turkey feathers

[runamuk]

Hello people
my first post here, great site,
picked up my first longbow almost a year ago.
i think i got the longbow fever...
Been sick ever since, just cant get enough.
been sitting back reading and learning from this site longer than i have had a bow..
most everything i have learned was from here or the leather wall, THANKS TO ALL  for sharing there hard earned and valued information....
most any question i had could be answered by just going to search.
well tonite my ol buddy search ain't helping..

so here go's,,
I have a friend in Tennessee that is a turkeys worst nightmare, this guy gets a bunch of birds.
so i asked him about the wing feathers, he said sure i will send ya some from a couple birds and if they work out, I'll send you all you want..
he said he would send the eight primaries from each wing.. so pow right then i think,, ONLY EIGHT FEATHERS PER WING????  NO WONDER FLETCH COST SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!
so now to the questions
how many wing feathers can i use to make my own fletching from one wing?

what is the process to grind the quils flat?

do wild turkey feathers make good fletching??

any tips on how to get the most out of each feather?
thanks for the great site,, and for any tips you share.....
Tyler

[jonesy]

Tyler,cut a left wing feather with chopper. Take freshly cut feather and get the quill thin and pliable enought to follow clamping jig, use a  man made fletch and try to duplicate shape. use a bench grinder to do the rought work, and then a file to fine tune quill (do this while in fletching clamp). When you have a turkey feather that looks simular to that of a manmade fletch. mount in flething clamp leave aboud 1/8 spce between the clamp and quill apply glue and place on shaft, use a seam ripper to seat the feather onto the shaft keep it simple.Super glue works fast. hope this helps jonesy

[poekoelan]

You can also use the secondaries. I do and I don't see any difference in flight. The only thing I noticed is that the secondaries seem to wear a bit quicker. I do try to keep all primaries or all secondaries on a matched set of arrows, but I don't think it's neccessary.

I don't know about grinding the quills flat, once I learned how to strip them from the quill I never bothered with grinding. If you want to go that route, I'm sure someone else will chime in on it. But stripping a feather from the quill only takes a couple seconds. If you are interested in stripping them, see this site...

http://groups.msn.com/ferretsarcherywebpage/strippingturkeyfeathers.msnw

You will undoubtedly ruin a few before you get the hang of it, so it pays to practice on some that you don't plan on using as fletching.

Austin

[Pat B]

I use primary, secondary and tail feathers. Wild turkey feathers are probably better because they still have the natural oil on them. Pat

[runamuk]

wow can't wait to get them feathers .
i think i will try it both ways..
and just see what works for me..

jonesy whats a seam ripper??

austin great site gonn'a have some fun looking it over..

i have a couple choppers and am looking foward to going to the next level of this fletching thing..

thanks for the help, i had no doubts i would get some good info here...
Tyler

[runamuk]

howdy pat..
so maybe i ought to talk to him about sending the whole wing.
he was under the impression that i could only use the primaries, and i had no idea about none of it.

that would be very cool to have some arrows fletched with tail feathers.
i doubt i will be able to talk him out of any tail feathers ..
thanks for the info.
Tyler

[Fritz Brown]

I have the people that are saving their wings for me just throw the whole wing into a plastic bag in the freezer.  Then whenever I am passing through town I pick them up.  That way I get all the feathers, plus the bones for making wingbone calls, and they dont have to do any more work than cutting the wing off and stuffing it into the freezer.

So what part of Idaho are you in?

-Fritz

[dino]

yep, save all of the secondaries too!  There are alot of good feathers there.  I shoot secondaries all of the time. dino

[keepemsharp]

You might also try fletch tape when experimenting. I will never glue one again. Just for a test I glued a turk feather to the outside mirror shroud on the pickup. It' been there over a year and is unfazed by weather.

[Pat B]

The secondaries and tail feathers aren't as tough as the primaries and can be a bit noisier because they are a bit flimsyer(?). This doesn't take away from how well they work and the color variation look pretty cool too.
  There is someone out there that will take all your secondaries and trade you primaries for them. I don't remember who, Though.   Pat

[jonesy]

Tyler a seam ripper is what seamstres use to, well rip a old pocket out of a pair of jeans. you can get them at a sewingshop ,but you dont have to use that use a heavy needel that works well also. "Im a great hunter yes? yes. That is all you will need to know" J.Johnson

[runamuk]

Fritz --shoshone.. are ya seeing any sqeeks or rock chucks over that way??
they are out by the thousands over this way..

Keepemsharp--  i have a roll of fletch tape,
i had kind of had a tuff time with it but gonna give it another go,to many good things being said about it to just give up on it..

this internet never ceases to amaze me,
all i got to do is take a moment to punch a few keys to ask a question. and BAMM!!!  i am getting sound advice from all over the country

thanks to all for your time...
Tyler

[jonesy]

Rockchucks and a 220 swift ackley imp badddd medicine.lol

[runamuk]

jonesy-- i have been using one of those little tools that you dig crab out of the shell with, like they have/HAD:)  at red lobster..

i used to have a 30/06 that i got in a trade,,
i couldnt get a group out'a that gun for nothing(shooting factory ammo)
so i traded it off, the fella i traded it to figured out it was ackley imp. he loaded up some rounds and took me out to show me what a tack driver it was...
all i could do is blubber like a baby!!!!

[jonesy]

lol! lol! he probably bedded it

[runamuk]

yes sir.. now that you mention it,that is exactly what he did!!!

[jonesy]

runamuk, red lobster didnt throw in a waitress too? I like somthing smaller when working on arrows,but hey whatever works for you.

[runamuk]

nope no waitress, but i sure do work on getting one every chance i get..

[ringo64]

you can use lots of the feathers....just different and creative ways of fletching.  try two fletches.... use the tail feathers too.  you don't have to cut them with a chopper....just tie them on and trim by hand.  here are two with turkey and one with goose feathers that i just found in the park...the arrows fly straight as a....well.....as an arrow.
 

[the Ferret]

Primaries, secondaries and tail feather fletched arrows