Greetings...I know...I can hear it now...OMG get the popcorn form this and BLAH...BLAH...BLAH..but...I would like a bit opinion/experience and I won't bother anyone with this again...I have been reading & re-reading fletching posts with great interest and here it is......With a properly tuned arrow, do shorter higher fletchings give the arrow less stability but are quieter, while longer lower fletchings stabilize the arrow better but are more noisy???? In other words...Is it better to have fletchings that are shorter/higher, shorter/lower, longer/higher or longer/lower??? Or in the grand scheme of things with a well tuned arrow, is it like peeing in the ocean....doesn't really mean a thing.....I have always used 5"high back shield cuts but now am becoming more intrigued with the short 2" or 3" high back fletchings. If you can find a moment of time I would be most interested in your responses.Sorry if this question bores anyone but enjoy the popcorn !!! Thanks for your consideration and as always...be safe !!! Buds...Whitie

Des, Get thicker skin. If someone blast you for asking a question tell them to bug off. I get blasted for every other post and it doesn't stop me. LOL.

I shot 5 inch parabolics for 30 years. I started doing experiments with smaller fletching. Trueflight sent me a bunch of feathers for free if I sent them the results of the test.

Most commercial parabolics and shields are 13mm high. They sent me a feather that was 2.25 long and 16mm high. That was the one that I thought I'd end up shooting. Nope. Noisy.

I ended switching to 2 inch, 13mm feather. At about 22 yard is was close to 4 inches higher in the target than 5 inch. Through the chrono it only averaged about a 1 foot faster. Just think of the diff at 30 35.

Bowmania

I should have added all bets are off with an arrow that's not well tuned.

Bowmania

To follow Todd, his second post is more important than his first. Well tuned arrows, even with broadheads, will fly nicely with very little fletching, so it's just a matter of tuning. Not sure what noise you speak of but I've recorded arrows at the target and the first sound you hear is the thump of it hitting the medium, not feather noise. As for deer, I wouldn't worry about it anyway since they are more likely to jump from bow noise or your movement.

I've killed deer while using 5 1/2" high profile fletching and even 4" low profile parabolic. Noise comes more from the front edge of a feather not being concentric with the others, or not being glued flat. I've also tried Todd's 2" feathers he speaks of and had fine control of the arrow flight...even with a broadhead, so it's a choice only. In my opinion of course.

I think most of us use fletch that is in excess of what is needed to stabilize the arrow. Why, tradition or maybe looks.

Most of us know that a well tuned bare shaft can be shot out to 50 yards or more, so the addition of fletch is of minimal necessity.

That being said, we try to use enough to allow for a negative variable that might throw the shot off. Even most properly mounted broad heads can be stabilized with very little fletch.

Point being, the ideal set up will only use enough fletch to get the job done as quietly as possible. For most of us that would likely be little more than a 3 or 4 inch parabolic.

Probably many different opinions. I have a feather burner and several wire ribbons, so that makes it easy for me to experiment with different fletching lengths and heights. You might find a good used or buy a new burner and experiment to find what works best for you.

Higher feathers are noisier than lower feathers of the same shape. The better tuned the arrow to the bow, and the better your release, the less fletching you need.

Regardless, I don;t worry about feather noise. Any critter within shooting distance is going to hear the bow go off before it hears feather noise, and by then it's too late.. Too, the small difference in arrow speed attributed to one feather shape/size vs another at hunting distances isn't enough to worry about.

I love the input...Thank you all !!!! Des

My experience is different than George's. Standing behind a target (read that as a BIG target) at 25yds and a buddy shooting at a 30yd target when the arrow passed by me at about 10feet, for lack of a better description, the arrow sounded like a Indy Racecar, that high pitch whine as it passed. That was with three 5 inch parabolic feathers. I imagine that is what the deer hears as it drops to get out of the way with the incoming arrow, since the speed of sound is faster than the arrow. DANNY

Line cutter, that is exactly why I stated that the higher profile was noisy. I had somebody sit behind a target and shot at a target that was farther away. Looking at me he could tell if I was shooting 13mm, 16mm, or a 5 inch feather without fail.

