helical

how much does having pretty aggressive helical have on arrow speed? i know its a tradeoff, loss of speed for accuracy, but im just wondering.

 

not enought to tell unless you are shooting throught a crono

 

FTR...what kind of fletchings are we talking?

 

well, it was just a general question. i was shooting today and the thought just crossed my mind. and, ftr, i have the nap quickspins(the ones with the little lip thingy) and i have about 4 or 5 degrees of helical, just a wild guess as my jig doesnt have angle readings. its not that im concerned about it, id rather have a slow, quiet, accurate bow than one shooting over 310 that sounds like a .22 going off.

 

Do you mean "offset"?

 

Mechanic i was also acctually just playing around with this idea myself. and like you stated i am willing to shoot under 300fps to gain some accuracy. here is the site i did my research on Hunter's Friend
its about half way down the page. it gives 5 different set ups for fletching.

 

no, i mean degrees of helical. my arrows came from the shop fletched with 3 degrees from the blazer jig, i ripped most of the vanes off shooting, so i bought myself a jig and set it with one of the arrows that still had vanes, then went a little further. so thats why i said i dont know exactly, all i know is they spin like crazy and i can stack them one on another out to about 35, then it starts to open up a little. and thanks for the website MHS, ill have to check that out.

 

That's cool. I fletch my 5" feathers with a hard helical. I've just never heard of helical defined in degrees.

Carry on.

 

well, im just going by what the shop told me. it might just have to do with different areas, i guess. but thats what they called it.

 

That's an area of common terminology confusion. "Helical" is helical. "Offset" is measured in degrees. A helical jig has the "offset", or where you set the jig to the clamp, determined by the diameter of the shaft, it is actually wrapped around the shaft. A straight fletch can have varying degrees of offset limited by shaft diameter and length of fletching since it sits on the shaft in a straight line. If your fletchings are curved around the arrow, they are helical. If they are straight they may lay across the shaft at an angle, the amount of angle is the degrees of offset and can vary from 0 (straight) to ... I think I've seen as high as 8.

 

well, im not trying to argue, but couldnt helical technically be measured in angles? even though they are wrapped around, there is still a straight line along the edge of the fletching, or it might just be my eyes are playing tricks on me. im fairly new to all of this, im learning so much from this site just reading through all the other posts.

 

helical is hard to measure in degres because its not straight it twists...at certain points its steeper then others....offset is measure in strict degrees...

 

I fletch my feathers both helical AND offset.

 

To answer the original question; it depends more on number, size and type of fletchings you use than whether they are helical or straight fletched. Don't worry about it. If I'm shooting broadheads I'm more worried about stability than a very slight loss of speed so I either helical fletch or go for as much offset as possible.

 

Congrats.

I do, too. But, I didn't think knowing that would help the OP.

 

Actually, it helps clarify some of the above posts differentiating helical and offset and lets the OP know that you CAN do both... No one had mentioned that possibility when fletching.

But really alI I was doing was seeing if it would draw a negative comment from you ... proved myself right, but you're so predictable that was a no-brainer.

 

Yeah actually I fletch my arrows with Helical and as much offset as I can get and still keep them planted solidly on the arrow shaft?

Trade off? Slight speed lose for accuracy? That's a Trade off I'll take everyday and makes 2 No brainers on this thread

Dan

 

That was negative?

Interesting. How many degrees of helical?

 

So can you fletch helical without offset? I don't think so. A more detailed explanation of my statement that; "Helical is helical" is you don't go into helical fletching with a set degree of offset that you want to put on your fletchings, the diameter of the shaft determines how offset the helical jig has to be in order to get full contact of the fletching on the shaft. So yes, a helical fletch does have offset but it is fixed. A straight jig/clamp allows you to vary the amount of offset while a helical jig/clamp really doesn't.

 

Clamps are Right helical, Left Helical, and straight. You can then adjust offset with the jig. Like I said the amount you can get is limited somewhat by length of Feather, and shaft diameter but you in no way fletch a helical clamp straight down the shaft all the time or at least I never did unless it was an accident of the above mentioned variables.

Even the slight offset you can get on 2" Razr feathers is worth it IMO.

Dan