Complete novice here. I have gone through much arrow information, but I still have many questions. I realize that the answer for many of these is "it depends." Arrow Wraps- Yes/No what do they accomplish Fletching- straight, offset, or helical? Where does a novice begin Arrow Length- I have read many opinions from .5" longer than draw to 2" longer than draw Cut your own- Does cutting your own provide a better result by precise lengths/end straightening? Please share your opinion and/or advise. I see I have much to learn. By the way I am shooting a Bear Inception-70#-29" draw length Thank you
Arrow Wraps - I’ve never used them. Mostly, because it’s just one more thing to do. They help with finding your arrows. Most might say that they make removing vanes easier when you need to refletch arrows. They can help show blood better on pass-through shots. I just use white vanes instead. Fletching - I use helical with offset. I also fletch my arrows in the direction that the bare shaft spins as it comes off my bow. Some research shows that this has little effect, but I don’t think it has to help more than hurt. Helical and offset help to get the arrow spinning faster, helping to stabilize the arrow more. This is more helpful with fixed-blade broadheads. Ironically, with helical/offset, the arrow slows down faster once down range a bit. Arrow length - As a beginner, the safest recommendation is to cut the arrow so that the broadhead is complete past your bow hand at full draw. People shorten the arrow to make the arrow stiffer and to reduce the total arrow weight. Cut your own - People cut their own for 2 major reasons. 1.) They feel they can produce a higher quality assembly (particularly squaring the ends) than the bow shop. 2.)They want to tweak the spin-matching of the arrow to their setup. Reference my earlier comment that shortening the length stiffens the arrow. This is done to tune the arrow’s flight straightness or weight. It can be an iterative process, so many will have to do this themselves rather than constantly having the shop to tweak things. @StraightWayOutdoors Straight Way Outdoors, Fulcrum Archery, Elite Archery, Upwind Odor Elimination, Wicked Twisted Bowstrings
Fantastic information. Thank you StraightWayOutdoors. This is the information that matters. I appreciate your input. Ken
You’re welcome. Let us know if you have more questions! Good luck!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wraps- they do what Plano said and honestly never felt the need to use them Fletching- you probably won't notice a bit of difference unless you are using a big fixed head. I have used straight 2" Blazers and have had pinpoint accuracy out to 110 yards with field points, mechs, and smaller fixed heads. I use a 3* now but I am a lot more anal about this than I used to be because I use bigger fixed heads and I want the arrow to straighten out as fast as it can. I also use a RH because almost all single-beveled heads (another topic entirely) are RH. Makes no sense to have the bevel and helical offset- massive energy dump at impact Arrow length- I have same DL and weight as you and have used off the shelf factory cut (31") shafts with no issues. If they come from the factory in another length I get them cut to 31 Cut my own- I do not. I do, however, take a arrow squaring device to all my shafts, and I always install my own inserts Being honest with you and myself, the most accurate arrow I have ever shot was a Victory RIP .204 300 with 2.5" shield-cut vanes, 75gr brass HIT insert, and 100gr heads with 15gr VPA footers (just looked and it appears the guy who ran VPA went out of business.) One thing you did not ask - spine. I would use minimum of 300. Personally I use a 250. (Spine is rated in reverse; with some random brand exceptions) But I have 100gr brass inserts. I used to use 340 and could get my arrows to tune but that was with stock 15gr aluminum inserts and 100gr heads. You are pushing the edge of being underspined at that point, anything heavier up front you want 300 spine or 250.
@Kenneth Bradley Can I springboard off your post here? Id also like to know a bit more about fletching /vanes preferences. ig. "Turkey Feather" vs Plastic Vanes & Vane Length. I see and have shot 1.5inch to 4 inch vanes but have not seen much of a difference in performance. I feel the feathered vanes are less resilient but is there a performance difference between them? @Planopurist @dnoodles (tagging you guys cause you had some good answers.)
Thanks for the dap. There is no reason at all for a compound shooter to use "feathers" over vanes. None.
By the way, I say this as a LH shooter. I know some people say the helical should match the direction of the shooter, but that really only applies to trad shooters using the riser and then only shooters not using a beveled head for reasons I said above. I also don't give gear/ tech advice that I wasn't confident about having the background to give. There's too much money involved and I'd never steer anyone wrong by popping off on something I didn't really feel I knew. If I'm off by more than 4" at 100 yards it was me or the wind, not my equipment. I know what my gear is capable of long as I do my job. If it can't keep up with me I won't use it much less recommend it.
I'll add that a arrow comes off the string in a rotation. Either to the right or left. Once you know the direction you can assist that rotation via helical vanes. The entire point is to make your shafts spin there by increasing accuracy, penetration and decreasing porposing/undulation. But honestly if you are not bare shaft, french and paper tuning your rig it doesn't matter much. Arrows and bow tweeking is a big rabbit hole. Fun yet deep. Let us know if you wanna go down it and lots of us are happy to help.
