So I am going to start fletching my arrows with vanes instead of Quikfletch, but I have been wondering how I should fletch them. Should I fletch them straight, left helical or right helical? What are the pro's and con's of each? I believe I have been shooting with straight fletching so far. Enlighten me please
I use right helical. It stabilizes the arrow faster by spinning it faster wich in turn gives you better accuracy at greater distances.
I am also looking into fletching my own arrows. From the info I got so far. A right helical at about 3 or 4 degrees is good for accuracy at yardages. If you go with a bigger degree of offset the arrow stabilizes faster but will drop off more at longer yardages. Someone can correct my if I'm wrong.
i go with right helical it spins faster and flys strighter for me i used to shoot stright till i shoot them next to each other
Helical here as well. One thing not mentioned is that you need take into consideration of the rest type you're using. Depending on your rest, you may not be able to get clearance with helical fletching. This is why a lot of hunters use a drop away rest so clearance isn't an issue.
Very true. I use a whisker Buiscut, and you can use a helical through it but the vanes dont last they will come off quickly if you shoot alot. This is the reason im buying a NAP Apache Drop Away.
No worries on clearance, I'm using a Ripcord rest. I believe I will start using a helical when I need to refletch some arrows.
If youre left handed use left helical, right for right handed. Helical lets the arrow recover faster after the initial release, making it spin sooner giving it excellent accuracy at greater distances. You will never go back to straight vanes.
Hi, mind the drag. I read some articles about loss of stability (!) due to excessive drag. All these articles were given by arrow manufacturers such as Easton. See the Easton tuning-guide, there is an paragraph about that issue. I get the best results with about 3° angle. In other words, it's the biggest angle i can get with my fletching rig using the straight clamp (4'' vanes). The proof is in the pudding flifla
Don't confuse target issues (target point stability) with hunting issues (broadhead stability). When talking about excessive drag it's only an issue in long range target shooting, especially in Olympic (recurve) bows. Broadheads at moderate hunting distances are only going to benefit from drag caused by the fletchings which imparts stability to the arrow. Helical fletchings impart more drag and also impart more rotation one works to stabilize the arrow better (imparting precision), the other works to centralize any instability around a finite axis (imparting accuracy). If you can get them to clear through the rest (as most rests do these days) it's best to go with a full helical fletching. Keep in mind when you buy your clamps and feathers that RH clamps must be paired with RW feathers and left with left.
Most immitation feathers can be mounted in any direction, they are the ons that are straight to begin with in the packaging. Its when you use real feathers, right wing/left wing where the difference comes in. Thats what immitation feathers are trying to mimic obviously and some manufacturers will have direction specific ones so pay attention when buying.
Actually this is a fallacy. The only time there is a similar issue is when shooting off the shelf of a traditional bow and usually in that case the opposite is true; RH=LW. There's no reason for a compound shooter to worry about it since the fletching never contacts the bow or rest. And quite honestly it really doesn't matter anyway because the arrow doesn't even start to spin until about 10 yards downrange. One problem I've heard of with left helical is that it unscrews/loosens points when shooting into foam targets. I think Christine has some experience with this.
That's determined by your clamp and arrow diameter. Full helical is full helical. By that I mean that there is only one position in your jig that your helical clamp will sit with full contact of the fletching on the arrow shaft, it wraps around the shaft and will vary according to the diameter of your arrow. Straight offset allows you to adjust the amount of offset by degrees and still have full contact of the straight fletching and shaft. When people say they have X degrees of helical offset, that offset is being (or at least should be) determined by the position of the clamp. All helical has an offset to it, it just has very little or no choice in how much with a given set-up.
I was always taught the arrow should spin away from you but thats just me. Im sure everone here does what they do because it works for them. Also its possible her heads werent on tight as they should never come loose. Id recommend a low strength loctite, glue, or even fingernail polish for her to keep then from coming loose. OR have her pro shop put them on for her. Speaking of clearance issues earlier, Id be curious to see what everyones prefrence is on the cock feather position, up, down, out. Has there been a pole here on that?
Field points & Broadheads have a right hand thread on them. So, conventional wisdom about using a RH helical fletching vs. a LH, has to do with keeping the thread of the FPs & BHs tight, not whether the bow is right or left handed. As for whether to choose helical fletching, or offset fletching, or straight fletching, accuracy trumps distance. Also, when using helical fletching, consider the orientation of the nock relative to the type of fleching. I generally will align the nock with the rear of a straight fletch, but will "average" out the orientation with a helical fletch.
The fallacy in this thinking is that people assume the arrow starts spinning as soon as it leaves the string. That's not the case. The fletchings don't actually get purchase on the air and start to spin the arrow until well out in front of the bow. It's kind of like a dragster spinning it's tires off the line. It takes a bit for things to recover from inertia at the launch and start to work. You should watch some bows being shot under high speed film. I was nervous to even shoot a compound again after watching everything that goes on in slow motion. Fletch position should be influenced more by rest type, fletch type and cable clearance than personal preference.
Who knew 5 feet was well out there. I believe it does start spinning from the get go, just its not noticable in that first milisecond from most high speed videos as they do not show the arrow through the entire flight (most full views i saw you could not see arrow rotation, just flex) Air moving over the fletching makes the arrow spin, the size of the "sail" or vane depends on how soon it starts. As distance progresses so does the rotations/sec. In these videos, especially the last one, the arrow is spinning well before 10 yards. I like this video, it shows the difference in 5" and 3 7/8", 5 def spins faster... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9q3zM65KSU This one shows the arrow spinning immediately after the shot...(bad tune) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIR6sNjz6no In this one the cock is positioned up, by the time the arrow leaves the video frame its on the bottom... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO102jz8sFM Also I did mean rest type, fletch type, and cable clearance when I referred to personal preference on the cock position. All of those are personal to each shooter so its their preference. I shoot cock feather up so my arrow in the rest has support on the bottom when shooting.
