four fletch

[Charlie Lamb]

Roger makes a great point. It doesn't take much to steer a well tuned arrow under ideal conditions. Hunting conditions just can't be counted on to be ideal. I will not sacrifice arrow stability for anything and I will not minimize that stability for a foot or two per second. It just doesn't make that much difference unless you are mostly a target shooter.

[fujimo]

i concur Katman, however both carbons and wood will have one particular stiff side- even on the edge grain- one side can measure stiffer than 180 degrees over on the other side.
true- on good shafts though, its negligible.
 I too like 4 fletch- was just seeing if others had considered this

[Terry Green]

I don't believe radial wrapped carbons have a stiff side...but I could be wrong.  I never tuned for nock or feathers with mine.

[Kingstaken]

Fugimo are you saying your wood shafts are spine stamped and the side of the shaft that matches the other shafts spines and it doesn't matter which way the grain faces as long as they are matched??

[Zradix]

To me, 4 fletch makes a lot of sense on a hunting arrow. I always want lots of feather to steer a broadhead under hunting conditions...imperfect release, damp, etc.

x3 or whatever we're on...lol
I use 4-5" for that very reason.
My fletch is slightly lower profile than most to keep the noise down...but after doing the math I found that I still have more feather than a regular 3-5.5"

[SL]

I have shot both 3 and 4 fletch. Im currently using mostly 4" x 4 fletch which shoots great. I am slowly moving to 3" x 4 fletch since it shoots just as well for me even with BH's. I can't tell the difference other than the small 4 fletch is quieter in flight.

[fujimo]

Terry, i stand corrected.
when i first started shooting and shot carbons, the ones i had were a "rolled carbon construction"- and when i put them on a spine tester i saw a difference!
I gave up on carbons( not for that reason though) and have since shot wood exclusively. so i had to research " radial carbons" to get a better understanding.
thanks for the insight

[fujimo]

Sorry Kingstaken, i am not sure if i understood you correctly.
maybe i should explain a bit better- apologies- sometimes my fingers move faster than my brain
 the woods that i use, have been manually spine tested and so the spine has always been measured on the edge grain, i place the printed figures against the riser

[Zradix]

yeah.... should add that I shoot wood on my 4 fletch.
I mark my arrows so that I always nock them the same way.
I'm not sure if I'd ever notice the difference in spine when 180˚ different.....but for me confidence in consistency is a big help.

[katman]

I don't believe radial wrapped carbons have a stiff side...but I could be wrong.  I never tuned for nock or feathers with mine.

Rolling my shafts raising nock so arrow is at a 45 degree angle with pressure in the middle of arrow shows the stiff side easily. All my current shafts exhibit this, black eagle x-impact, easton axis, arrow dynamic stingers ,ad trads and widowmaker smash. I will mark the stiff side and orient nock in line with this then bareshaft shoot them to see that they group well before fletching

[Romanovich]

I have always used a 5 1/2" 4 fletch for 2 reasons, a heavy arrow with a 31" draw and I can nock an arrow for a quick shot and not have to worry about indexing the fletching.

[fujimo]

Katman, great observation, and good and simple method in dealing with it
is this something you have done for a while- or have you just started doing it.

if its a new process, i might also test them on the spine tester, orientated to that stiff side mark you have made , to make sure they are all in the same spine group.

i am not quite sure how the carbons are tested- do they only go on material content and diameter- or does the factory actually spine test them.
and if the do spine test them, it will be on an automatic spine tester- that will certainly not orientate the stiff side to the applied pressure.

[bigbadjon]

I have a thread on here where I spine tested a bunch  of shafts and recorded the spine variances. CX was the worst, one shaft had 17lbs of variance in a quarter turn. Easton was the best. Easton Axis has more than one stiff spot do to the way they are laid up but little variance around the whole shaft.

[fujimo]

do you have a link to that thread BBJ

[katman]

fujimo, been doing it since I switched from wood shafts many years ago. The original grizzlystick shaft had a seam I believe and they recommended finding and orienting the stiff side.

[Terry Green]

kat. The grizzly sticks I was sent years a go had a stiff spine side which I was told directly by them. None of my  radial wraps do...... Never adjusted for anything never had to never seen a need to.... I just fletched them and nocked them however they fell.... I was under the impression that was the whole purpose of radial wraps to get away from a stiff side....now I'm terriblly confused as I have totally defied this concept and physics for years with no consequences.

How can that be??? 

 I tend to believe the video posted above which I was told over 20 years ago..... Be for YouTube even existed

[Terry Green]

Kat... A must add I'm not saying what you're saying is not true..... I'm just saying I went by that code I was told and the code that is in the video.... And it worked out well for years and years without no involvement of me finding some sort of stiff spine.

[Orion]

I've gone to four 4-fletch over the past couple of years, mostly because I can get two fletches out of one feather. I cut them a little narrower, 1/2-inch high vs 9/16 for the three five inch I used previously.  Don't see any difference in arrow flight or stabilization. 

One nice feature of the shorter fletching is that the arrow gripper I use doesn't mash the front edge of the shorter fletching like it did the 5-inch fletching.  Of course, if you shoot a bow with a high brace height, that's not an issue.

Fujimo: If I understand you correctly, your arrow supplier stamps the spine and weight on the parallel grain.  That's a very nice feature. Basically finds and marks the stiff orientation for you.  That gives you two options for mounting the nock, either orienting the numbered side toward the side plate, or away from it -- its 180 degree flip side.   

[bigbadjon]

do you have a link to that thread BBJ

I can't find the thread where I compared a bunch of different brands, maybe it was on another site. I did find this one where I have detailed reading on some Axis and Bloodsport shafts.
http://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=95494.0

[katman]

Terry, maybe it is just me but if I rotate the nock 90 degrees the bareshaft will show weaker, not a bunch but some. I have an occasional bareshaft that requires tuning with nock position to get it in line with the others.

You do like a lot of feather so maybe that handles the slight difference for you. Another plus for four fletch.