What are your preferences for fletching shape?  I love the way "native" style fletchings make an arrow fly, but they are a little noisy.  Sounds cool in the yard, but seems like it could cause some "string jumping" in a hunting situation. Beacuse of this I've switched to a shield style fletching, but I've noticed these arrows are less forgiving to my occasionally sub-par shooting form.  I'd like to switch back to a native style feather, but I'd like to know if anyone has noticed game flinching due to the sound of an arrow in flight.

The quieter the arrow is in flight the better, along with a quiet bow. BUT.............If a deer is on high alert and no wind noise the deer will be able to duck or jump the arrow easily no matter how fast or quiet it is. Standing behind a tree and having an arrow shot past the tree, you can hear what the deer hears, it is surprising. But don't peak around the tree.

In my experience parabolics are quiet, shields (unless cut or burned low) are not. Other shapes I do not have much experience with.

This is a link to a fine discussion on here some time back regarding arrow noise and fletching choices.  As with most topics, varied opinions, but plenty of food for thought:

http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=057257;

I've shot shield and parabolic and I know for a fact parabolic is quieter. I can't comment on banana cut.

BTW, even with parabolic, if the feathers get worn (pieces missing) or ratty looking (ends getting frayed), the arrow will make a "hissing" sound in flight.

When I hear this sound, I re-fletch.

QuoteOriginally posted by Night Wing:
I've shot shield and parabolic and I know for a fact parabolic is quieter. I can't comment on banana cut.

BTW, even with parabolic, if the feathers get worn (pieces missing) or ratty looking (ends getting frayed), the arrow will make a "hissing" sound in flight.

When I hear this sound, I re-fletch.

I agree with the above.

I'm pretty sure what makes difference is the taller "unsupported" barbs.

A moon cut is really quiet.
The tallest barbs are supported well since they are in the middle.

A trad cut or Pope and Young cut with the longest barbs hanging out the back make quite a bit of noise.

Smaller ( read less high )feathers of the same shape are quieter.

I've sorta settled on 4-4.25" T-hawk chopped with little choppers.

They have pretty good support for the longer barbs thanks to the "swoop" in the back.

Also, they have the longer barbs towards the back.
It might not make a lick of difference, but I figure the tall barbs are doing most of the work so might as well put towards the back where they have more leverage to do their job.

I went with the 4-4.25" because they had more surface area than 3-5", and they were quieter since they were smaller.

...and I like the looks of em..

My 2¢. YMMV

Been shooting shield cut or hand cut for more than 50 years and I've never paid no attention to the noise of the fletchings... never had an animal ask me what that noise is neither...

A friend of mine calls it the hissssss of death..  :D

You may be getting better arrow flight with your native cut simply because it's got a greater surface area than the shield cut you've tried.
In a quieter cut you could try either a larger version or possibly going to a four fletch to match the surface area of the native cut.

Guy

Thanks for the replies.  I've been shooting 4" sheilds in 3-fletch, but I may try 5" sheilds or 4" in 4-fletch.  I'll experiment with this a little in the spring.  There's still some hunting to be done this winter and there's no point in changing things up now. For now I'm going with Javi's philosophy which it seems is to just let the arrows fly.