Lots of good information already sent to you. Let me add: Wraps are primarily decorative, that's it. On the other hand they can help to locate your arrow after a miss, if you use white they can help you determine the color of blood after you shoot an animal. I used reflective wraps once to see arrows with a flashlight after dark to find lost arrows. Bigger pain than it was worth and that extra wrap can make the arrow easier for a deer to spot in flight and duck the arrow. Save the wraps for target archery if you like that look and want to mess with them. As a novice I recommend you get some time in with archery then add them later. I don't mess with them anymore. Early on I decided to use helical. Seemed to me more spin is better for arrow stabilization, especially in wind, and most sources will tell you that, but everyone has their own ideas on this. Some people put a lot of credence in fletching in the direction, left or right, your arrow comes off the bow. That's cool. Unless you are a competitive tournament archer I don't think you are going to see any difference. Even a tournament archer I know who follows this scheme is skeptical as to it's value. I chose right helical so the arrow tip is screwed tighter on the arrow as it enters a target butt. As a beginner I would recommend you use helical or at least offset vs. straight. Helical is probably the most used method. Right or left is up to you. If you are going to fletch your own, and why not do so, it's fun and you get what you want that way, then get yourself a bitzenberger fletching tool. Best on the market for the money. And the arguments start in 5,4,3,2..... I am a 30 inch draw so I don't cut my arrows down, I want the broadhead beyond where my fingers are, you keep more of them that way. If you are a shorter draw you can shorten the arrow and still keep the broad head beyond your fingers. Some cut the arrow as short as possible, so the arrow is just long enough to sit on the rest, for a lighter arrow, some do it for spine adjustment. If you buy the arrows with the correct spine for your bow you probably don't need to cut them down to adjust spine, your bow will still work with a range of arrow spine. At your 29 draw length you could use arrows full length depending on whose arrow you buy, some come 32 inches long some are only 30 long, as a starting point make them 2 inches longer than the front of your bow, surface away from you, at full draw. There is a difference between draw length and the dimension of where your fingers are on the bow. Do you have an arrow saw? If so doesn't matter if you cut them down or the dealer cuts them down. Any dealer worth a hoot will do a good job of cutting them down. I use my own chop saw with a 10 inch 60 tooth carbide blade, but I have to wrap the shaft with at least two layers of masking tape to avoid splintering. If you don't have something similar have the dealer cut them down. If you are concerned with squareness get an arrow squaring tool. Not expensive. It's a journey, enjoy it. Lots to learn, all part of the fun. No one can tell you what works for you, have to figure that out on your own. Part of why I like archery.
My personal experience of getting the best flying arrows. I've never worried about doing an offset according to the way the arrow naturally wants to spin as it leaves the bow as a bareshaft. I generally run a slight right hand helical. I will never buy prefletched arrows again. Unless high $$, they are never fletched according to dynamic spine. I buy arrows unfletched, generally Goldtip XT Hunters. I do not own an arrow cutter, end squaring tool, or a fletcher. I take the shafts to a proshop and have them trim both ends of the arrows equally to the length I want and square the ends. Then I take them home and install the inserts and nocks. After that a field point is added and I start shooting them as bareshafts. I shoot them into a layered foam target and make sure they are flying straight. If they aren't leaving the bow straight, back to the proshop I go with a few of the arrows so the bow can be tuned, I don't own a press either. I do the shooting and my Tech does the tuning. Once the arrows are flying straight, then I go back home and nock tune until all arrows fly to the same point of impact. Then they are marked for the indicator vane and back to my proshop they go to be fletched up. Yes, kind of a PIA, but worth it to me. I have a good relationship with my Tech and he understands why I do this with new arrows. He puts together his own batch of new arrows the same way, minus all the trips back and forth of course, ha ha. Needing a Tech for the tuning part will change soon, as I have a new bow ordered that has Deadlock technology. Will be able to make changes myself when just changing arrows.
Agi, I’m humbled by your reverence. When I started bowhunting (and building arrows) 25 years ago, there were a lot of theories around around vanes, feathers, and helical direction that I don’t think matter any more, at least not in a practical sense. In general, I left feathers 20 years ago and see them as more of a traditional relic. Nothing’s particularly wrong with them as you’ve pointed out the primary reason a compound archer should shoot vanes (IMO) - increased durability and at least comparable performance to feathers. I shot Bohning Blazers for until a few years ago when I the Bohning Heat vanes came out. I couldn’t shoot the difference between them out to 50 yards. Mind you, I shoot mechanical broadheads for deer sized animals and smaller. The stiffer (quieter), lower profile (clearance) Heats were bonuses to me, especially since they’ve become almost as ubiquitous as the Blazers are for arrow builders. In a pinch, I want to be able to pickup vanes at the local big box store and repair a few arrows if needed. I have ZERO problem shooting both vanes from the same quiver if I have to get Blazers. I’ve done that. That’s how I decided to switch. I still like Blazers too. In fact, I’m playing with a 3D/target arrow with 4-fletch Blazers. However, I hunt with Heats. That being said, I’m planning a 4-fletch, fixed-blade broadhead build that will hopefully group for me out to 70-80 yards, provided my skill level supports that range......stay tuned. @StraightWayOutdoors Straight Way Outdoors, Fulcrum Archery, Elite Archery, Upwind Odor Elimination, Wicked Twisted Bowstrings, Pine Ridge Archery, Bloodline Fibers
