Feather Question

[BrokenArrow]

 Is a right or left wing feather better than a centered feather?

[Pat B]

There are no centered wing feathers. They are either from the right wing of the bird or the left wing of the bird. The last 3 or 4 big feathers at the end of the wing are the primary flight feathers and the feathers from there in to the body are the secondary flight feathers.

[JW_Halverson]

Primaries are attached to the carpometacarpus (or the hand ) portion of the wing, the rest are secondaries.  Every species of bird has different numbers of primaries and secondaries.

I wonder if you are asking if left or right helical is better than straight fletch.  I would have so say for the slower and heavier arrows that we shoot, compared to the hyperkinetic knitting needles shot from wheel bows, yes a little helical twist will help stabilize the arrow and improve consistency.

[Lehtis]

I´ve heard/read that right handed should use left wing feathers and vice versa.... but most I know here are using right wing feathers, because of availability, I think. The reason for this was told that the feathers would resist wear better this way when passing the arrow shelf/knuckles. Then, I´ve also read that some people have been doing tests by shooting arrows fletched with both left and right wing feathers in same set and no difference was found between them. Naturally, the feathers in each arrow were from same side wing.

Both types can be attached on the arrows either straight or helically according to their natural curvature; don´t force them to "wrong" direction.

[Pappy]

I use left, availability should be the same unless you are killing a bunch of 1 winged birds. sorry had to say that.   I don't see any difference in either, Not sure what you are asking but for left I cant it up the shaft the way the feather naturally wants to go and the same for right. Just don't want to mix them. 
  Pappy

[Tree_Ninja]

I've heard that it's just preference what feather you use. 

 As long as you use the same for all your arrows, you should get "predictable" flight and consistent pattern. I find natural feathers will almost always try and be helical naturally.  All my turkey feathers I fletched straight, but had to "force" them into it.

 I think from now on with my goose feathers I will use helical.

 I dye them different colors for left vs right (red=commie=right  ). I also organized them in brown paper bags. (left primary, left secondary, right primary, right secondary etc.)

Never mix them. (unless you want to sabotage someone)

[Pat B]

These are 6 hill cane Art Butner made for me, I did the fletching. 3 are right wing feathers and 3 are left wing. I use an offset straight fletch on all, 3 offset to the right, 3 offset to the left. They all flew great and I couldn't tell the difference.