I always fletched my arrows with right wing feathers in a straight offset pattern for 35 years while shooting compound bows. For the past 25, I have shot strictly longbows off the shelf and have always used left wing with a helical pattern. I am right handed and was just wondering why I started using the left wing with the longbow. May have been a reason but can't remember. Any ideas? Do any of you shoot off the shelf and use the same side wing as you shoot? Anyone use a straight offset with your trad gear?

I use both with recurve and longbow with no problems - do match when using single bevel broadhead

I’m going to guess that you noticed that left wing feathers were cheaper. ;)

Actually, some of the guys who shoot more or less off of their knuckle will tell you that you can save yourself a few cuts by using the correct wing for the hand that you shoot with. Something about getting the arrow to start rotating such that the leading portion of the quill rotates up and away from your hand.

But if you’re shooting an ASL with proper fistmele and 5 or 5 1/2 inch feathers… that arrow is not going to rotate AT ALL until the point of the quill is over the shelf… because the nock won’t be off the string yet….

So as usual… What they are saying seems to have at least a kernel of truth to it, but there’s part of it that just doesn’t seem to stand up to some pretty simple logic. The more I ponder how these seemingly “simple” systems work, the more I appreciate how complicated they really are.

Left wing shoot better for me.

Now you have me wondering the same................

Back to that memory thread of Georges I guess.

I shoot left wing with a helical pattern. If I remember correctly left-wing feathers were cheaper many years ago and were easier to find in more colors for some reason back then. I make and shoot left wing arrows now because I just never changed in 53 years. But I have shot right wing feathers a few times and even shot right and left wing arrows together and never noticed much difference and they have grouped together.

Rob, I suspect the reason you started using left wing is because you are right handed. That's typical for most, myself included.

I have not used straight but did experiment with right wing at one time that were sent to me by mistake. If I recall, the point of impact on the horizontal changed.

I have read where some claim it did not make a difference. I am sure it depends on the individual set-up, broadhead, shelf cut, etc.

I have dozens of each and I don’t notice any different

I posted this before and it's a pretty good read:

Fred Bear on Arrows

Your next heading here is “arrows and broadheads.” I draw 28 inches, and my arrows are 29 inches with either the blunt field point or the broadhead attached to it, so in the case of the broadhead, I have an inch to the back of the head at my full draw length.

I am not concerned about whether my feathers are left- or right- handed, but I do like a helical fletch and I like a very large feather. I’ve never shot other than three-fletch arrows. I’m sure four-fletch has advantages. I think that they can be cut lower and stand up under wet weather probably better than three-fletch, although I’ve never used them. My fletching is 5 inches long and begins 1 1/4 inches from the very end of the nock. They are spirally fletched so that the shaft revolves in flight. Never use straight fletching on hunting arrows.

I have no particular color preference on fletching, except that I’m often making a film in which it is very important in having the camera follow the flight of the arrow. For this reason I have used rather bright-colored feathers—white and yellows, maybe with a black cock feather for a contrast, and, for some reason, my arrows are never camouflaged. The last three years I’ve been using Converta-Point Magnum® arrows, of course, and they are aluminum. This is a handicap in the woods, there’s no question about it, but it’s one of the things you have to put up with when you are in the filming business. (Author’s note: These were the “new” arrows we had introduced in our 1968 Bear Archery catalog. A special insert was designed for use with broadheads, and there were blunt, field and target points as a part of this new system, so that the archer could use the same arrow shaft and simply interchange the points for practice, hunting or field use. The shafts were especially made for us by Easton. Fred came up with this system and filed for the patent on Nov. 2, 1966, and the patent #3,401,938 was granted on Sept. 17, 1968.)

