What length feathers do you use on your 11/32 wood arrows?

I've got 4" shield cut feathers on most of mine. I do have some 4.5 on half a dozen of them. They all shoot the same at deer taking distance. It's just a choice.

I've used everything from a 4" to a 5 1/2" feather. I've used parabolic, shield, pope & young, high profile banana, low profile banana, traditional, and swift to name a few. Who knows what I'll try tomorrow. Maybe try some 3" fletching.

I mostly used 5" on mine. Plenty of helical, no problem.

I few of mine.

I normally shot 4" on my carbons and Al. But with the larger diam. I thought I'd go up to 5". I can get a lot of helix on them that way too. I know it is all a personal choice as to length and style. Just curious what YOU use.

I've found that I can shoot 2" feathers with broadheads and have good accuracy with a good release. However, I prefer 5 - 5.5 inch feathers for hunting for (1) ensured good flight with a less than perfect release, (2) better visibility, and (3) ability for feathers to get a little matted down by rain and still work. I use the same feathers on my target arrows, even though there's no need with field point, because I want my target arrows to look and act exactly like my hunting arrows. I get a lot of flak for my big feathers now that small fletch is in style, but that's what I do.

I like heavy points on my wood arrows, but all of the above works fine even with 125 gr points.

Wood, carbon, or anything else should make no difference. If your woods are well matched and kept straight, they should fly exactly the same as carbons.

5.5". No screwing around I want guidance on those suckers. lol

Bob Rowlands said it better than I could. My feelings are the same as his.

With wood arrows and my Jo-Jan fletchers, When I use left wing for shooting right handed and conversely, right wing for left hand shooting, with three fletch I get the lower hen feather pointing straight down. Shooting longbows with as low as possible string nock height, this irritates me. When fletching, I tack the nocks on with a tiny edge dab of hot melt with an 1/8 turn, counter clockwise for left wing and clockwise for right right wing. Then I fletch. When fletching is completed, then to permanently glue the nocks I rotate arrow 1/8 turn counter clockwise for left wing and 1/8 turn clockwise for right wing, to re-align to the grain. This, if done with just the right amount of reserve, will have the lower hen feather angling into the corner of the arrow shelf with either fletch and when shooting with either hand, as in the case with my dual shelf bows. If one does not want that lower side feather contact, an easier fix is to fletch so the cock feather goes in. This works fine with the lower profile standard parabolic 5" feathers. For 4" I almost always go with four fletch. With four fletch and the Jo-Jan feathers there is a start up option of tilting the first feather according to nock index a click to the left or a click to the right. With left wing or right wing that will make a difference to how the quad set leans in the bow, with Jo-Jans two of the gaps will be closer and two will be a bit wider. If left wings are stared with the index a click to the right, the narrow gap will be on the bow side and the wider gap between the feathers will be up and down. When playing with right wing angles and clamps to get the wider gap up and down, one would go a click to the left for the index. The reason for getting going with the wider gap top and bottom is that with four fletch things work a little different than with three fletch as far as the possible feather position in relation to the bow shelf when the narrow gap is up and down. The old left wing for right hand shooting and right wing for left hand shooting naturally is reversed and left wing aligns nicer for left hand shooting and the right for right hand. This goes way back to self bow days, when the arrow rest was ones finger. My finger and my arrow rest are at the same level, I like to feel the arrow on my finger when I draw. I also like to feel the broadhead or the point when I am at full draw. With bows with high brace heights and higher arrow shelf distance or an elevated rest none of this matters.

I use 5" feathers. Jawge

5.5

Use the smallest feather your tuning will allow. You would be surprised how an extra 1/16" in feather height or 1/2 in length effect arrow performance. More drag really slows an arrow down quickly. You guy's are constantly talking about using the newest string material to give you more speed, then use 5 1/2" high back feathers and loose everything you gained and then some! Doesn't make sense to me.

Bob

5-3/4 and 6

Used to use 5" fletching and was talked into trying 4" which I found worked just as well.

Shot three 5-inch shield cuts for many, many years. Starting to shoot four 4-inch fletches now. Really doesn't make much difference. Shoot what you like to look at.

5 1/2 bananna,, but as stated,, most designs work,, and its personal preference, sometimes my feathers are almost worn off and still work,, so what does that tell you,, hmmm,

3 x 5" -just always have

slows my arrows down enough so my old eyes can see them

in a few more years might have to glue the whole bird on there

I use 3 shield cut 5 inch.

I've been shooting David Ellenbogen's arrows. They have 4 and 3/4" long by 5/8" high feathers, with a unique shape he designed after testing many shapes and sizes with an automatic release. His arrows are all spined to the exact same pound so he feels a slightly smaller feather works better... whereas arrows in a typical 5# spread might benefit from slightly larger feathers. A lot of people say the same thing. The more finely tuned the arrows are, the smaller the feathers can be. But as someone said in a similar thread, it's all a trade off. Larger feathers/more helical creates more drag and slower arrows, but are more accurate and easier to shoot. IMO accuracy is better than speed, but it's all a matter of personal preference and shooting style. Isn't it?

I'm designing some feather shapes for arrows I will be making. They will be spined to the same pound so I wanted the same amount of feather that David uses, even if not the same shape. I put his feather shape on a graph and counted the surface area in small squares. Then I compared that to my design to get a similar surface area. Or to know if mine was more or less area. It seems that with all the talk about feather length, people are ignoring surface area. A really long, primitive feather shape (e.g., 6-7") that's very low might be the same area of feather as a short (e.g., 4") "traditional" cut shape. I wonder if anyone has calculated feather surface area and used that as their criteria, rather than simply how long or short the feather is. I'm new at this but it seems like a better way to compare feathers.

3x5" LW parabolic helical

I guess Im just lucky. I pick my spine, slap on some points and 3 5.5" feathers and I get good arrow flight, if I do my part. Contrary to what everyone says I "need", I like it this way and have been doing it like this for 25 years. If it ain't broke, dont fix it.

4 inch shield on everything.

I like the looks of 5.5 inch feathers, but use 4" to 4.5, anything larger I can see the difference in arrow arc, for hunting where you are shooting 20 yards or less it probably doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

Mr. Stout and Aromakr have it correct as far as I'm concerned.

5"

With wood I've tried 5" parabolic 5 1/2 shield and 5 3/4 banana.The 5" works well enough for me.

I shoot these with 4" parabolic's three around from a ASL long bow and they shoot like field points Great.

I have arrived at a preference for 5 1/2 shield cut feathers for my wood arrows. I choose them strictly for looks. At the under 20 yard distances I feel comfortable hunting at I don't have any worries about them slowing down my arrows enough. As a matter of fact at shorter distances I think they tend to stabilize the arrow quicker but that is just a personal perception.

In the past I have used arrows from 4 inches to 5 1/2 and they have all resulted in straight shooting arrows if my release and follow through are good. Of course there is always the assumption that you managed to get your spine correct for your bow.

Yeah at short range like to twenty yards feather length is a pointless arguement. If you are a precision shot then ymmv, but most of us are far from precison shots. Aside from that, if you are shooting arrows that have some real weight, like hickories and doug fir, it is a moot point entirely.

REBEL, with all the opinions flying around, Maybe the best thing to do is fletch up at least 6 arrows in different ways then shoot them out of Your FAVORITE BOW. See how they fly to the target. ALSO??? Be Sure to shoot at Your normal hunting distances and see what happens? Just an opinion. PS? Don't forget the broad-heads that You will hunt with.

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