stabilize your setup from archers paradox with paper tuning/video review, how much fletching it takes shooting in 10-15mph crosswinds to stabilize broad heads vs field points, penetration tests into foam targets at close ranges, etc.  I would allow fletching size to be just larger than what your TESTS dictate is the minimum size you can use from your rig and still get good arrow flight with a broadhead and under poor conditions.  In testing to do so, you'll have just a bit more steering than needed effectively minimizing weight on the rear of the shaft while simultaneously minimizing noise from the fletching but NOT compromising the primary functions of feathers.  Until you and your rig is ready to really sit down and test the nitty gritty of above performance parameters, I'd recommend going with a 3x5" or 4x4" parabolic (quieter than shield) as those are pretty standard build parameters because they are what consistently works well for most people.

[the rifleman]

IMHO and what I've found works for me---if you spend time getting a well tuned bareshaft you should be able to expect great performance from a fletched arrow with a broadhead.  I have yet to find the need for fletching bigger than 3X4" medium low profile feathers with my set ups.  I use grizzlies, woodsman, and zwicky broadheads.  I have found poorly tuned field points to fly well when fletched, but have yet to get a poorly tuned arrow to fly well with broadheads when fletched.  As others have said fletching does quite a bit including helping the arrow recover from a less than perfect release and keeping the broadhead from directing the flight.  Tuning is important and fletching is important---but form rules---they all work together.

[Schmidty3]

Just put 6 of those little guys on! That will be a neat arrow! 3x 2 tandem 2"feathers

[3_dogs]

Schmidity3, I like that idea! Bet that would get some funny looks.

Well, I'm just going to use them. I'll see what happens when I put a broadhead with them. And don't worry, I won't be shooting anything with them if I'm not 100% confident on their flight.

Hope my post didn't cause any issues. I don't know a lot of people that shoot trad, so this is the a place that's easy for me to come to when I have questions. I'm not new to shooting, but definitely new to tuning trad bows correctly.

[Schmidty3]

As long as they aren't super noisy it might work for now.

Read what you can on tuning and get it dialed in.

Id work on getting something moderately close. Then focus hard on form and consistency. Once you can shoot semi consistently, move on to fine tuning. Plenty of good articles and comments. I like ol  Adcocks article.

[3_dogs]

I appreciate all the genuine responses on here. It's helpful to get opinions. That being said....

I'm not sure whether I'm going to ask questions on here in the future. Seems like anymore, people don't want to listen to each other or are looking for a fight. Pretty similar to today's political climate.  I wasn't on here to start a debate. I had a question, a real one and wanted to know what I should do. Again, thanks to those who gave me solid advice, it was much appreciated.

[Schmidty3]

I hear ya 3 dogs.

Terry is pretty straightforward about his opinions it seems. He's coming from a very experienced place though.

I'm just a young guy, but some of my best ideas have come from challenging commonly held beliefs. And sometimes you have to try things out yourself. The ultra FOC guys are on to something. And some of then use the 2" feathers.

Worst case scenario is they fly bad and you get better at fletching arrows so I say go for it.

(But I'd go 3x5" or 4x4" when it comes to hunting)

[Terry Green]

Steve...you are now making false accusations about me and putting words in my mouth.

 I never called Rodger Rothhaar anything and you know it.

And these comments keep coming at me about feathers and feather sizes. I said nothing about feathers or feather sizes or massive Fletch.

I said Point Blank  hunting with broadheads and no fetching was ridiculous.

This Thread is now closed