Shooting shields and parabolics past the open window of the house today and my son (inside the house) said that the shields made a wooshing noise and all he heard from the parabolics was the thump in the target? Anyone else notice a difference?

Your son is correct,the Shields do make more noise than the Parabolics. This is caused by the back cut of the Shields.

shoot a banana-cut at full-width and let him get an earful of that! They make the shields seem quiet by comparison.

I reduced the noise from my shields by trimming them a bit. My chopper makes them a little too high.

I find sheilds to be a little noisy to.I like 4" parabolic.There quiet and my broadheads like them to.

When I was a teenager, I listened to the arrows being shot by bowhunters at archery functions. Those shooting 5" shield cut feathers, I could hear them on the way to the target. The ones shooting 5" parabolic feathers, no noise in flight. This is why I shoot 5" parabolic feathers.

I will say this, when parabolic feathers start looking worn and ratty, they will start to make a noise on their way to the target. When I hear this, that's when I re-fletch.

You guys have good ears.

We have good ears but remember that animals "deer" have even better ears.  No sense sending them an alarm when you shoot.

With all due respect you certainly don't have to have "good ears" to hear shield cut fletching in flight. I'm over 65 and retired from the construction industry. I love the look of shields and have owned dozens of them and never had a dozen that were quiet. On the other hand save for a couple with a gap in the glue line I've never had noisy parabolics, ditto on the one dozen banana flethed arrows that I still have a few of left.

Let me make a correction. Rod Kelley (Mountaintop Traditional Arrows) in Kalispell, MT. did burn some rather low 5" shields on some Beman MFX carbons for me once that I shot at 3d and they were all quiet.

With all due respect to y'all... I ain't never had an animal complain about the noise my shield cut feathers make... Plus them big honking BH's make noise too...  :D

Thanks for all the replies and Javi, you are right, my Phantoms do make a little noise. My solid Woodsman Elites seem pretty quiet.

Parabolics fletched on the same angle as Shield with the same length should be quieter.

Personally, I shoot 4" shield with low angle helical due to my shooting style. These arrows with Ultra-EFOC are quiet.

Comparing new feathers, shield are significantly louder than parabolic in my experience.  However once they are broken in a bit the difference does not seem so great.  I like the looks of shield so usually use them in spite of a little more noise.  I figure the deer will probably hear my bow or see the fat guy in the tree move at release more than hear the arrow...

For me, the sweet sound of the arrow going "swoooosh"  

I just like the looks of barred shield cut feathers. The noise they may make at the distance I shoot at deer, I'll let the deer worry about that.

I also just like the looks of the shield cut. About the time the deer stop to wonder what that strange bird is, it's too late.

Easykeeper - you took the words right out of my mouth.
I shot parabolics for many years - probably a carry-over from my target archery days (before vanes got popular).  You could definitely hear a worn or damaged parabolic going down range.
But one day it sort of dawned on me - hey, those SHIELD cut feathers look good, and that's what Fred Bear was shooting.  Been shooting them ever since.
If it looks good - it should work good - right ?

I use 5.5" shields and never have a problem with sound, cant say the same for my 6" parabolics but they have a higher profile.

Unless I am hunting I could care less how much noise my feathers make, right now I am shooting Traditional Cut and they do make noise but I like the look and  profile! For hunting parabolic feathers all the way!