I'm currently shooting left wing helical out of a right hand bow. Is there differnce between the two or is it a personal preference. Lately I've been getting consistent groupings at 22yds,but sometimes my grouping goes hoizontal to the vertcal plane. For example: at 22yds I was aiming for a small taget and released. The arrow impacted approximatelty 3-4 inches to the right of where I was aiming. I regrouped and shot another volley of three identical arrows. Same result. A nice close group just outside my intended target. I'm right handed shooter. Could I be plucking the strings? All shooting is done instictive and at anchor I pause for 1-2 seconds. Any welp with coaching would greatly be appreciated.
Personal Preference just don't mix them on an arrow.
I shoot left wing helical and am right handed. Only reason is because they were on sale.
As far as your shots it could be a form issue or it could be a spine issue. Your arrows may be weak
What is your bow set up, arrowsize, arrow length, head weight, actual draw length, any additional weight added to your arrow and string type?
right wing helical for hunting in the northern hemisphere and left wing for the southern hemisphere. Its just basic plumbing.
I fletch and use both RW and LW,it doesn't matter.I'm RH and when I shoot RW I shoot cock feather in if I can't rotate the nock for best clearence.
Make sure if you ever decide to try single bevel broadheads such as the grizzlys you buy the left bevel for left helical or right bevel for right helical. DK.
I'm shooting a 60" Shrew Scout recurve that is 55lbs @28, Thr arrows are 65-70 spine tapered cedars @29 iches with 125 grain field tips.
It looks like you are a little under-spined. Shorten your arrwos with an inch or get one spine value higher with your arrows.
Take a look at Stu Millers dynamic spincecalculator.
Like everyone else said, it doesn't matter if you go with right or left wing feathers. I'm right handed and I use right wing feathers for the simply reason when I started shooting arrows with my recurve, the bow shop where I went had tons of right wing feathers. Picked up a few, the arrows flew great and I've been buying right wing feathers ever since.
I shoot lefts, only because I'm more likely to get a feather cut on my bow hand with rights. Lefts are more abundant, because turkeys have the left wing clipped to keep them in the pen.
Left or right has no effect on the arrow flight unless the fletching is hitting the bow as it passes.
Another thing to remember is that arrows are spined at 28 inches so if yours are cut to 29" they are actually weaker than 65-70. Also are you drawing the full 28"? Clip a clothespin on your shaft and draw your bow, the clothespin should slide down as you draw. Then measure from the valley of your nock to the back of the clothespin. if you're only drawing 26 instead of 28 you'll only pull around 49#, but if you're pulling past the 28" you'll be pulling more weight. Which in turn affects what spine you need.
It doesn't matter unless your using single bevel heads.
I thought it had to do with what political party you belonged to?
I've shot them both over the years and settled in shooting right wing. LW or RW..didn't see that much difference in the way they shot for me.
It only matters if you mix them on the same arrow - which includes using a single bevel broadhead that doesn't match your fletching. People used to think that right handers should shoot left wing and left handers should shot right wing, but then Easton did some high speed video that shows the rotation begins only after the arrow is well off the shelf/rest and headed down range, so it really makes no difference - again, just be consistent on any given arrow.
Southernshooter, have you tried bareshafting or shooting broadheads to see how they hit in comparison to your field points. If your field points are hitting to the right, you could be shooting a too weak of a shaft. Bareshafting or shooting broadheads will really reveal whether they're too weak or not.
Thanks for all the help. Using a wood clothespin, my draw is actually 28 1/8. I thought the arrows were 29". I measured the arrows from the nock valley to the end of the field tip and came up with 30 1/2". From the nock valley to the end of the bare shaft is 30". Would you suggest shortening the arrows to 29" to increase spine? I have not tried bareshafting as of yet nor have I shot broadheads. The arrows with 125 grain field tips weigh 579 grains.
I think you are underspined on your shafts. As far as cutting them, thats your decision. once you cut them you can't add it back on. If you do decide to cut I would try 1/4 to 1/2 inch at a time. You can try this link to the spine calculator and put your info in and see where you need to be with your set up.
http://heilakka.com/stumiller/
I'm RH and I've shot RW and LW feathers, makes no difference in accuracy for me. I get good clearance with either one on my Bear Grizzly. I recently bought a bunch of RW full length feathers and started cutting my own, they fly awesome. I just prefer to fletch RW because it's what I'm used to and I do a better job at it, so I see no reason to use LW if it's just a pain in the booty for me to use them.
Only reason I tried the LW feathers was because they were given to me and I ended up cutting them all back off and re-fletching with RW.
What Don said. I was shooting right wing fletches with the old Bear, which has a significant center-cut and shelf. When I got the long-bow, the same arrows wore a groove in my bow-hand knuckle. i asked the bowyer, Steve Turay, about it. He suggested switching to left wing feathers. I did so and the problem was gone (I shoot right handed.)
The only difference I see is with screw ins with single bevel RW. The rotation of the BH can cause it to 'loosen' going through bone so use some loctite and should not be an issue.
Learned that reading one of Dr. Ashby's reports.
NO NO NO!! IT DOES MATTER!
When you shoot a bow like mine, using 4 feathers, 5" long - helical, the wrong twist will cut you like a knife. Left for a bow held in the left hand, right for a bow held in the right hand. I have the scar to prove it.
make sure you have the correct clamp on your jig.