Query on tangential fletching

[Cypresswolf]

Hey Troops!
I have been gone from this website on a long " hiatus"!
Got a fast question on tangential fletching! Has anyone done any tangential fletching using a 4 fletch ? If so , how was accuracy and overall performance of the arrows?

[Sojurn]

Forgive me if I'm slow to pick this up,  but by tangential do you mean offset? As in opposition to helical? 
  Offset or helical, I don't think it matters a ton, but if I have a choice I'll take helical.
  As far as 4 fletch vs 3 goes,  with 4 fletch you can run shorter fletchings, get the same amount of surface area, while reducing your cross wind profile. 
  Also,  there's no cock vane to worry about.  That's a convenience.

[Cypresswolf]

Yes Sojurn,I am referring to offset!
Thanks for your reply. I am getting ready to refletch some of my arrows and thought it might be a good time to try something different! Supposedly 4 fletch is away of getting
a quicker flatter trajectory to the arrow.Also tangential offset fletching should give the arrow a little more velocity( minium)but still slightly more! So with that combination ,
hope to see a slight improvement in accuracy! So we will see!

[Sojurn]

I didn't see much of any difference between offset and helical in speed over distance.   But if that's something you're interested in, give vanes a try.
  They shoot quieter, and hold speed better than feathers. 

[McDave]

An article on helical vs. straight fletching came out in Traditional Bowhunter several years ago, which concluded that there was no advantage in helical fletching over straight fletching, but there was a loss of speed with helical fletching.  We debated that here at the time, and I have looked for followup articles, but I haven't seen anything that would contradict the original article.  I still use helical fletching out of habit as much as anything else, but I have quit believing that it is more accurate than straight fletching.

[Cypresswolf]

Thanks for the info!
I shoot fairly heavy arrows and was thinking( Which is dangerous for me) that when I go to shooting broadheads,that tangential fletching with 4fletch design might give a slight
Improvement to the arrow getting on the flat trajectory plane a little faster .

[Cypresswolf]

Forgot to mention that I shoot hybrid longbow made by Rick Welch that shoots these heavy arrows exceptionally fast! So if I can get flatter trajectory with the 4fletch tangential fletching,thenI am " Happy Camper"!_

[Rob DiStefano]

I want my broadhead arrow to straighten out as quickly as possible, so I fletch a full helical for a 5-1/2" custom burnt, 3 feather, high fletchings.

[Gdpolk]

Short answer:
It is a negligible difference in the real world at traditional bowhunting distances and arrow speeds.  Do whatever you like and enjoy the hunt with a well tuned arrow for your bow.

Long answer:
Anything that increases surface area of your fletching and/or wind resistance has three affects on arrows worth noting:

• The more feather you have the more it can stabilize arrow flight and help steer the arrow.  This can be accomplished with longer fletchings, taller fletchings, less aerodynamic shapes of fletchings, and/or increasing the helical offset.  This is raw physics at work.
• The more feather you have, the more drag is placed on the arrow which in turn means you will have more deceleration from that drag during flight.  It will not have any noticeable affect on arrow speed out of the bow but will result in a loopier trajectory over distances.
• The more feather/wind resistance you have the more noise the feathers will make during flight.

All of that said, 5" shield cuts are some of the largest and noisiest and highest drag feathers in the archery world and yet they have been used on literally every single species successfully harvested with a bow.  What this tells me is in the real world its a small to negligible debate.  Our time and energy with arrow building is more productively spent on building arrows that are tuned well to the archer and bow, learning marksmanship with the bow, and learning woodsmanship in our pursuits of game animals.

[Cypresswolf]

Great response!
Guess this puts this Subject in the right perspective!
Thanks!

[Terry Green]

I know that a muzzle loader is no where near as accurate as a rifle due to spin.  I use 5 inch helical or off set, depending on the supplier, as spin make for a more accurate shot. 2ndly, I like it for when my feathers get wet.  The 5 inch 4 fletch takes my arrows out of the equation as I do not have to worry about them at all no matter what mother nature throws at me.

