More, Trendy Vanes!

[snapperdan]

If its not broken dont fix it

[Woody Williams]

Not sure how they can be "more accurate" than Blazers?

[awshucks]

Not sure how they can be "more accurate" than Blazers?

Me neither. I've gotten 1-1.5" 5 shot groups benched at 50 w/ Blazers. There's always a breeze to contend w/ here, it shows up more the farther you try to test. This was done on a 2-4 mph quartering day. Same arrows w/ 4" Duravanes drifted. YMMV.

[Limbs and Sticks]

The plastic's are OK, how ever I'll stay with my feathers, have no trouble's wind rain or twig's in flight, to me all the new vanes are like fishing lures, change the color add a dot or two shape it different and it doesn't do any different than what you bought 2yrs ago, just my thoughts

Wes

[awshucks]

Bob, the 4" Duravaned arrows in above post were 'Millers Killers". I'd tried to do this test a few times in the past. It entails me hauling stuff 2 miles to a field behind country store. On occasion, I've set up and shot in the cross wind anyhow, results were similar only more extreme. 4" drifted a lot more than 2" Blazers.

I fletched the Blazers, AZ-EZ rt hand helical, but have a plethoria of Danny's Gt's, both old and new.

Next time I fletch, I'll try some 4" w/ my AZ-EZ and see if that makes a diff.

I have to respectfully disagree on the affects of cross wind on arrows. A .22 lr will drift one inch per mile of hour crosswind at 100 yds and it has a lot less surface to be affected than an arrow.

I will grant you at 20-30 yds the diff in 2" and 4" regardless of amt of breeze is minimal for hunting deer purposes.

[Pydpiper]

Vanes on crossbows are over rated, I shot my last 3D with one vane completely gone, with only two vanes there was no affect on my POI, at all.
When it is really windy I found the smaller 2" vanes to be more stable when it is windy than the larger ones. My thoughts always led me to a sail, the more surface area available the more the arrow/boat could be influenced by the wind.
Like Dan said, the Blazers shoot as good as good gets, no need to switch.

[awshucks]

Below is a link with a relatively good explanation of arrow flight.

http://www.huntersfriend.com/carbon_arr ... pter_4.htm

Nice site, thanks. Notice the 32% of their last years arrows were Blazered? Am somewhat curious why, seems high for hype.

I know I got along just fine w/o them for quite a spell, lol. I use 4" for bheads as the ones I have are heavier than Blazer rigged.

I was curious about the hype on them and still am.

[Limbs and Sticks]

You can shoot a raw shaft with field points with your setup now and still be close if not dead on, It's the broadheads that start the ruckus and this is why we fletch them up, fixed bh's for sure need fletching's, the mech. are close.

Wes

[bob1961]

i have my 2" blazers fletched straight on my 2117 alum arrows and have great flight out to 50 yards with 125gr slick tricks...........bob

....

[wheelie]

I use 2 inch blazers, My buddy uses fusions, he put on blazers on a couple of his arrows, and at 40 yards the blazers were hitting 4 inchs right and 2 inchs low compared to his fusions on same arrows. Everything under 40 yards was the same. I had alot of trouble with blazers till I put them on with 3 degree helix, with the blazer jig, then they started to fly better. Mine you that is with compounds set at 50lbs and 54 lbs. Crossbow I fletch strait with blazers and there seems to be no issues.

[sumner4991]

Another trade off is noise . . .the big vanes with a tight twist are LOUD.

I like the small vanes . . .I agree with the less surface rule . . .same arguement goes for fixed blade broadheads, smaller flies better because of the surface. That's why all those small heads hit the market, unfortunately, they don't cut as much.

Trades-offs.

[sumner4991]

I agree Bob . . .that's why I went simple . . .small vanes with a mechanical head. Actually, I could use about any vane that will stick. Makes the matching game a little easier for me. The smaller vanes will help with foc a little too.

If they would just come out with a mechanical with a large enough cut to quarter the deer upon impact, then that choice would be easy too.

[Michael Stogre]

"No fletching at all along with a huge hunting head will really fly squirrelly. Tiny fletchings with a huge hunting head are about the same as no fletchings with a large hunting head."

Not necessarily so.

Recently, Dr. Ed Ashby and others have been experimenting with "turbulators" on their arrows.
As used in archery these are made from 1 mm wide strips of pinstripe tape circumscribing
the shaft 1/4 inch in front of the fletching. They found that this adaptation of an aeronautical
engineering technique helped stabilize arrows with large broadheads and small fletching.

For a discussion of "turbulators" see "A long look at fletching and EFOC" found on the
Traditional Bowhunter Magazine Forums-Ashby Arrow Lethality...

Also one could read "Fletching and Extreme FOC Arrows" on the Trad Gang.com web site.

MJS

[Michael Stogre]

Hey Bstout:

So far I have only tried turbulators on arrows fletched with blazers and vantec vanes along with
100 grain field points that I use for 3d tournaments. I also chrongraphed my 2216 XX78
aluminum arrows with and without the turbulator and got a duplication. I also tried turbulators
on some arrows I use with my Browning micro-adrenaline and found it hard to tell any difference in accuracy.

I will have to try some arrows with 150 grain boltcutters or 150 grain Wensel Woodsmans
and see how those fly.

I have yet to try the newer shorter lower profile blazer. So maybe a turbulator would be an
asset with that size vane?

Let us know if you find out about any other experiments with the turbulator.

[TYE]

I use 2" Fusions and they're the best I've used yet. I've used 3" 4" 5" vanes and blazers and the fusions are the cats meow!