I do not use any preparation on the feathers to keep them dry. I use a plastic bag pulled over the arrows when they are in the bow quiver and held in place with a rubber band. This, of course, sometimes is a handicap, also, because if you are surprised by game it’s pretty difficult to pull this bag off without making a little rattling sound, but I’ve never found a waterproof fletching material that stood up under very much rain. (Author’s note: This was written before we introduced our Weathers®, all- weather plastic fletching material, but Fred continued to use real feathers even after we had done so.) Naturally, I don’t fletch my own arrows, and I use the Razorhead® (the Bear Razorhead, if you’ll permit me), and I always use the insert even in shooting an elephant … and there’s a reason for this. The insert opens up an “X” hole and gives better penetration because it relieves pinching on the shaft and leaves a better blood trail. I use a Razorhead® with the insert for all kinds of game. Makes no difference the weight of the bow or the size of the game.

As I said before, I like an arrow that is nine times my bow weight in grains. Penetration is a matter of kinetic energy, and it is a well-known fact that a heavy object moving at the same speed is much harder to stop than a lighter one. There’s another factor in the case of an arrow. A given bow has a certain, I’ll call it “quickness,” of return to the string from a full-draw position. A heavy bow can handle a heavier arrow with a great deal more striking energy.

I use left wing on my arrows Also use the blue hot melt Hard stick glue from 3rivers On both arrow insert and 100 Grain steel insert threads It keeps everything tight.the Blue low heat works great.also Use the amber hard stick for Broadheads glued to broadhead And insert for single blade Broadheads I shoot my broadheads Horizontal it seems to fly and Hit like darts.

It does not make a difference witch wing you use, and if you will blend the leading edge of the feather (quill) into the shaft and place a drop of glue on the end of the quill you will not have a problem with it cutting the hand, even if you shoot directly off the barehand. For some reasons availability of left-wing feathers is better than right wing.

Bob

I've found most talk of differences in LW vs RW is unfounded, and simply carried on by those who just haven't tried both. I can shoot either/or out of the bow, even from the same quiver. If your fletch is hitting your knuckle, you simply rotate the nock...either when you fletch it, or with tunable nocks, anytime. Usually that issue comes from arrows that aren't properly spined and dragging along the bow.

Arrowmaker and George x2.

George X3. I also read that the availability of left wing over right wing had to do with the farmers would clip the primary wing feathers on the right wing to prevent flight.

Déjà vu

Left wing and right wing shot together off of my Bear Super Magnum not much difference if any difference at all to me. I get the same performance with my Super Kodiaks, Kodiak Takedowns, Grizzlies, Kodiak, and my Hunter TDs. I don't own any longbows at this time so I couldn't test them.

Agree that it makes no difference whether you use left or right wing feathers. Though right wing feathers spin clockwise and tend to tighten screw on heads when they hit. Left wing do just the opposite. Of course, moot if you use glue on heads.

Can't verify this, but here's a reason I've come across for more left wing feathers being available back in the day. You have to remember that 20 or more years ago, turkeys were kept in large pens and grown pretty close to adulthood before they were butchered. Now they're caged and slaughtered as fat juveniles. That's also the reason that turkey primaries are a lot shorter nowadays than they were years ago.

Regardless, to keep the birds from flying out of the pens back in the day, producers apparently clipped some of the feathers from one of the wings, and it was the tendency of most of the clippers, being right handed and the way they grabbed and held the bird, to clip the right wing. Don't know if that's true, but makes sense.

Of course, they don't clip feathers off the wings today so there should be no reason for a difference in availability of left and right wing feathers now.

For me (right handed) I prefer right helical my reason being if looking from the nock end the front of the feather is to the left. If orientation is roughly when looking at a clock dial 2:30, 6:30, 10:30 there's minimal fetching contact with riser or a rest.

What those two older than me guys wrote,Aromakr and George.

Many years ago (35 or so) I used right wing feathers but had to switch to left wing as right wing was hard to get. They both shot the same for me and I’ve used left wing for many years now

....as a left-handed shooter, I feel right wing clears the shelf better.... off an elevated rest, I find no difference... one benefit to shooting right wing, is the clockwise rotation will tighten field points on impact....

here may be a good sample of left wing right wing, lately I have been shooting nothing but broadheads,(delta size) and have discovered that left wing feathers fletched with a right wing helical clamp work real well with the broadhead.I am right handed and use a rest.

