quietest fletch cut?

[Andy Cooper]

I've noticed a whirring sound, when I shoot arrows helically fletched with 3 5" banana cut feathers, that is not present with the other shapes. Anyone done any checking to see what the quietest shape is?  Does length affect the sound?

[rastaman]

Quietest feather cut  
   Quietest feather cut search 2

Here are a couple of older threads on the subject. In my experience and my subjective opinion, parabolics are quieter for me, but i shoot them and shield cut.  Right now i am shooting 4 x 4 inch shield cut.

[Andy Cooper]

Thanks Randy!

[sbschindler]

parobolics are given the nod for being quiet thats what i've heard anyway

[Bjorn]

Yep, I found parabolics the most quiet and bananas to be the loudest.

[Night Wing]

I'll third it for parabolic feathers.

[lpcjon2]

I found any cut that is low profile to be quiet. I burn my own pattern(kinda like a trad cut) but a little lower than a shield cut and they are super quiet.JMHO

[Lee Robinson .]

Parabolic.

[magnus]

My 4-4" straight offset banana are very quiet.

Keeping the Faith !
Magnus

[Jim Wright]

Never had a parabolic fletched arrow make any noise,(unless there is a gap in the glue line) but shields have to be cut LOW or else they are commonly noisy.

[rick7]

parabolics are the quietest for me

[JRY309]

I think height and length has the most to do with feather noise.Parabolic is quiet,but I had some 5.5" high back parabolic's that were noisy too.

[stickbowhntr]

For me if I keep the height under 5/8in they saty pretty quiet , even bananas. I try to keep my stuff like 1/2in high.

[Mike Vines]

I shoot 5 3/8" banana feathers I burn myself, and I have never heard a noise, and I have asked others, and they say the same thing.

[Andy Cooper]

Mine are 5" and done with a chopper...they're probably too high, judging from the comments here. Maybe I'll do a test starting high and gradually reducing the height to see where the noise begins.

[2fletch]

What Bjorn said. Parabolic are the quietest and banana and maxi are the loudest.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I chop my own full length feathers and grind my own natural turkey feathers, then chop all of them shield cut 4.75" and I have not noticed any noise at all with factory full length feathers or adult turkey wing feathers.

I did have some that whistled when they flew, but they were off of a young bird. The feathers are too thin unless the bird is mature like a gobbler or old adult hen. Then they are whisper quiet.

I've also fletched parabolics and they are really quiet, but the longest I have fletched in those is 4"

I actually found that carbon arrows make more shaft noise than the feathers do, but my woodies make no noise at all. I think the woodies actually help deaden the noise of the bow some also.

[Don Stokes]

For the same amount of surface area, shorter and taller = louder, longer and lower = quieter.

[BobCo 1965]

Another vote for parabolics (from the types that I have tried anyway).

[Jeff Strubberg]

The taller the fletch gets, the weaker the quill of the feather and the more it will vibrate in flight.  This gets wose with cheap feathers or, as SEMO pointed out, feathers from a young bird.


Result = noise.

I think the quietest I ever used were some low profile bannanas I chopped myself.  Unfortunately they looked awful and were long enough that I had to watch my brace height to keep 'em off the riser of my bow.