Fletching

[wn]

I plan to make some bolts this winter. I have noticed that the new trend is to use very short fletching. I have always uses the 4.18 inch Flex Fletch vanes. What is the advantage of the shorter vanes? Should i put a helical or streight fletch. I have a Bitzenberger and a Arizina Ez Fletch they are both right helical. I use Lazer II bolts with the brass insert int he front.

[bdog]

google Blazer vanes and check out what they have to say

[vixenmaster]

Actually the shorter vanes give abit stiffer property & are abit taller in profile. A 2" vane like that will act like a 4" vane of regular profile. The other advantage if you call it that is abit of weight saving. I have went back to my 4" length & using Duravanes by Norway

[Phoenix_Tom]

Wn;

Smokpolehall pretty much covered it but I'd like to emphasize the weight savings Smoke is talking about is off the rear of the arrow. I find stock arrows to be FOC challenged. So while I might be shaving a bunch of vane weight off the back, I might add a brass insert on the front to bring up the FOC even more. But I found just stripping off 4" vanes and putting on 2" vanes to be a good improvement on groupings.

The manufacturers do not recommend fletching their 2" vanes in helical. Ignoring that I have 2" NAP Quikspin Hunter STs fletched in RH and they are great. I tried fletching 2" Fusion vanes in RH and I had nothing but problems with the vanes falling off. I still haven't identified exactly what the problem with the Fusion vanes is but I hope to soon. I suspect it was because I didn't wipe the base of the vanes down with alcohol to remove the mold release agent before gluing them. I also find that the Arizona EZ-Fletch jig isn't wide enough to cover the wider bases of the Fusion vanes. I tried the Fusions in straight (1 degree) on wraps and they seem to be much better (still not great) than RH on bare arrow. But I didn't get a chance to shoot those arrows yet.

I'm building a dozen GT Lazer IIs over the winter. I'll be using the Quikspins in RH with those as well as 110gr brass inserts on the front. I'm undecided on the wraps at the moment.

One last thing, the extra height on the 2" vanes isn't an issue on an Excalibur. But I noticed that they fly better and more consistently if you ensure the "top" vanes are both equally touching the scope mount. It makes loading a little bit more tricky. But it's no more tricky than verifying the marks on your string line up with the rail when you cock the bow. Also, I did run into an issue with the taller vanes hitting the moleskin on the riser on my vertical compound bow. More tuning to do over the winter I guess.

[Big John]

A higher degree of off-set will also impart more spin. Trade-offs are associated with helicals and off-sets. Speed is reduced, more noise in flight, but accuracy is improved over straight fletching with the above. I prefer accuracy over speed, but to each his own. With a nice FOC all will work good.

[crazyfarmer]

i like the idea that you want just enough spin to keep it stable in flight.. not to much or to little

straight will work very well indoors

[Exomaxer]

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[Phoenix_Tom]

Thanks for the info Exomaxer. In a recent vane shoot-out, they actually reported the opposite of what you're saying. The showed the Quikspins as faster than the Blazers and they kept more speed out at 30 yards. I haven't tried the Blazers, but I know they're a great vane and I'm not knocking them. Like you said, the true test is to chrony them but I'm not too concerned about 1 FPS either way.

The vane comparison review: http://archeryreport.com/reviews/fletching-review/

[Exomaxer]

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[Phoenix_Tom]

No reason to apologize. I'm sure you had good info. That's just one review and these two vanes are neck and neck. I wasn't trying to "correct" you or anything like that.

[Exomaxer]

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[Phoenix_Tom]

Excellent! I'm anxious to hear your results! Maybe you could try the Fusions too. There are some guys here that are interested in the fusions. I am too if I could just get them to adhere!

[Exomaxer]

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