Thought this might be an interesting thread. What style of feathers do you guys use for hunting. I use parabolic.
I fletch my arrows with 3, 5" parabolic feathers.
Three 5" parabolic normally. Though I'm working on a dozen 5" shield right now. IMLE (In my limited experience) they are pretty much interchangable.
I did try two dozen Pope & Young style and they buzzed in flight. Looked great, though.
i have 3 LW 4" parabolics on carbons and 3 LW 5" shield on my wood arrows they both seem to fly the same for me
3 LW 5" shield cut on everything...wood, carbon, aluminum. They work well and look great.
5.5 inch shield, three fletch. quite stylin'
Three 5" parabolic. I prefer to buy white full length feathers and cut them myself in my chopper. I prefer Wild Turkey wing feathers when I have them.
Three 4 inch parabolic on my aluminum arrows.
Some of each.Most are 3x4" right wing parabolic
3 5" mostly shields but i have many other styles i use
3ea 5 1/2 parabolic LW 2 trad barred 1 white
Three, four inch "hunters".
3X5" RW Parabolic...going to try 4" soon though
Wood shafts get 3 5-1/2" left wing helical shield cut.
Used to use 5 inchers, but have gone to 4", and I don't see any flight differences. LW parabolics. And this is on cedars.
I use 4-4.5" T-hawks chopped at full height...just angled the base up at the front tip...
(http://i748.photobucket.com/albums/xx121/Zradix/Bestfortradgang.jpg)
for the very most part, feather shape don't matter much. total fletch surface area do, along with the amount spin you add via feather offset or helical.
i like a lotta shaft rotation to get the arra to spin quick off the shelf and help me with a bad form release, and that takes some good fletch surface area and offset/helical.
if i hadda have just one fletch shape/size, it'd be a 5.25" high shield with maximum helical.
it pays to do some fletch testing with your choice of broadheads, and not just field points. that's where the rubber meets the road for trad bowhunter, i'd think. :readit:
I use three 5" parabolics, 2 solid color hens and a barred cock feather on everything. Parabolics are always quiet in my experience.
3 5 inch vanes
Normal setup is 3-4in right helical parabolics, but this year I started shooting 4-3in Hi shield rw helical feathers and those things really shoot well, not that I had any problem before, but they do look cool and I don't have to worry about how my arrows are nocked now either! Plus they tend to hold up better when wet.
I switched to 4-4" feathers in a 60x120 configuration about ten years ago. I especially like the fact that with this configuration I don't have to worry about nock alignment. It comes in real handy when I take our Scouts out to the range or 3D shoot since they also don't have to worry about nock alignment.
3 5 1/2" Trad hard helical.. I shoot big BH's on heavy arrows and want as much stabilization as I can get in the Texas wind.