Secondaries ... tips on making 'em as good as possible

[Knoll]

I have a bunch of secondary turkey feathers. And my hoarder tendencies won't let me throw 'em away.
Got any tips on how to make secondaries as good a fletching as possible?

[loon]

Make smaller fletchings? Do you shoot longer distances? sorry if i'm being useless

with a good spine match and release they should fly well at shorter distances too?

Koreans use pheasant feathers, wonder if quail would also work well... probably a lot softer than turkey?

[Pat B]

I've used secondaries for fletching with good results. They are a bit noisier than primaries but work well. They make good Cherokee 2 fletch also.

[DC]

I get my turkey feathers from a farm just down the road.She sells them to hobbiests and fly tiers at the farmers market. She pulls the feathers when they butcher the birds so they are all mixed together in big totes. Some of the feathers I'm getting I'm not sure if they are inner primaries or secondaries. Is there any problem mixing primaries and secondaries on the same arrow? Still only using all left or all right on each arrow of course.

[Pat B]

I think using feathers that are similar would be better but I doubt you'd notice much difference except more noise from the secondaries.

[Dakota Kid]

As long as it slows the a$$  end down it will do the trick. If it alters your arrow flight that much, it's probably more of a mental thing at that point. I often mix primaries and secondaries, not to mention species of bird, on the same arrow. I don't mix and match left & right wing. That will alter spin in flight. One of my current favorite hunting arrow looks is Canada goose primaries combined with an osage-dyed turkey primary for a cock feather. For some reason, I tend to use the two fletch with turkey tails on my shoot shafts where I prefer the three fletch on my doweled and boo shafts.