Bowmania

Orion,linecutter,and Bowmania confirm my experiments. I have been saying for years that a deer can duck the whistle of an arrow. After I made the correction, string jumping dropped tremendously. A good hit turned into a better hit, a marginal hit turned into a good hit. 8 deer in a row without a miss and I was convinced. After the noise like Linecutter heard, I experimented with less height on the fletches. That and bare shafting led to the discovery that shorter feathers work out just fine also. I don't hear the whistle when George shoots/films. The missing detail is most likely speed. Never owned a chrno but there most likely is a point in fps where the noise level jumps up. Thanks guys. >>>----> Ken

I agree with 2 Bears 100%.. People put all kinds of stuff on their bows to silence them but think it doesn't matter about an arrow?? Maybe that deer isn't jumping the string.. It's something worth the time to check..

Chris

"I think" why you don't hear the whine of the feathers in George's videos, is because when he sets up his camera, it is behind and to the side of the target, and the sound of the feathers has not reached the microphone when the arrow impacts. Plus it depends on how sensitive the microphone is in the video camera he uses. So the only thing you hear is the thud of arrow as it impacts the target. When I was behind the target I did not hear the arrow till it was passing. My ears are no where near as sensitive as a deer's by any stretch of the imagination. DANNY

My testing has shown higher can be noisier. I even had some really high back shields that sounded like a huge bumble bee. I missed a doe with those and she didn't even respond to the bee going over her back. (she did respond to the second shot that didn't miss :-) )

George's leading edge theory does intrigue me.

The theory I have settled on is total surface area. Do the math on your feather shape that works best and vary the shape to keep same total surface area.

example - often called noisy high back shield 3/4" * 5.5" - use the basic triangle formula 1/2*Base*Height .5*.75*5.5 = 2.06 SQ" surface area

Compare that to a simple "apache" cut 1/2" x 4" (basically a low flat cut) use a rectangle formula Length * Width 4*.5= 2.0 a much smaller, lower profile, quieter feather that gives the same amount of drag.

Some will jump/duck some won't. Why not improve your odds. If it saves one bad/wounding hit it is well worth the time.>>>---> Ken

Dan, In my mind your way too complicated. If your shooting three 2 inch feathers you have a 6. Three 5 inch give you a 15. My test show that my arrow tunes with a 6, so if I shot a 15 I'd have a 9 for noise and slowing down the arrow.

Bowmania

I shot em' all and now choose to shoot long, tall and loud feathers. I like the confidence in knowing that if I have an awkward shot on a critter and draw my bow short that the arrow will still fly well and true. Im not a good enough or consistent enough shooter to fully trust shorties all the time.

What distances are you all killing or not killing (ducking or reacting) deer?

A quiet bow and a less than 15 yard shot with an arrow of 160ish fps seems very adequate for me. I prefer three 5" parabolics with slight helical.

How much helical was on the noisy arrows each of you mention? I would think extreme helical would make more noise over a straighter fletched arrow of the same cut/length of fletching. A straight fletched arrow would most likely make even less noise. All arrows being tuned equally well, of course.

I will bare shaft my broadheads and want POI the same. That said I like a lower profile 5" fletch. My experience is with wet fletches, wet glove or tab, cold fingers, and hunting situations they will be the most forgiving. As for quietness try shooting over some yard birds. Vision probably enter into this equation but some fletched arrows will land before the bird reacts and visa versa. And I'm not advocating killing them.

Bowmania, You have to take shape into account if you are going to calculate surface area. Length times number of feathers is meaningless. Using it as you describe three 2" long uncut feathers is the same as three 2" razor cuts. Yet without any math you can see the uncut are about 3X larger.

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