4 or 5 inch feathers

[30pointbuck]

Which feathers do you guy's prefer to shoot with, i've tried 5" feathers and just can't for some reason get them to fly right, the 4" feathers fly great what could cause this?  

[ishoot4thrills]

Maybe your 5" feathers are high profile and making too much contact with the side of your bow?

I use 4" feathers and love them.

[cyred4d]

How much helical do you have on them? Too much could also be making contact with the riser.

[Friend]

I believe the previous responses to be viable and worth while ivestigating.

I, myself have had no issues with either.

[Trad Whitetail]

What ishoot4thrills and cyred4d said - also you could be on the very edge with your spine and the five inch could be making them spine too stiff, though I bet the other two situations are more likely.  What do you mean by they don't fly right?  FWIW I shoot four inch exclusively and if tuned properly they will stabilize any broadhead you want.

[Night Wing]

I prefer to shoot 3, 5" parabolic feathers with 11 degrees of helical twist. The feathers themselves are spaced 120 degrees apart. I've been shooting this combination for 47 years.

[30pointbuck]

Im shooting the jaguar 50#@28" 2117 gamegetterII
32" with 125 gn. ft. am i over spined ?

[30pointbuck]

Im thinking the 5" flight problem is a clearance
issue. I use a 2 prong rest on the jaguar and the vanes i believe are hitting the side of the rest not much room for clearance unless it's a perfect release, and im not there with that yet.

[Charlie Lamb]

So what is it? Feathers or plastic vanes?

[30pointbuck]

Feathers.

[Rob DiStefano]

unless there's THAT much difference 'tween yer 4" and 5" feather shapes and locations, i think it's all in yer mind ...

[30pointbuck]

The 5" feathers are shield cut high profile. The 4" are not shield cut but are round in back and much lower in profile and there is a big diff. in where the 4" hit vs. the 5" they are all over the place. with bad fishtail. The 5" vanes that is.

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by 30pointbuck:
The 5" feathers are shield cut high profile. The 4" are not shield cut but are round in back and much lower in profile and there is a big diff. in where the 4" hit vs. the 5" they are all over the place. with bad fishtail. The 5" vanes that is.

well sir, there ya go!

[trad_bowhunter1965]

I might be wrong be doesn't the Martin have an adjustable rest that you can move in and out, the best thing is to do is bare shaft tune it will tell you a lot, like if you nock high or nock low, weak spine or stiff spine then you can make adjustments, if your arrow is properly spined your feathers will not touch your bow. There a lot of go folks that posted ways to tune all kinds of traditional bow you just have to ask, I love this site.Blake

[30pointbuck]

Yes the jag has an adj rest on it it's just a cheap plastic one that wears out arter 50 shots so i put on a NAP Quicktune 3000 with micro adj. When you bare shaft tune how far away do you stand from the target.I too love this site...

[Pandaros]

I'm shootin four 5" shield-cut straight flecth and they stabilize nicely.

[30pointbuck]

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO, Thanks a million fellas, i just for the first time bare shaft tuned my bow and sure enough it was so far out of tune it wasen't funny. I first found the center of my limbs moved my Rest in to where the tip was just outside (left)of center. Bare shaft tuned. the only thing i had to adj was the knock height. Now the 5" feathers flY as good as the 4" You guy's are the best thanks for all the help.
WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO.....    

[Terry Green]

Sounds like the issue is with the HEIGHT of the feathers not the length.

[30pointbuck]

Thats what i thought but all is well now.