poor flight

[jayman448]

Im new to all this so i hope yall can help. Ive made a few arriws before that have flown well. Yesterday i completed a rose arrow with a knapped head and goose feathers. It flys terrible tho. I kind of glides and drifts about. Can this be fixed with beigger / longer fletchings? What causes this?

[Pat B]

Post a pic.  How long is the fletching? Do you have the stiff side of the shaft against the bow?

[aaron]

assuming a good release, good arrow flight is a combination of stiffness, length, point weight. Feathers can correct bad flight, but it's better to get it flying straight by adjusting one (or more) of the 3 factors above. If your stone point is lighter than your normal points that may be causing the issue. Can you tell if the arrow is flying with the feathers to the right or left? Did you use feathers from the same wing? Are you right handed?

[jayman448]

Two are actually from the tail. One is from the wing. The arrow shaft is 32" long. I hardend it but think i did a poor job. The fletchings are only 3.5" long. I do believe its balance is slightly too far back. The arrow tends to ether spiral to the target or go straight for a short while, kick the feathers left, then dive and glide low left till it straightens out about at the fifteen yard mark

[aaron]

If it spirals to the target, its probably the feathers..all 3 should match. More tip weight probably wouldnt hurt

[DC]

My first guess would be the fletching. All the feathers should be from the same wing. You can use tail feathers but you have to carefully think your way through the way they curve.

[jayman448]

i decided i would both add weight and redo the feathers. i decided id unwrap my haft, and wrap a layer of lead wire around the shaft to add more tip weight, then re wrap. re-fletching has not begun but i will do this as soon as possible and update the arrow flight

[Pappy]

Feathers should match ,no doubt, but sounds like tip weight to me. I bare shaft all my shout shafts and Cain with nothing but a field tip[broad head or napped point won't work bare shafting] to get the spine weight right before I fletch, using tip weight/length and maybe a little scrapping to adjust, they vary a lot shaft to shaft. Get it flying good with no fletch and then when you fletch you have a dart. Never done Rose but I would assume it wouldn't be much different tuning them.
   Pappy

[rover brewer]

I say it is the fletching, your tail feather are very different from your wing feathers.

[Pat B]

Each feather has a right side and a left side, no matter if it is wing or tail feathers. By using wing and tail feathers you have to be sure each has the same natural spiral or you will get odd flight characteristics.

[crooketarrow]

   Alot easyer with store bought arrows and center shot recurves.

  Self arrows is a totally different animal.  ARROW BUILT FOR THAT BOW will shoot as good as any other.

 If you've built arrows you know what I mean.