Fletching

[Woodely]

To spiral or not to spiral.  Is spiraling the fletching that important, I could see it at close shots but anything over 10 yards and the paradox goes away correct.  I always install the fletching straight on all my arrows.  I have noticed the odd arrow that porpoises near the 25-30 yard mark.   They are fine at 20 yards 

[rebsr52339]

Woodely, I have tried straight, and RH fletcht, 3", 4" and 5". out to 25 yds. I shoot a long bow, 43# and light wt, wood arrows, 370, to 390gr. I saw "almost" no difference in the flight of the arrow. I made 3 sets of each RH 3,4 and 5 and 3 sets each straight. The RH 5" fletch showed a very slight decrease in velocity thru my chronograph, ,on avg., 2 or 3 feet decrease at 20 yds.  I even took the fletching down to 1/4" high on the straight and RH 5", mixed the arrows, and saw little difference in the impact area. I did this over a 4 day period with a few hundred shots. I would say if your bare shafts do the same when setting up your bow/arrow combo., why wouldn't the results, bare and fletched, be close to the same. 

[Pat B]

I've always straight fletched with a slight offset. Your arrow will spin even with straight fletch because of the texture of the feather.
 I think with the "slower" bows we shoot the stability imparted by the spin isn't as critical as it would be with a bow shooting 300fps.

[rebsr52339]

Pat is right on the straight fletch. There is a slight offset in the fletching even when the core is straight and parallel on the shaft.

[Woodely]

Sort of what I thought about the diff between spiral and straight,  some guys prefer sprial over straight because of the paradox and snaky flite after release.  I use 4" fletching because I prefer more clearance using the glove and a lower brace height.

[DC]

I think if you shoot over 200-250 you may notice a difference in fletching. There's a lady at the range puts arrow after arrow in the ten ring and is constantly knocking off fletches. Even with a missing fletch she still puts them in the 10 ring. With two missing she can't hit the target

[Woodely]

"and is constantly knocking off fletches" ...why is she knocking off the fletching..?

Another quick question some archers say that 2 fletching works just fine,  Exactly how would you attach the feathers on the shaft, like have one hitting the handle or have them 45dg. to each other.

[DC]

"and is constantly knocking off fletches" ...why is she knocking off the fletching..?

One arrow hits the last ones and knocks off the fletches. She shoots a recurve and carbon arrows with plastic fletches. I have my suspicions that plastic doesn't glue to carbon all that well/easily.

[Pat B]

She probably shoots off an arrow rest. Plastic fletch doesn't work well off a shelf or off your hand.
 The Eastern Woodland Natives often used a 2 fletch using either tail feathers or secondary. I'll try to find some pics of Eastern Woodland 2 fletch.
You can set up a 2 fletch so it doesn't affect the release and add helical twist to them.

[DC]

Is there any info on how much fletching affects steerage as compared to just drag? For example would a very small flu-flu like fletch work just as well as say, normal 4" fletch?

[Pat B]

Drag is the steering and the spin from the feathers helps to stabilize the flight. Fluflus retard the flight so they would work but slow the arrow down too much for regular shooting. Ideally you want the smallest fletching that will still help correct paradox but still allow the arrow to go the distance.
 You might try different length and different height of fletching as well as straight, offset or helical fletching.

[1442]

4" fletch will have more surface exposed as the tail end varies out from line of trajectory like when porposing and more streamlined once everything straightens out. A small flu flu would apply a static amount of drag and slower recovery of any tail swings. I think
flu flus are designed to flutter and create maximum drag and slow the arrow down and even small ones would have that effect where fletching cuts through the air smoothly and more efficient.