Ya Gotta Love This Site!! I was Given a BroadHead by a Very Generous Member, that I intend, Note:Intend          

Rick Said: "I read a thorough test done by an engineer with a bow shooting machine YEARS ago. He found that more feathers are actually FASTER than smaller feathers out to past 40 yards or so, then the extra drag slows them down, but since they already were ahead the smaller feathered arrows didn't catch up until past 50 yards!"

Yep, the more "stable" arrow will hold it's velocity better. I never cared for 4 fletch, anything beyond "enough" is unnecessary over kill. There is another way to increase that stability....Move that FOC forward. 4" fletch on a 20% FOC will be more stable then 5" at 15%, without the resulting losses down range and riser/fletch interference.....O.L.

OL, I would assume that is considering all other aspects being equal....like feather shape. No reason why 4 fletch would be unnecessary over kill unless you were using too much feather: decreasing overall feather surface area of each to compensate for addition of the 4th feather.

I SHOT MY BH'S YESTERDAY FOR THE FIRST TIME. I HAVE SOME MAGNUS 125'S WITH BLEEDERS. ONLY SHOT A COUPLE OF TIMES BUT AT 20 YARDS IT SEEMS TO DIVE DOWN AND TO THE RIGHT. IF I TRIED 4-5" FEATHERS WOULD IT HELP TAME THAT OR IS THERE ANOTHER WAY. I SHOT COMPOUNDS FOR YEARS WITH BASICLY THE SAME SET UP THE HOLE TIME SO I NEVER HAD TO TINKER WITH THEM MUCH SO I REALY DON'T KNOW HOW.

   B-DOG

JC, Yep, the further aft the surface area is placed does the same thing as increasing FOC so the average surface area on 4-4" would most likely be close to the same surface area but further aft, that's a good thing.

B-DOG, You need to do some tuning. Bigger feathers will make them appear to fly better but the root cause is still there. Bigger feathers to correct tuning problems is putting lip stick on a pig. The "test" is step back and shoot a mixture of field tips and wide matched weight broadheads. They should group together from any distance you can shoot a decent group. The "diving down and right" could be from your arrow nocks being too tight on the string, nock set too high, or nock set too low and the tail of the arrow is hitting the shelf/window. Could be a combination of all of them. Correct the diving down first then correct the left/right with point weight.....O.L.

I like bigger or 4 feathers for the wet days...soggy BIG feathers fly better than soggy little feathers.

QuoteOriginally posted by TSHOOTER:
Do you guys prefer 90 degree or some other configuration on 4 fletch?

75X105... Gets the shaft closer to the bow, if that makes any sense to anyone. Plus, they look better, to me.

By the way, my first set of woods -- made someone else, I didn't know how to build 'em at the time -- had "P&Y" style fletches. To reduce/eliminate the "buzz", I trimmed of the back end of the fletches and made them sort of "square". Seems it's the "tail" that makes that noise when it vibrates ("flaps" around) in flight.

So all you four fletchers.... I have some arrows that are full length maple 620 grains w\\o points... Planning on 160 - 190 grain points ... what size and shape fletch? Shield? Bananna? I have a feather burner so I can do whatever I want....

Just for fun I fletched up a couple of 4 fletch 90 degree 5" Shields to see the difference. I'm sold!

Guys, this may be a dumb question, but what does a 90 degree fletch look like compared to a 75 x 105 degree. My fletching jig does not have any markings to tell me what I have. Is the 90s just straight back? And the 75x105 have a helical twist? Thanks Gilbert

90* refers to the spacing of the fletching on the shaft not the amount of helical. With 90* the four fletches are evenly spaced apart on the shaft, and with 75x105 have two feathers placed at 75* apart then a gap of 105* then two more feathers at 75*.

Amicus, its two different things, generally its the feather clamp that determines whether it is helical or not and a setting on the nock holder for, 120-3 fletch, 90-4 or 105/75-4 fletch. My first fletching jig only had the 120-3 setting, so about 40 years ago I experimented with four fletch by fletching the two hens feathers and then flipping the arrow over and doing two more, so I actually ended up with a 120/60-four fletch! One thing I prefer about the 105/15 to the 90 degree, is fitting them into an arrow box or bow quiver, I find that it is easier to get them to fit without the fletching hitting each other.

I like the 4 fletch 5 inch. Even if the bow is tuned correctly, the arrows seem to recover faster after a bad release. Ha!
Mike

I fletch a cock feather + a hen feather, flip the arrow 180 in the nock receiver and repeat.

I learned how here:
http://www.arrowsbykelly.com/Other_Tips.html