How are you guys building yours?
How many fletch do you prefer? 3,4,5???
I don't believe the clamps on my bitzenburger are deep enough to build flu-flus?....so what system are you using to build your arrows??
I've never made them before and just ordered my first dozen fletch to make a couple for fun.
Thanks
I prefer the spiral fletched flu flu. Didnt need my blitzenburg for it and they work great.
The Bitz will do it, just flex the feathers down a bit, They will work fine.
CHuckC
I do 4 5" helical at 90 degrees.
Bitzenburger clamps are indeed able to fletch full height: the tips of the feather will bend and split while in the clamp and then spring back as soon as clamp is released.
An alternative flu flu type is to use a 4" section of spiral wrap feather and wrap very tightly (quill to quill) immediately behind your normal fletch. Cut down to 1/2", these mini air brake flu flus fly about 100 yards out of my 45-50# bows, same as 4x4" full height flu flus.
I also prefer a spiraled fluflu. You can control how much "brakes" you add by leaving the fluflu full height or trimming it down to a lesser height. You make a spiral fluflu by wrapping the feather around the shaft. I found that fletch tape works well with this but I have also just tied the feather at the nock, wrapped it around the shaft and tied it on the forward end. Both methods worked well.
Spiral fletch is the only wat to go . (2 feathers )
I use 4, 5" feathers. And, the Bitzenburger works just fine. My next set will be the spiral fletch. Love the way they look.
I used to use 4x5" full length. Maybe I just got lazy, but the past 10 years or so I just leave the bitz on 3x120, same twist angle and use 4" of uncut fletch. EZPZ, cut-em' and glue up like my regular arrows.
12" of full height feather works plenty good to parachute the arrow down where I can usually find it. If I need more drag I'll cut them a little longer, but so far 4" seems to work about right for not losing too many arrows on tree top squirrels, still shoot relatively flat and retain some thump at 25yds or so over the 4x5's I used to shoot. Rarely have to mess with or tweak for spine with 3x4's too.
Anyway, 3x4's have worked out very well for me, no setup changes to make and sufficient drag to keep the arrow from reaching escape velocity. :)
My spiral fluflu have only used 1 full length feather. At full height it will stop an arrow at about 35 to 40 yards.
Sight down a spiral fletched arrow and down a 3 or 4 fletched fluflu. With the spiral fletch you see no daylight through the fluflu. With a 3 or 4 fletched fluflu you see day light between all the fletching.
I agree with those on the spiral flu flu. They work great and are cheap and easy to install. Several you tubes out there on how to install. All you need is a feather and a little contact cement.
I cut down my busted carbons and turn them into Flu flu arrows. Since they are already fletched I just add some spiral where it will fit or even glue a few more feathers on in-between the existing fletch.
Most of my flu flus are old shortened regular 3 fletch wood arrows. I add 3 full height 5" feathers between the existing fletching. Add a shell casing blunt and you have the perfect arrow to launch at a squirrel.
I use my bitz and it work fine. I've learned iafter shooting at many squirrels that a modified 3 fletch flu flu works best for me. I start with full length feathers cut them into 4 in hers then fletch 3. Then take my feather burner and trim 1/4" off from top corner to bottom. It ends up being the perfect amount of speed and drag. Big 4 fletch were to noisy and slow for hunting small game. Just my opinion
100% spiral wrap for me. Just ensure you are getting full length feathers with the quill ground down "Spiral Wrap Ready". Regular quills will be too stiff to flex that way. Very simply to construct and such a blast shooting aerial targets. We save cereal boxes and fill with newspaper. Strip of duct tape on the lid and it's more than a days worth of fun. Simply hand toss them up at 10-15 yds from the shooter for some real interesting fun! We were surprised by how many times we actually did hit the box. Thinking about taking the bow with me on my next put n' take pheasant hunt.
Just strip a full length feather from its quill and then spiral wrap. With just the membrane holding the feather (no quill) it's easy to wrap them.