Fletching related question

[Red Lion]

I guess I am a little confused about something. I am still a newby to bowhunting and just getting into building and fletching my own arrows, as I just bought a bitburger. My confusion is around fletching size in relation to use of a fixed broadhead. I had heard a lot of good things about the blazers and was thinking it may be a good thing to try out with the Crossfires I just bought. I read an article last night, where the writer indicated that he would never use any fletchings shorter than 3.5" with fixed broadheads. I recall he was using 125 grn fixed broadheads.
My understanding was that you could use the blazers, what are they 2.75" with fixed broadhead and get very good performance?
Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

[Black Frog]

Red Lion-

Like a lot of things in archery- "it depends".

Blazers tend to be shorter, but have a higher profile and are fairly stiff in composition. This lets them create the same steering ability (drag) as a longer, lower fletching.

So it may be about nearly the same surface area of fletching as a longer fletch. And the stiffer composition won't 'flutter' or bend against the wind drag as a softer, more flexible vane would.

But the tradeoff may be (seems there's always a tradeoff in archery) that you have to deal with fletching clearance issues due to the higher profile. This may or may not be a problem depending on your particular setup.

Controlling a fixed-blade BH will depend on lots of factors. How well your arrow is tuned to the bow, how well the bow is tuned, archer's form, actual broadhead being used, etc..... Some people's setup will allow them to get away with minmal fletching on the rear of the arrow and still achieve very good BH flight. I've seen other's setups that have 4" full helical fletching and they are still all over the place at 20yds.

Hope that helps a bit-

[Red Lion]

Thanks, I appreciate your feedback. I kind of thought you were going to explain along those lines. Thanks again.