Scott's thread inspired me into asking this question. What is really the benifit to having feathers on your arrows. I know a couple of guys who swear by them, but I also know a few guys that would vote for them as soon as they would vote for Hilary Clinton. I'm not interested in switching over, just curious.
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They are lighter which means that the end of your shaft is lighter which means that they can do their job of stabilizing the shaft better and faster. Vanes can be up to 700% heavier which means that it requires up to 700% more effort from the vane to stabilize the arrow. What is easier to throw, a one pound ball or a 700 pound ball?
The are naturally textured so they "grab" more air which also leads to better stabilization.
They are more foregiving than a vane when making contact with an object. In other words they will fold out of the way where as a vane will bounce off an object.
They maintain their shape when traveling at high speeds where as a vane will flutter through the air thus loosing more of what little stabilization properties they had.
Feathers will still stabilize an arrow just fine if they get damaged. A vane will need to be replaced.
In my experience they are far more durable than vanes are. This includes practicing, and hunting.If you shoot through a feather they will naturally seaperate and stick right back together. If you shoot through a vane you got a big hole that is nonrepairable.
Feathers are not affected by temperature changes like vanes are.
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Feathers get wet and are useless after that . You can treat them to make them water proof but that doesnt last long and it usualy stops working when you need it . feathers are noisy just stand down range in a safe place and have somone shoot a feathered arrow and one with vaines you be the judge .
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Along with all the other benifits listed above , they are much much more forgiving of fletch contact than vanes . You can turn you arrow with the cock vane in the wrong position and still hit the x , with vanes youd be in the next county .
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Wear a full harness and tie yourself to your tree !
Take a kid hunting or fishing .
Nocks , the most overlooked component .
Feathers only get wet when the hunter allows them to get wet. Keep them covered and out of the rain, they don't get wet. The waterproofing is to keep the feathers from being soaked on the short trip from the quiver, to string, to animal. It's not meant to keep feathers dry while sitting out in a monsoon all day.
On the other hand, if it's raining hard enough to work it's way through the waterproofing to soak your feathers, you're not likely to be out hunting in it either. If it's raining that hard, any blood trail you manage to get will be washed away and lost. But that's not likely to happen since the deer won't be moving anyway.
If you do let feathers get wet and matted down, they're easy to fix. You let them dry out, then a quick pass through the steam from the spout of a teapot puts them right back into shape. A lot easier to fix than a crumpled vane.
I've shot many tournaments - 3D and field archery - during the rain and, frankly, my accuracy with wet feathers has never degraded any worse than it did for the guys shooting vanes. Shake the water out of the feathers, then spin the arrow between your palms a few times to fluff the feathers out, and you're ready to shoot.
Noise. New feathers are usually more noisy than feathers that have been shot awhile and softened up. High profile feathers are more likely to be noisy than low profile. Feathers are most often noisy on arrows that are shot from poorly tuned bows, poorly spined arrows, or if they've been fletched with too much helical or offset.
I've heard some awfully noisey vanes in my day, too. Some of them sound like buzzbaits with all the fluttering and flapping they do.
Vanes can be up to 700% heavier which means that it requires up to 700% more effort from the vane to stabilize the arrow. What is easier to throw, a one pound ball or a 700 pound ball?
1 lb. times 700% = 7 lbs, not 700 lbs.[:-]
That being said, I have shot feathers almost exclusively for over 20 years (man I am getting old!). Everything Arther said is correct. I have tried various vanes a few times and always ended up hating them for one or more of the reasons mentioned already. I am presently giving Blazers a try, and I can say that there are some advantages in their corner, such as they are quiet in the quiver and are very tough. I will say that from my experience so far, they don't stabilize a fixed blade broadhead as good as 4" feathers. They do, however, appear to stabilize plenty good enough with a well tuned and spined arrow. I have shot through a fairly tight styrofoam target several times and they don't rumple up like some other vanes would. Our season opens in about 20 days ... will I be using the Blazers or feathers? Not sure yet ...[&:]
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I obviously don't know a lot about it. But I am wondering. Wouldn't the feathers wear a lot quiker than vanes? If they got just a little bit our of line with each other wouldn't it just mess everything up? Like I said, don't know much about it, just wondering.
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Wouldn't the feathers wear a lot quiker than vanes?
No. On my arrows, feathers outlast vanes more than 4 to 1. Vanes get shot up, ripped, otherwise shredded in tournaments. Feathers take it all and keep coming back for more.
Quote:
If they got just a little bit our of line with each other wouldn't it just mess everything up?
Not sure I understand the question... I don't know how feathers would get out of line with each other. I've played with staggered fletching, with each feather set 1/2" forward of the one before it. The theory was it would cause shorter feathers to stabilize an arrow as well as feathers an inch longer. Never saw any great difference from standard fletching, neither better or worse, so I quit. But, maybe that helps answer your question.
Overall, feathers will let you get away with a lot more mistakes than vanes will, especially when it comes to fletching contact on the rest, or even with the fletching grazing a stick between you and the target. Feathers will collapse to go around the obstruction with minimal impact on the arrow's direction. Vanes will hit and rebound, causing the arrow's flight to go wild until it stabilizes again. When it's finally stabilized, the arrow will likely take off on a whole new direction.
Okay, now I have a question about feathers
I'm not interested in switching over, just curious.
[:-]
