For many years I believed in order to steer big broadheads I needed to use 5 or 5 and 1/2 inch feathers twisted in as much helical as I could muster. A light bulb went on one day four years ago when a friend and I were shooting. He was using full helical fletching as was I. After standing down range and listening to the amount of noise the feathers were making I decided to try to eliminate part of it.
I purchased some 4 inch shield cut feathers and dug out my unused straight clamp and 4 fletched them straight keeping in mind that a straight fletched arrow will still twist the shaft in flight. The shooting results were great in that the arrows flew somewhat faster and the feather noise was almost eliminated. They had no trouble steering even the heaviest broadheads and I have been hunting with this setup for the last 4 years.
Last winter I was at Bass Pro and while looking through the archery stuff, noticed the little 2 inch Rayzr feathers. As most of us like to do I wanted to experiment a little so I bought a package of 50. After arriving in camp here in CO, I fletched up a few arrows with them using the same 4 fletch in a straight clamp. I am amazed at how well these little feathers handle heavy arrows without even a tiny wobble! The arrows are noticeably faster than with the 4 inch feathers and fly great. I will not change my hunting arrows to Rayzrs this late before season but will continue experimenting with them and who knows, maybe next year.
I have used the rayzr feathers on my fmjs and trad carbon arrows for several years, they do fly great, I still use longer feathers on my wood arrows, like 4 or 5 inch , but mostly for looks. I made a set with the rayzrs in a double configuration , 2 in a row on a set of woodies, and they looked pretty cool and fly great.
For practicing with field points, I find 3" feathers flies every bit as good as 4". The smallers feathers actually group better at >25yard distances. I suspect they have less drag. I still stick to 4" as they look better and easier to see the arrows in flight.
I have thought long and hard about doing just what you did. However, 4" fletch looks better, and gives a little more control over the huge Simmons Treesharks that I shoot.
A well tuned arrow doesn't need much fletching under good conditions, even with fixed blade heads. That said I still like to err on the side of caution and use three 4" or 5" helical feathers.
New feathers are very noisy. Older broken in feathers are much quieter for me, at least until they get really ratty looking.
Good luck in your experiments and post up your results, I'd be very interested in hearing what you find out over the long run.
Sounds like your setup is very well tuned :thumbsup:
Yup. Got a cheap 3" chopper and started using it this summer. Four 3" feathers fly great.