Goose feathers

[Stone Knife]

A friend of mine stopped by yesterday, and said he was gearing up for our nuisance goose season that will open in about six weeks. He said he would save me the wings, how do the goose feathers work out for fletching compaired to turkey feathers? Him and his buddy shoot a lot of them so i could have a good supply.

[Jack Denbow]

James they work well, they are not as durable as turkey feathers though. I always have at least one arrow with goose feathers in my hunting quiver since they are water proof. I have one of the Great Northern feather grinding systems and grind my own. You can also send them to Raven Arrows and have them ground. You can even dye them, not a lot of change but enough to make them different. You will only get about 6-8 primary feathers per wing, though some of the smaller feathers will work for smaller fletch on kids arrows. Have fun.
Jack

[Jim now in Kentucky]

They are smoother textured than turkey feathers too. he seem to hold up as well in my limited experience. And, as said above, they are waterproof. I process all my feathers by splitting the quill, trimming off excess quill etc. I then put the feather in my fletching clamp and use a block sander to reduce the quill to final thickness.

Sometimes I strip the feathers instead. Much faster, but not as easy to glue on. When glued, however, the actual vane of the feather is right down on the shaft with not rough edges.

[Killdeer]

They are moulting now, so go on out to where they gather and pick up the prime ones. There are hundreds lying around on golf courses and near dryponds (pondings near buildings that control rainwater runoff). You can practice on them until the wings come in from the hunt.

Killdeer

[Luke Vander Vennen]

Save the secondaries as well as the primaries. I have found that some secondaries are stiffer than the primaries.