4 or 5 fletch

[Blacktail]

i have seen some good deals on ebay about 4'' feathers..does any one shoot them...i have only shoot 5".it seem the more feather you have the more air you get...john

[jonathan creason]

It really shouldn't matter if your arrows are spoons to match your bow.  They both will work, but the 5 inchers will help stabilize the arrows if they don't match.

[markinengland]

If your shooting field/3d points then in my opinion 4 inches is enough. More feather may be needed if you're shooting broadheads.

[gstoneberg]

It really depends on how well your arrow's spine matches your bow.  I shot next to a guy this summer who was shooting a glass recurve at 40 yards with bare shaft arrows mixed in with his 4" fletch.  They were shooting into the same group.  Granted, his bow was more center shot than my osage, but it was still an impressive display of fine tuning arrow spine and nock placement.  When I'm shooting cedar I shoot 4", so far my primitive arrows have used 5" or longer fletch.  If you intend to wrap the front and back of the fletch, 4" may be too short as you'll lose some fletch to get to the quill.

George

[Stingray45]

What others have said about spining correctly. I typically use 4" LW parabolic fletching on my arrows. But most of the time I'm shooting from a glass longbow that is center shot and carbon arrows. Just started getting into selfbows last year and never made anything I felt was heavy enough for hunting. Just got a nice heavy osage in the bow trade and I'm making up some tonkin cane shoots to go with it, on those I plan to use 5" turkey feathers because it isn't center shot. However I have shot some carbon express heritage shafts with 4" fletchings and they shoot pretty good. So to make a short answer long, it's all about the spine. I've heard many times if you spine your arrows correctly feathers are pretty much just decoration.

~Barry

[MWirwicki]

I shoot 5/16 shafts at mostly 26" long, sometimes shorter shafts for my plains style bows.  I fletch them with 4" feathers.  If I were shooting 28" 11/32 shafts, I would fletch them with 5-inch.  The technical reason:  it just looks better (IMO). 

Maybe for me its similar to the old adage that says, shooting a 23/64 shaft through a kids bow is like shooting a broom handle through our adult bows. 

My arrows seem to correct themselves fine past 10 yards and I think that there is less air drag so, maybe they're faster.  They definitely are quieter.  Again, no science here.  Just feels right.  I don't chrono.   I'm not much of a technical nut when it comes to our primitive bows.

[Blacktail]

thanks so much for the help.i wanted to ask before i buy..i think i will stick with 5 inch just for the fact of hunting reasons..john

[gstoneberg]

I did a little fletching testing before the last elk hunt I was on a few years ago.  That was not a primitive bow, but it was a recurve.  Going down from 5" to 4" fletch got me 5 yards or more of additional range before the trajectory got bad.  The smaller fletch also flies truer in the wind as it doesn't weathervane as badly.  But, with a primitive bow I'm not trying to shoot as far and my arrows aren't as straight.  The larger/longer fletch is a very good thing then.  I have choppers for 4", 5" and 5.5" highback.  Those 5.5" feathers aren't that far from flu-flus.

George

[Pappy]

I usually use 4 in. feathers,if the arrows are right for the bow they work fine, other reasons are, the feather don't touch the riser of the bow,they shoot faster and flatter,I can get 2 feathers out of most turkey feathers,with 5 in. sometimes you will only get one.  If you have to have big feathers to get good arrow flight you got a problem with your set up.
   Pappy

[FAW]

I am starting to think as I get into this primitive stage that 4" feathers would be the maximum size required, at least for bamboo arrows or thin shafting. This is coming from a guy who always used 5 1/2" fletching and heavy arrows and bows. Now, I am in the 45-50 pound bow category, 500 grain weight and the larger fletching appears to be overkill.