Left wing or right wing?

[hillbilly61]

johnston... I just eyeball them. Every once in a while I get one that I missed the spacing a little   If I had a fletching jig , I probably it. Maybe

[JW_Halverson]

Out of sheer cussedness I once made up two dozen arrows with random locations of the fletching.  Each arrow was either right wing or left wing and the complimentary jig to the fletch, but the placement in relation to the nock orientation was random.  Some came out with the cock feather against the bow, others with one hen feather against the bow, some with two hen feathers against the bow, and minor variations of all of the above. 

Each arrow had a roman numeral written below the cock feather, I through XXIV.  I kept track and only one of the arrows flew funny.  It hit considerably lower than all the rest and consistently.  I weighed it and the shaft must have been a mis-weighted "blem" in the bunch, it was almost 100 grains heavier than the rest.  Nice thing about these arrows, they got me over the panic of trying to get the arrow nocked with the cock feather located "correctly" when I was making a quick follow up shot. 

I think matching the spine to the specific bow is much more critical.  Bare shaft shooting this double dozen made them the best shooting arrows I have played with in the 8 years I have been goofing with bows.

[johnston]

Ok so I have been worrying about stuff that don't matter. Got a half dozen canes that I was real selective with and put on a  two feather peacock fletch just for fun and they flew better than some that I was trying to be "serious" with. Thanks guys.

Lane

[JW_Halverson]

I once had a B.S. artist try to explain to me how the Coriolis Effect dictates how we need to use right wing in the Northern Hemisphere and left wing in the Southern Hemisphere!  The guy was so obviously talking out his exit orifice the people standing around at the Rendezvous immediately threw a bucket of water on him on the spot and loudly proclaimed he was the newly elected high chief of the Walking Eagle Clan (too fulla s**t to fly!).

I have come to the conclusion that if I strain too hard to get every little detail matched perfectly on my arrows I'm wasting time.   For example imagine the most accurate off-the-shelf rifle made.  Shoot a 5 round group offhand on a windy day.  Complain about how inaccurate the rifle is, take it to a gunsmith and have the trigger improved, a custom rifled barrel installed, handload the most perfectly matched box of ammo, and install handpolished swiss-made optics installed and head back out and shoot the same groups offhand on another windy day.  You see gadget shooters doing this all the time at the archery shops, their homes are littered with good quality equipment they have "upgraded".

All our bow shots are offhand, I can't for the life of me figure out how to shoot a bow off bench.  Make good enough arrows and call it a day.  Work on a smooth release to take advantage of whatcha got.  Thus ends my sermon for the day.  Man, I sound pretty pompous some days.

[johnston]

But John you are right about shooters trying to improve everything except their ability. I don't have much confidence in arrows I make cause at this time I make awful arrows. With good arrows I feel I can do ok shooting. I will with help and time make better arrows. I hope.javascript:void(0);