I shoot right handed and all my Widows shoot Left wing because....Well because that's what I like.....Be safe...Des

Slo Mo video of my shot The fletch should not be contacting anything and no spin yet

The nock is off the string. Still no spin. The fletch won’t spin the arrow until it’s several feet in front of the bow.

Yep ditto on what Altitude Sickness said.

I too use both and never had any accuracy or other issues.

X3 with what Altitude Sickness said.

I use left Wing. This what the sales guy sold me at the Bass Pro in Savannah. Also bought my first new bow there. Bear Montana. Long time ago.

Rich K.

What Aromakr and George said. I have shot both. I set my nock setting for which ever wing I am shooting with the amount of offset I use. Arrows fly the same. DANNY

“have discovered that left wing feathers fletched with a right wing helical clamp work real well”

That is sufficiently unorthodox that I’m going to guess that there’s a difference between spin-stabilization and drag-induced stabilization, and you are seeing the latter.

I guess I’ll leave the question out there.

Thanks for the pics, Jay. Cracks me up when people assert stuff like an arrow being able to begin spinning with the nock still on the string…..

When you are shooting vanes it does not come up. But when you went to trad, you use feathers. As others have said with feathers it is easier to find left and they are cheaper. Even today left is more available to me, right are really not.

I assumed that was because RH are typical for RH people so the manufacturers suck those up for their arrows and we get the leavings. I don't know if that still functions with the number of feathered arrows that are sold these days.

If you are shooting single bevels there are some advantage to matching the bevels and the feathers. If you shoot RPS there should be less unscrewing, But I hate RPS, so I avoid the problem that way.

Corax_latrans, that lw fletched right helical struck me as odd too.

totem, can you post a picture of an arrow? Would be interesting to see.

Steve

Bowlim,

My understanding is that they clip the right wing of the turkey when they are young to keep them from flying. At least that is what I was told many moons ago. Actually historically Left Wing/helical is for right right handed shooters and Right Wing/Helical is for left handed shooters. When archers shot with no shelf and off their hand there was less of a chance of the quill going into the hand with a right handed shooter using left wing feathers. Again what I was told years ago. I am sure if I was miss informed I will be corrected here. DANNY

Steve,This is the best I could do for a photo, but these arrows work real well,I am so confidant with these arrows that I plan to take them on a moose hunt in Alberta this Sept.

Thanks, totem. Not exactly what I expected to see. Nice looking arrow and three yellow shield is one of my favorite fletching color. I'm going to grab a clamp and feather to see how it sets in the clamp.

I wish you an enjoyable moose hunt this fall. Thanks again for the picture.

Steve

By the way, how did you come about this "unconventional" fletching style.

Steve

“I am sure if I was miss informed I will be corrected here. ”

You’ll be “corrected” EITHER WAY!!! LOL

Speaking of which… I’m going to push back on the LW mounted RW helical….

Standard size fletchings stabilize an arrow by spinning it. This is especially important with broadheads because it reduces the likelihood of planing. If we didn’t care, we wouldn’t spin-test our points, right?

Wing feathers (ALL feathers, actually) have a bottom/“in” side and a top/out side which produces the least possible amount of drag. Bottom side creates more drag, and the net is Lift.

Helical acts as a lift multiplier…. At the expense of some added drag… which creates more noise… and scrubs off speed… which impedes penetration… which seems like a problem on anything the size of a moose. Or a small deer, for that matter.

So when you mount a left-wing feather with a right-wing clamp, you have to overcome the natural lift provided by the structure of the feather in order to force it into spinning the wrong way. Which is a Drag multiplier. And looking at that arrow in the pic posted above… it’s pretty clear from that S-curve that the forward 2/3 of the fletching is going to be trying to spin the shaft in one direction and the aft 1/3 the other. Which means more drag, more noise, more speed scrubbed off….

Maybe that’s all technically correct but really inconsequential from a practical standpoint…. but I’m thinking you might want to re-fletch those before that moose hunt.

