4 inch versus 5 inch fletching

[Gold Hunter]

I got tired of shooting of my fletchings off of my arrows and having to wait for the pro shop to refletch my arrows. I have a Bitzenburger and really like it.

I am trying to determine the difference/benfit of going with 4 inch or 5 inch feathers. I am going with right hand helical twist on carbon shafts. I will shoot 100 grain fixed blade NAP Nitron broadheads.

Thanks

[Leverdude]

How long are your arrows? I believe the rule of thumb is 28 & under 4" & 29 up use 5".
I think I'd fletch 3 with 4" & 3 with 5" & shoot to see what works better.
A shop set me up with 5" last year but I tried 4 & they were fine.

[Mike from Texas]

4" is typically plenty, especially shooting feathers. I am actually shooting mecjanicals with 3" feathers and a right helical and getting excellent groups. Not sure I could say the same if I were shooting fixed blade, but for mechanicals my 3" seems to be doing fine.

Another benefit especially with feathers is the less feather you shoot, the less noise they will make. The 3" ones are deadly quiet on the way to the target. I have some fletched with 5" and they have some hiss on the way to the target.

BTW< I am shooting a 29" long arrow and the 3" is working good for me. I'm not so sure arrow length makes a huge difference if your bow is tuned well.

[Drizzu213]

That all depends on arrow length. If you are shooting arrows 30 inches or longer I personally recommend 5 inch vanes/feathers 29 and shorter go with 4 inch they fly much better that way, from my experience.[8D]

[Gold Hunter]

I am shooting 27 1/2 inch arrows, not including the broad head in that number.

Maybe I will give the four inch a try. I suspect that my first few arrows with 4 inch feathers will impact slightly higher than the 5 inch were??

[primetimearcher]

see what would come on the arrow if bought at a store like cabeal's.

[zukidude]

my carbon furys from bass pro came with 4"

[Bigpapascout]

IMO both 4"and 5" are overkill no matter what the arrow length

if you shoot a wisker biscuit with a bow that has a 7" brace heighth you will find that even a 4" fletch will bury up into the wiskers at rest
if you are using enough helical a 3' feather or vane will work good but I recomend the Bohnning Blazers for more down range speed and a more stable flying arrow farther out, ie the more down range speed the arrow maintains = maintained arrow RPM down range wiich also= better broadhead stability down range.

[Orions_Bow]

It looks liek your using a fallaway so I wouldn't worry about it. I woudl shoot either. I will say in general the 4" is all around the standard for carbon arrows today. I woudl base my fletch length more on broadhead style than shaft length. If you are using broads with a 1" to 1"1/8" cutting diamter you can shoot the 4" without any problems. With mechanicals the 4" is fine. If you shoot larger fixed blade broadheads then I would go with a 5" fletch.