feather profile variation

[clickerati]

I have parabolic feathers from several different manufacturers and they all seem to have varying profiles, as some are a tad shallower than others. Can I use them together or should I keep them as closely matched as possible?

Hello, I fletch my longbow & my Hun bow arrows with feathers, and I have just fletched a dozen Easton 2114's for the indoor winter shoots using a helical jig as an experiment.

Personally using plain logic I would keep all my fletching on a set and definitely on one shaft the same, different profile must in theory affect flight.

There again a lot of theory does not actually work in practice?

Hope This reply does not upset anyone??????

Pete

[wingate_52]

All fletchings and feathers should be the same on the set of arrows that you shoot at any one time. Any difference makes a difference.On my outdoor arrows all the plastic feathers are not only the same size but all 3 are the same colour and from the same batch .

[robtattoo]

As long as they're all from the same wing, on the same arrow, profile makes virtually no difference. I've fletched plenty of 'stump-shooters' with scraps & leftovers (shields & parabolics mixed, bananas with shields, you name it!) & they all fly fine! You'd be amazed at the liberties you can take with tradional gear, compared to the high-tech stuff. I always bare-shaft tune my wooden arrows anyway, so any fletching is going to help.
Don't get too hung up on trying to make everything look 'perfect' Just fletch 'em up & shoot 'em!

[steve58]

Originally Posted by robtattoo

As long as they're all from the same wing, on the same arrow, profile makes virtually no difference. I've fletched plenty of 'stump-shooters' with scraps & leftovers (shields & parabolics mixed, bananas with shields, you name it!) & they all fly fine! You'd be amazed at the liberties you can take with tradional gear, compared to the high-tech stuff. I always bare-shaft tune my wooden arrows anyway, so any fletching is going to help.
Don't get too hung up on trying to make everything look 'perfect' Just fletch 'em up & shoot 'em!

robtattoo, I bet you have been doing this longer than I have, but in my limited experience I have found that light arrows at longer distances seem to "parachute" with too much feather on them. I have a set with 3" parabolics and 70 grain piles for my 43 pound bow and they definitely lose their way above 60 yards. I have a set for my 53 pound bow that have 4" parabolics, I re-pointed them with 70 grains instead of 100 and they seem to behave in a similar way, although this shows up at 100 yards rather than 80. On the other hand I have a set with 3" "low shield" on from HiForce and they keep going beautifully out to 100, despite only having 63 grains on the front. I am sure I have read that it is the height, rather than the length, of the fletching that slows the arrow down and the length rather than the height that stabilises it? I am hoping to test this by trimming some fletchings to a lower profile, leaving them otherwise unaltered.

Just wish to clarify that the 2114's helical fletched that I mentioned on my first post are for my Bowtech Guardian compound, not my longbow or hun bow.

[BorderBows]

Robtattoo is pritty much right, the Helical VS straight is one issue, But the real issue sits in broadheads, this is where large surface area is what your looking for, as this helps make up for the slightly off angle wing of the boradhead, this is also where helical steps in 5-6" feathers are common for pointing broadheads in the right direction. Feathers that have large unsupported areas at any one end can have more noise due to flutter, the parabolics can reduce this. The Surface area is one of the bigger facts, and helical is another. The Bigger issue when starting is cost of arrows, as you tend to suffer from a steep learning curve and the cost is lost/broken arrows.

One of the problems with archery is learning to shoot well, you need a tuned bow/arrows, but to tune your bow you need to shoot well. Chicken/egg

[Ski]

Originally Posted by clickerati

I have parabolic feathers from several different manufacturers and they all seem to have varying profiles, as some are a tad shallower than others. Can I use them together or should I keep them as closely matched as possible?

It depends on what you want to use as an excuse, personally I would use a varied range of feathers on each arrow, then when the grouping is not up to standard I can say, "What do you expect from badly matched set of cocked up fletched arrows" Just another one to add to my 21 volume set of archery excuses.

[steve58]

Originally Posted by Ski

It depends on what you want to use as an excuse, personally I would use a varied range of feathers on each arrow, then when the grouping is not up to standard I can say, "What do you expect from badly matched set of cocked up fletched arrows" Just another one to add to my 21 volume set of archery excuses.

We had the best excuse ever at Wilford Bowmen's York in May... a helicopter came and hovered over the targets for a few ends! In truth I think he was a bit high to really make a difference, but then longbow arrows do fly a bit higher and slower!