I am considering a feather chopper. My question is how many 4" or 5" feathers will I get out of a full length feather.

I usually get one 5" out of the feathers that I chop. The left overs are long enough to make flu flu fletching. I will guess that you could likely get two 4" fletchings on big feathers.

I think out of 5-700 feathers full length feathers of various colors from tru flight & bearpaw I've had, only a very small percentage of them would have made 2 decent 4" fletch.

For the most part if you ever found 8" of feather to deal with the tail end of the second feather will have a very narrow base.

I bought a chopper quite a few years ago with the thought of saving money. Basically thought I could buy full lengths for the price of one pre-cut feather. Then out of that full length get 2 fletch.
...basically 1/2 the price right?..... WRONG!..lol

Just doesn't work out.

I'm glad I have the chopper for custom shapes though.

Ok Zradix. That is hat I was wondering. I will just stick with ordering pre cut feathers. Thanks.

I use a feather burner and almost always can get 2 4 3/8 inch feathers out of one full length.  I've found the solid color feathers to be longer, but most of the time can get 2 out of a barred feather.  Amg and truflight.  The bases do get a little thin width wise on one feather, but still work for me.

The full length feathers these days are not as long as they used to be years ago.

If you cut a 5" fether, will there be enough to make a feather for a kid's arrow? Out toward the end, is the feather still stiff enough?

how long of kids feather?

you could get a 2" quite often.
any longer and your % of kids feathers will go down pretty quickly.

Having a 4" AND a 3" chopper comes in handy when you run into those shorties...which is much too common these days.

x2 what Lon said.

As JRY points out, feathers aren't as long today as they were just a few years ago.  Now, they tend to be 7-10 inches.  Several years ago they were 10-12 inches and longer.  Wild birds still yield feathers that long, of course, but domestic birds are grown so fast and butchered at such a young age that they no longer develop longer wing feathers.  Rather sad, I think.

I agree with Orion.
The feathers are also "weaker".
They just don't have time to grow a nice firm strong feather.
Heck, I'm worried in a few years they might breed em to grow so fast they won't have time for feathers at all. I'm sure Butterball would like to not need to pluck em...lol

I'd say the lengths he states accurately reflects the length of good wide base on the feather. The feather itself is often longer with maybe around 1.5"-2.5" of additional length with questionable/worrisome base width.

I usually get one good 5 inch and the leftover I use for splicing or 3 inch feathers for the youth arrows.

One good 5" and most times a decent drop that is good enough for a stumper arrow.

Full length feathers used to be longer, especially the white ones. I used to get two 5" from a white feather. I've noticed a definite reduction in length over the last 25 years. I guess more protien goes for the breast meat and less for feathers.

Thanks for all the info. Greatly appreciated.

I like the 4" shield cut chopper. I can get 2 fletchings from most feathers, and since it is a tall fletch, that's plenty to stabilize flight, especially when carefully tuning carbon arrows, extra fletch just hurts speed.

A few years ago (5?) Tru Flight changed their standard for a full length feather.  I do not remember the details but the end effect was a smaller percentage of full length feathers will yield 2 chopped 4" than in the past.  The good news is the price of full length feathers also went down.

For consistency, one fletch from a full length feather. The remainder can be used for kids arrows.

I use a young feather burner I burn mine high and 5 1/4 - 5 1/2 inches I like big feathers only pne per feather kids fletch from some.

QuoteOriginally posted by Red Beastmaster:
One good 5" and most times a decent drop that is good enough for a stumper arrow.

Full length feathers used to be longer, especially the white ones. I used to get two 5" from a white feather. I've noticed a definite reduction in length over the last 25 years. I guess more protien goes for the breast meat and less for feathers.