What is Quietest feather cut

[Longspur77]

Any opinions on what quietest feather cuts are.
I read taht banana cuts were or that the higher the back part is the noiser.

[nightowl1]

From my limited experience i think it is a combination of feather cut and how you choose to fletch,straight, offset, or helical.

I shoot shield cut but straight fletch and I don't hear a thing. But I also have some with a tight helical and they do make an extra whoosh sound. Nothing to be worried about but I can hear it.

Just might want to add that to the mix to help make your decision more difficult and confusing... glad i could help. haha

[Longspur77]

Yea, that cleared it up nightowl. I appreciate it i might just shoot bare shaft and not worry about it. It wont hurt my grouping anyway.Ha ha.

[Doc Nock]

Long read, but you can catch the jist scanning through it...

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=057257;p=9

[Ia Hawkeye]

Parabolic.

[tradtusker]

lots of factors other then shape as mentioned above

iv found banana and parabolic to be the quietest as far as shape

but more importantly i think it the height of the feather.  After reading what JC, Rob DiStefano and others found, was that if the Highest part of the feather is .5 " or less it makes for a much quieter feather.

also amount of Helical will give more noise.

play around with it and find a balance between acceptable noise and good control over the arrow even on a poor release
then go for what brings you the most confidence.

[JC]

I've found the ones covered with blood after a passthrough sound the best to me.    :D  

Dave's got it, that thread will tell you possibly more than you want to know. For me, 4" low profile banana in 4x90 configuration.

How ya been Doc? Long time no hear from!

[Jeff Strubberg]

The higher the fletch, the more noise.  THe feather gets progressively weaker the farther from the quill you go.  Higher cuts vibrate more, which means more noise.

Having said that, is fletch noise a problem?

[Richie Nell]

I like three 4" hand cut nanners with very slight helical.

I certainly may be wrong but it seems that the less degree of angles that are in the shape of feather the quieter it is.  

Perhaps other than the Adcock fletch which is a continous taper and straight down perpendicular back with turbulator.  Supposedly pretty quiet.  I just don't like it stickin in the corner of my mouth.


Yes I would say noise is a big problem.

[gudspelr]

I've read a few of these type of threads now and had a quick question.  Mods, please delete or modify if needed-don't want to hijack...

Have any of you had negative results while hunting because of the noise from fletching?  I've heard of jumping the string, do critters also jump the arrow?


Jeremy

[Richie Nell]

I think that they just instinctively react to noise.  Normally their reaction involves going down kind of like chambering to be able to spring away.

M2Cents

[Jeff Strubberg]

That was what I was getting at.  Maybe I'm missing something, but sound made by an arrow that's only travelling 20ish yards would seem to be a pretty minor issue.

[Longspur77]

I agree Jeff, about to fletch some and wanted to see what everyone thought about quietest type. Need every advantage i can get.

[Richie Nell]

sound made by an arrow that's only travelling 20ish yards would seem to be a pretty minor issue.

On several occasions I have shot at does at 10-12 yards with a 650ish gr. arrow traveling 175fps.  They dropped before the arrow got there.

It does matter.

[Jeff Strubberg]

I think we all have.  I'm not convinced that's because of arrow noise, though.  I've never seen a bow quieter than an arrow in flight.  

Don't I remember reading of someone setting up range tests for this?  Standing behind a plate or somethign halfway down a target range?  Seems I recall reading that they never heard the arrow before they saw it.  Of course, that's human reaction and processing time instead of a whitetail...

[CEO]

Had a chance to shoot inside a large vacant retail building one time. Acoustics greatly amplified fletch sound. Three friends & I shot several different type fletching. All agreed that low profile was much quieter than high profile. Fletch length made some difference but not as significant as height. Helical was noisier than slight offset. To are surprise we found that shield cut was quieter than parabolic. (Always herd the opposite.) Did not try banana cut. Don't know what this means, but if you hunt deer in vacant retail buildings and they hear like 50+ year old humans, than I go with low cut shields with slight offset.

[vtmtnman]

From my experiences,Parabolic would be first followed by Nanners.

Also,I use secondaries and primaries from wild birds,and found secondaries to be a little quiter than primaries.And they stabilized my BH's fine.

[sagebrush]

The only time I have had them jump was when they either heard an overly loud bow or they saw me drop the string.Gary

[Track]

Parabolic cut is the quietest by far. Banana and raptor cut sounds cool if you're not worried about noise

[Earthdog]

My own tests of every cut and every length I could get my hands on at the time showed that 2" Rayars were the quietest in flight.
Banana's came a close second.
All fletched helical where louder than if fletched either straight or with a slight off set.
If a person can hear an arrow in coming,then a deer with much better hearing plus the ability to pin point sound is certainly going to hear it coming,,,is that important ??.
To me it is,but I guess it depends on weather you just missed due to an animal not being there when your arrow arrived I guess.