Arrow Fletching for Hunters
Article Courtesy Chuck Adams
Fletching selection is crucial to accuracy with hunting broadheads. It is one thing to shoot streamlined, non-veering field points or target points, and quite another to use fixed- blade broadheads with air-catching flat surfaces and a potential mind of their own.
Here's the most common difficulty bowhunters experience with accuracy They practice and tune with field tips, shoot reasonably well, and believe they have the situation well in hand. Then they attach broadheads. Relatively tiny troubles like slight porpoising or fishtailing arrow flight, lack of proper shaft rotation through the air, and insufficient rear- end arrow drag instantly become big headaches! Broadheads dart and dive through the air, amplifying setup imperfections 100- fold. Field points continue to group tightly, but broadheads hit someplace else and usually plane all over the map.
Arrow shafts for hunting must be straight. Nocks and broadheads must be perfectly aligned. Bow tuning must be exact with broadheads to produce clean, non-wobbling flight. But more than any other single factor, fletching must be right.
Let's talk fletching size first. The average target archer shoots fast arrows with small fletching like the excellent 175 or 235 Diamond Vanes from Easton or similar size offerings from Arizona Archery Those who opt for feathers also tend toward small, fast Retching that clears most arrow rests with ease.
Trouble is, broadheads require larger fletching to increase rear-end weight, stabilizing arrow drag. in general, hunting arrows weighing less than 500 grains shoot best with three vanes or feathers measuring about 4 inches long. The Arizona Archery 400 Vane is one excellent choice. Arrows over 500 grains stabilize broadheads best with three 5inch vanes or feathers. If you prefer 4-fletch, four 3-inch vanes or feathers with arrows under 500 grains or four 4-inch fletches with arrows over 500 grains provide ample drag and stability.
Larger fletching makes rest clearance a pain. Add to this the fact that broadhead flight is best with a helical fletch, and arrow rest selection becomes doubly difficult.
Small straight-fletch almost always allows best rest clearance, especially past launcher-style rests favored by most release aid users. Larger helical fletch represents a wad of fletching almost guaranteed to complicate your life. But if you want the best down-range broadhead accuracy, you'll learn to put up with extra rest and nock-rotation tinkering.
In a worst-case scenario, where vanes absolutely will not clear the rest, switching to feather fletching can be a quick, accurate Band-Aid on the problem. Feathers flatten on impact with rest components, ensuring clean shots time after time.
Numerous tests by archery companies have produced solid, sensible fletching guidelines for hunters. A one-degree helical fletch will rotate your arrow about one complete 360-degree turn during every 30 to 36 inches of forward arrow travel. Ina nutshell, the proper helical fletch rotates an arrow at least 50 times on a 50-yard shot. Such rotation helps cancel a broadhead's tendency to veer in a particular direction, the same as a rifling in a gun barrel spins and stabilizes a bullet.
If you are in doubt about your fletching angle, here's an easy way to check it. Simply place a clear-plastic protractor along the base of the fletch relative to the centerline of the shaft. The fletching base should be offset about one degree for proper rotation.
With fletching of the size I previously recommended, most vane- fletched hunting arrows will slow down about 3 feet per second during every 10 yards of forward travel. Feathers drag a full 50-percent more than same-sized vanes, slowing an average arrow about 4-1/2 fps per 10 yards of travel. Feathers not only flatten to solve rest-clearance woes, they also act as mini- parachutes behind an arrow, dragging and controlling broadheads that might otherwise plane off target.
If chronic broadhead flight problems threaten to ruin your day, feather fletching might be the cure. Drag, and helical arrow rotation reach their maximum with feathers, taming the most unruly fixed-blade heads.
In all other ways, I strongly dislike feather fletching for hunting. No amount of duck oil, hair spray, or silicone can prevent feathers from wilting and losing their ability to stabilize an arrow when rain seriously falls. Feathers rustle noisily in a bow quiver as you move and shoot. And feathers are fragile. If you can get plastic vanes to fly from your hunting setup with broadheads, the practical field advantages are immense.
Some bowhunters believe their fletching should align with broad head blades. I have never seen one whit of evidence to support this notion. Think about it. As your arrow rotates in flight, the head and fletching act independently. When fletching passes where the broadhead was a split-instant before, rotation is different. I routinely shoot three fletch with four-blade broadheads, and I achieve accuracy as good as anyone I know.
I'm often asked why I shoot all-red fletching. The answer is simple. Red is the only common fletching color that is highly visible to the human eye, yet looks medium-gray to a color- blind mammal. Blue, orange, yellow, and white fletches appear white or near-white in black-and-white. You might as well wave a flag at deer! Black, olive green, and dark brown fletching are difficult to see once the arrow impacts game.
I shoot red for good hunting camouflage combined with a high probability of seeing where I've hit my animal.
One other note on fletching. In most cases, so-called mechanical broadheads can be made to fly well with small straight- fletched vanes or feathers. But open-on-impact heads have innate problems of their own. I prefer fixed-blade broadheads in most hunting situations, because they are more durable, deeper penetrating, and usually accurate with large fletching and a proper tune.