If you touch your nose with the tip of the feather as an anchor point, a left wing works better as it points upward (for a right- hand shooter). Chazz

Honesty the only thing would be your personal preference .It does make a set of arrows look real neat if you used all RH or LH not mixed 1 arrow LH and the next RH.I just use what I have at hand and I have never noticed any drop in performance ever.I exclusively used domestic goose feathers I picked up around the farm yard for 6 years.You don't always get only left's or rights so you match them in 3's.uniformity in size and grease lines make some differance I reckon.I have used pelican ,crow,cockatoo ,swan ,ibis ,seagull anything that is robust enough to work well .Road kills and shed feathers.Don't stress too much just fletch them and go shoot them Osr

Hey, I've been fletching with vanes a bit and they fly really well and are "straight" to start with and I am a RW fletch shooter so with my RW clamp all is good with the vanes. If my arrows are tuned well the vanes fly like darts and I swear they are quieter which ultimately is most important to me.

Vanes are quieter & stay dry. What is not to like? I don't know but I just don't like plastic & wanted to agree with someone.

Corax I am listening to what you say but I can't see Totems arrow rotating any way but clockwise from the feather facing us. >>>----. Ken

After reading "corax-latrans" I got to thinking this may be something to check, so I got hold of a chronograph and did the testing. First off I shoot a longbow so fps don't mean a whole lot to me but it was something that was of interest. I shot two different arrows one fletched with right wing and one fletched with left wing right wing clamp.I shot each arrow 6 times and the right wing right wing clamp shot 171,173,172,171,174, 176.and the left wing right wing clamp shot 180,182,181,180,182,184. I don't think less then 10 fps makes much difference to me, but it showed me that the left wing right clamp did not slow down the fps.

Totem, may I ask the draw weight and draw length you used in that test? >>>----> Ken

I use left wing,, its easier for me to get better arrow flight, maybe its my imagination,,but I use left wing,,

Whatever is available when I order feathers though for no real reason normally get left wing if I can. Use a straight clap and off set and have never noticed a difference.

“Totem, may I ask the draw weight and draw length you used in that test?”

And the weights of each arrow. I trust you have s decent scale.

And the distance at which the velocities were measured.

I am all for proving conventional wisdom wrong, but so far there seems to be something here that doesn’t quite add up. Because say what you like, but 10 real fps is a CHUNK.

2bears, my draw length is 27" AT 51 LBS.W/ACS LONGBOW

THE OTHER ANSWER IS THE ARROWS WEIGH 364 AND 367 WITH 125 GRAIN FIELD POINT. THE CHRONOGRAPH WAS SET 3 YARDS AHEAD OF ME. AND AS I SAID BEFORE I DONT THINK LESS THEN 10 FPS MEANS THAT MUCH TO "me". it's just information that I wanted to know. I would have had the chronograph set at 15 yards but it's not mine, if you know what I mean, I do blow a release now and then.

I fletched a dozen like Totem with RW feathers in a LW jig (all I had). Found the feathers in a long forgotten box in a closet. They shoot fine and I mix them in with correctly fletched arrows with no noticeable difference at my normal sub 30 yard distances.

totem. 10 fps is a big difference. Putting a left wing feather in a right wing clamp would trend to straighten it out by comparison to the same feather in a left wing clamp (the amount of offset or spiral affecting the amount.) That would lead to less drag and more speed, but 10 fps is a bunch.

Comparing left wing feathers in a left wing clamp to right wing feathers in a right wing clamp at the same offset or spiral should yield the same speeds.

Your results are surprising and beg for more replication. Did you do both tests on the same day under the same conditions? I'm thinking maybe the chronograph changed. I don't doubt your result, but it's such a big difference, I'm just looking for other possible explanations.

the test was done the same day all within the same hour. I only wanted to see if fletching them that way would actually slow them down enough to make a difference in penetration. i am satisfied with the results. do as you please.

I'm confused about why there is a thought that fletching using that configuration would slow an arrow down?

ok if there was no difference, then a turkey would have right wing feathers on both wings, right :)

Left wing east of the Mississippi and right wing west of the Mississippi. At least that is what an archery dealer told me once. I had to stifle a laugh.

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here