well i see theres a big deal about high quality primary feathers. whats the main difference between a high quality (primary) feather and a lower quality (secondary/ flu flu) feathers?


steven

Uniform quils with nice fat even grinds for great glueing.  Weighing in the same ballpark too!

Higher oil line in primaries makes for stiffer, more durable and water resistant fletches.

man theres something to learn about everything in this sport.    

QuoteOriginally posted by Orion:
Higher oil line in primaries makes for stiffer, more durable and water resistant fletches.

Winner Winner chicken dinner.   I will agree with what Orion said.

Im glad somebody asked this question because i was wondering this myself.

QuoteOriginally posted by 30pointbuck:
Im glad somebody asked this question because i was wondering this myself.

Me too!

Its hard for me to shoot anything other than trueflight feathers.  I have had such good luck with every pack I've had.  Thin base, easy glueing, and all the same!!

When separating my feathers to chop, I look at the oil line in the feather.  As the feathers come back from the front of the wing tips (pointer feathers) they gradually have lower and lower oil line.  Only the ones that have an oil line that will be in the size and shape of the cut I am making gets to be a #1 primary.  And even with those, some are not quite as stiff as the others.  There are only about 3 and max of 5 on a bird that these come from.  The rest go into the #2 primary and then the secondaries.

#1 stiffest with most oil
#2 less stiff but still a decent oil line
Secondaries.  The least stiffest with no oil line.

Another factor on feathers in today's economic struggles is that if you shoot the same arrows a lot, it does not matter what rated feathers you put on them, they are going to get used up.  If you like to Fletch, don't mind a little more noise from the secondaries, use them for your abuse arrows, the ones you shoot all the time.  Put some stiffer, more oil lined, primaries on your hunting arrows and they will last you for season after season if you care for them properly.  

I have arrows that are just as nice as the day I purchased them in 1986 from Kustom King for a bear hunt in Canada.  But I DON'T SHOT THEM EVERY DAY!!!!

I have arrows that I shot for practice daily that look like they have been run over by a freight train that were just fletched this past year.

So the quality of the feather has to be decided on for what you use it for the most and make a decision from that as to what you want to pay for that.

I am sure if any vendor ADVERTIZED that they were selling SECONDS, people would buy them just to save money, were in reality because of the super fast growth rate that the turkey farms put the birds through, you are not getting any where near the superior feather you once did letting the birds mature longer before getting the feathers from them.

Not to say anything about any feather manufacture, but the feathers of today, are no where near what they were 10-15 years ago and none of them will compare to a mature wild turkey feather.....bar none.  JMHO    

Just to add some numbers, here is a quote for a national based site

•In 2009, 250 million turkeys are expected to be raised in the United States

Let's do the math

250,000,000 turkeys divided by useing only 3 feathers per wing come to 83,333,333.3 RW or LW feathers

83,333,333.3 divided by 3 feather manufacturers, Trueflight, AMG, Gateway equals 27,777,777.7

Divide that by packages of 100 full length feathers and that is 277.777 per just the above manufactures to make all there feathers, full length, chopped to 3, 4, 5 inch, died to multiple colors, considering each feather of the bird is PERFECT and can be used.  

IT JUST CAN NOT HAPPEN

Like I said this is not a bashing to anyone or any feather manufacturer, but the numbers just don't lie and you are not getting perfectly matched, feather to feather consistency that is claimed

And you will not get them on wild turkey feathers either.  To sell you 100 feathers from wild turkey wings using on the 2 "PRIME" "PREMIERE" feathers from each bird, I have to have 50 wild turkeys.  Again, JMHO.

Not to say anything about any feather manufacture, but the feathers of today, are no where near what they were 10-15 years ago and none of them will compare to a mature wild turkey feather.....bar none. JMHO  

X2!

I would consider Charles a very knowlegable person when it comes to feathers, and he is right...Numbers do not lie.

Thank you for the info Charles.

You and me both Mike.

The main reason why I only use primaries is the noise factor. I fletched 3 of my woodies with secondaries and after about the first few rounds of shooting them I decided they had to go. They made more than a hiss and was approaching a high pitched squeal or scream is the best way I can describe it. At any rate I didn't like it.
By the way these were off a hen that my neighbor killed last fall.
I stripped them off and refletched with the primaries and they flew silent once again.

If they were just for target shooting only it wouldn't have been a big deal, but I was going to be hunting with these and figured if I could hear them all the way to the target that the deer surely could as well.

Secondary feathers are thinner therefore will have a little more noise with them.  Secondaries are the quietest with a parabolic cut or a rounded shield back.

Can someone post a picture of the oil line showing what makes a good feather and what is less desirable? Or draw a pic? I'd really like to see what I should be looking for when buying and making fletching.

Steve, I don't have photo shop to do what I want to show you, but I borrowed a couple of pictures for Rob's How To to show you a little about the oil line.

In picture one, you can see the oil line come up from the quill about 1/3 of the feather, it is real shinny.

 In number two you can see it from a different angle

 Now in the last picture, you can see the dark colored feathers which have the higher, better oil line in with some of the #2 primaries which are lighter in color and have no oil line in the. The number 1 are the #1 primary and the number 2 are the #2 primary.

 I will get some better pictures in a couple of days that will explain it better.

StringStretcher thank you very much for taking the time to post the pics! I'm going to pull out some of my wild turkey feathers and see if I can see the oils line.

Never heard about the oil line...just used primaries for main arrows and secondaries for knock around shooters.  More pictures would be great...thanks.