shooting fingers, compound bow, carbon arrows with 5'' fletchings, wanted to start making my own arrows, guy at pro shop says i don't need fletchings sells me 4'' vanes, I made up 2 arrows with vanes and slight offset, WOW couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. thought vanes would be cool because of maintainance. should I just go back to fletchings with helical ?
First off, vanes ARE fletchings. So are feathers. You're using 2 different words for the same thing. I only point that out for clarity reasons. We can only guess you are referring to feathers?? Having said that, you're shop guy was right. You don't NEED 5" feathers. But that's not the point. Your arrows, you should get what you want on them. Having said that, we have finger shooters with Blazer vanes on their arrows and hit ping pong balls with amazing regularity. If your bow is tuned, and you still can't hit the broad side of a barn, make sure your arrows are properly spined. If that doesn't do it, look at your release. Most likely you're "plucking" the string.
Not quite sure what you're asking. "Technically"....ALL guidance apparatus (feathers/vanes) are "fletchings". If you're talking about feathers v. vanes......then you'll get a myriad of opinions. But, nothing inherent to each will cause the discrepancies you've experienced.
I shoot fingers and use vanes and feathers on my carbon arrows with no trouble. What type of rest are you using and has the bow been tuned? And you don't need 5" fletching to get good arrow flight.