[MnFn]

I have never tried big  fletch, I’ll have to try them. I do like four fletched arrows.

[McDave]

Not sure about any 'article', heck, I can wtite an article, but I know that a muzzle loader is no where near as accurate as a rifle due to spin.  I don't buy into articles, I buy into self experience and physics.  I use 5 inch helical or off set, depending on the supplier, as spin make for a more accurate shot. 2ndly, I like it for when my feathers get wet, it add more to flight than micky mouse feathers.  The 5 inch 4 fletch takes my arrows out of the equation as I do not have to worry about them at all no matter what mother nature throws at me. I'm not a 'back yard' hunter.

The thing about the article is that the author offered evidence to back up his claims, not just anecdotes or personal preferences.  He addressed the issue of spin, and how it improves the accuracy of a rifle bullet.  His tests indicated that an arrow would have to spin much faster than it does with helical fletching to gain any significant accuracy.  The level of testing that the author did was not on the same level as the tests Dr. Ashby did to demonstrate that EFOC arrows penetrate better than regular arrows, but it was along the same path.

We all know that arrows with helical fletching work just fine for our uses and distances in traditional archery, which is why I was not persuaded to change.  Heck, I spend half my time tuning and tweaking my helical fletched arrows, and I have no desire to start all over again with straight fletched arrows for a marginal improvement that would probably get lost in the background noise at my skill level.  But traditional hunters with sufficient skills do hunt at 40 yard distances here in the west, and anyone out here who wishes to participate in 3D tournaments has to be able to at least hit the target at 50 yards.  So if I were sufficiently skilled to hunt or be a serious contender at those distances, I would definitely do some side by side testing of straight fletch and helical fletching to determine which way I wanted to go.

[Friend]

Excellent info....thank you...

[Jim Jackson]

I've noticed that some post a lot and some kill a lot,....  I'm going with those that actually kill a lot. 

CNN fake news network... tbm will print anything.  How gullible are you?

[Bamboozle]

HA!!!! Russia Russia Russia!!!

Fake bs

[Russell Southerland]

People that believe articles instead of their own observations are.... well, let's leave it at that

[Sojurn]

The OP doesn't have his own observations, and that's why he was asking. He also said he hasn't been here in a while so let's not drive him away by bickering.
  I dont believe anyone is saying you can't shoot accurately 50 yards with 5 inch helical feathers, but instead it's being said you'll have less drop and drift with 4 shorter vanes. Especially if they are wet.
  This is a shooting and arrow configuration question, not necessarily a long range hunting one.

[Cypresswolf]

Well stated Sojurn!
Thanks!

[Kirkll]

A few years ago I did a bunch of testing with both high and low profile fletching, straight mount and helical, and even tried the off set straight fletching.

My observations were the larger fletching with helical corrected the arrow much quicker coming out of paradox than the smaller low profile fletching, but lost velocity down range quicker. They also made a bit more noise.

It was just the opposite using those tiny low profile  2” feathers  in a straight 4 fletch. Those babies really wagged their tails coming out of the chute a lot more.  I was playing with EFOC a bit , and those arrow set ups favored small fletching, but really needed to bare shaft perfectly to get decent flight…… Alas…. My experiments with EFOC arrows was short lived. Didn’t care for the trajectory issues shooting long distance. I even played with quick spin nocks a bit, but those are tough on strings.

I think out of all the arrows I’ve built and hunted with I like the 3 fletch 4” LP feathers with a serious helical the best. Good recovery out of paradox, nice spin to them, and a we bit better trajectory out there at 50-60 yards fr 3D.

But it’s all in what you get used to shooting as far as trajectory goes. I’ve seen some amazing archers shooting seriously heavy shafts with 5.5” banana fletching at much slower speeds , that could put those arrows where ever they wanted them….
 

Kirk