Tom vs Hen feathers??

[bowless]

Need to buy some wild turkey feathers and found a site that sells Tom and Hen feathers but with the Hen you get a lot more.  Is there much of a difference between the two?  

Thanks,

[b.glass]

I don't know but I can't imagine there is much difference except for maybe length of full length feathers.

[Orion]

Sounds like someone is pulling a fast one.  On the arrow, there are hen and cock feathers, denoted by their position on the shaft.  As far as I know, there is no difference in feathers between a male and female turkey, particularly pen raised birds.  Are they using Tom and Hen to describe primaries and secondaries?  Secondaries don't make as good a fletching as primaries.  Softer and lower oil line.

[bowless]

No, they just say there's more in a pound of hen feathers over tom feathers because of the size of the quill, they sell by the pound.  I just wonder if the feather itself is as thick on the hen as the Tom. Rainbow feathers is the place, seems like a good price.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

The tom feathers are brighter.... Just like another bird, the males are the brighter ones... This helps in camoing in the nest/Hen

[Davesea]

I just read the fact that Tom Feathers are thicker than Hen feathers and that they should not be mixed on fletching an arrow.  Trueflight uses only Tom feathers for the fletching they sell.

[magnus]

Do yourself a favor and get a hold of Stringstretcher. He's a sponsor here. You'll get the best natural turkey feathers for your money.

[vtmtnman]

I've collected both from wild birds.I found the hen feathers were cleaner and the ends weren't damaged from the bird strutting.Those were the only differences I found other than being a touch shorter.

[Stumpkiller]

I go with Vtmtnman on the wear & tear.  I raise Narragansett turkeys and the toms beat the crap out of their flights dragging them around (year round, not just for a season).  They may be stiffer and larger, however.


    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/Stumpkiller/Chickens/HPIM0601.jpg

[SEMO_HUNTER]

You might notice a difference in the sound of them as they fly on their way to the target. Depends on if they came from a young hen or a fully mature adult hen. I wouldn't buy the hen feathers unless I knew what size bird they came off of. The difference will be in what you hear.

I fletched some with feathers that came off a young bird and they literally screamed when shot. Refletched with feathers off of a mature tom and they were instantly silenced.

You may get less tom feathers per pound, but you will notice a difference in the stiffness and durability I'm sure.

That's just my personal experience with them.

+1 on Stringstretcher, he's the guru on turkey feathers......give him a buzz.

[Swinestalker]

I have learned much from this thread gentleman!  

[Davesea]

I am working with StringStretcher on this.  He provided me with some full length barred feathers and I noticed that the thickness of the barbs was different than the commerical feathers I was using.  I didn't think much of it.  

Then I was reading an older book (The Complete Archery Book (Arco Sports Library), by Louis Hochman), great resource by the way, and it mentioned that Hen and Tom feathers have different thicknesses and should not be fletched on the same arrow together. Either all Tom or all Hen.  I checked with Trueflight and sure enough they only use Tom turkey feathers.  

Not sure anyone knows how much of an effect it would have on arrow flight mixing the feathers?  I am sure this is too obscure of a subject to have anyone test it out.

[stringstretcher]

And just to clarify things a little.  I pulled out 50 of the thickest feathers I could find from all my feathers, ground them and just sent them to Davesea this morning.  Are they Tom or Hen, have no idea.  But if he is still unsatisfied, he can have his money returned.

When I get the feathers back from Davesea that was not to his liking, I will take a look at them to see what the difference is.  I make mistakes as well, but I can not get enough turkey feathers to use the same feather from each individual wing to make all the thickness the same.

I will be more than glad to refund any one's money who does not like my feathers, it's just that simple.

[Orion]

A thicker feather may be a bit more durable than a thinner feather, but it makes absolutely no difference to shootability or noise if the feathers aren't the same thickness.

Or let me put it another way.  There's no one who can shoot the difference if there is one, and one would need some sort of testing machine to pick up sound/volume differences. Some shapes are noisier than others, ragged feathers are noisier than non-ragged feathers, feathers of the same shape but not exact same size may be a little noisier, but feather thickness (not stiffness) differences don't register.

Age of the bird and time from last moulting has as much influence on feather thickness as whether they come off of a male or female bird. Females are smaller than males and thus have somewhat smaller (primary) feathers.  However, the additional height of larger males feathers is discarded anyway when standard size fletches are cut from the wing.  Because the male feathers are also somewhat longer, it may be possible to get two 4-5-inch  fletches out of one feather, whereas that may not always be possible with shorter hen feathers. Even color variations of the wing primary feathers (not the rest of the body feathers) will vary more from one bird to another within a sex than they will between the sexes.

If we're talking primary wing feathers, there's just not enough difference between Tom and hen feathers to worry about.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

So am I reading this correct Orion, your saying that the feathers off of a young bird and their thickness won't make any difference in how they sound whey shot?

If so, I beg to differ. I've experienced it first hand, and not only were they noisy but they actually screamed all the way to the target. Same style, same length, same fletch, same helical, just a different age turkey.
I fletched 3 arrows with a young bird....they whistled, screamed, whatever you want to call it.
Stripped them off and immediately fletched with mature tom primaries and they were completely silent.
The young bird was undoubtedly less than a year old, and the tom was at least a year and a half old. Noticeably thicker feather, longer, and much beefier when chopped.

Just my experience is all.

I'd also like to add that Stringstretcher is a top notch guy and he is true to his word, I honestly believe that. The feathers he sent me on a trade were perfect, but I grind my own and only needed some primaries. He sent me plenty on trade and even some extra, he is a man of his word. I would deal with him in confidence any day.  

[Davesea]

Ya I figured the effect would be imperceptible.  I was fine with what Charlie sent me, more curious than anything.  It will be intersting to see if I can notice the difference just by looking at them.  Thanks for the help Stringstetcher.  Very nice grinding and feathers by the way.