I have a 5" vane and the front is offset from back (right helical) about 3/32" - Its a good looking spiral... but more than you ever see when buying 'stock arrows'
I need to go shoot a test arrow and compare to my others.........
So what do you guys think ? I am curious to hear the differant opinions............
Hold up your arrow and look down it from the back. If two of your fletchings cross (front to back, or back to front), while looking down the arrow, there is too much helical.
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"I do not Hunt animals to Kill them. I kill animals because I Hunt." Roger Rothhaar
for 5" vanes or feathers you would be better off just off setting them on an off set because most helical clamps put too much helical on 5" fletching.
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"Minister of Information for the Royal Kingdom of $Tree"...
The common mistake people make when attempting to design something completely Idiot proof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete Idiots.
I shot the arrow I fletched - It shot fine with quite a bit of helical to it - I dont see the problem everyone was warning me about.....
I shot it at 40 yards and it was only 1/2"-1" average drop below my offset 4" vane feathers.
I went ahead and did the rest of the new dozen goldtip XT shafts...... look great witth 5" white vanes ! I cant wait to shoot this weekend. The only thing I am wondring about is the drop from 40 to 50 yards. At the moment I have 20,30,40,50, and 60 yard pins but Ill most likely see a large drop now at 60.... but I dont practice anymore at 60 and Id never shoot at game that far so Ill remove that pin. But given I have a larger, heavier set of vanes with more drag - I am sure the drop will be a lot differant than my current pin setup (which by the way is off anyway because I turned my limbs down a complete turn due to tendon problems) so I was shootin a lil low at 40 anyway but have not shot 50, or 60 since I changed.............
anyway - thanks for the input guys. Ill post a pic tonight of the fletching so you can see just how much helical I am reffering too..........
Even though I've said it in the past, there really is no such thing as 'too much' helical. There is such a thing as 'more than necessary', which is what we really are getting at.
The arrow will fly great with full wrapped helical fletches but, like all things in archery, there are tradeoffs. You don't get something without sacrificing something else. To get the stability of full wrap helical, you give up arrow speed. If you go straight offset, you get more arrow speed at the cost of stability. The trick is to figure out the minimum amount of helical you need to stabilize your arrows while giving you the maximum arrow speed.
Or, if you don't want to mess with it, just helical the fire out of 'em and know your arrows will fly straight. Slower, maybe with some extra hiss you could live without, but they'll shoot straight.
too much helical will slow the arrow down a lot faster and when the arrow slows down so does the RPM's which will reduce broadhead stability.
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"Minister of Information for the Royal Kingdom of $Tree"...
The common mistake people make when attempting to design something completely Idiot proof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete Idiots.
too much helical will slow the arrow down a lot faster...
Correct
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...and when the arrow slows down so does the RPM's which will reduce broadhead stability.
Incorrect. Anybody that's ever shot and hunted with a stickbow knows that's... uh.... an uneducated statement. Who knows better about broadhead stability on slow arrows? Overdone helical will slow the arrow faster but the parachute effect keeps the broadhead perfectly stable and flying straight.
eightwgt, that's nowhere near 'too much.' Looks like you've got enough space to shoot through a prong rest and get good clearance. I've shot feathers that were helical'ed so much that the leading tip of one feather was wrapped past the trailing end of the next feather (off the shelf on recurves and longbows). Arrow flight was excellent and I never found an arrow fletched that way that would let any well-mounted broadhead - even big, unvented 2-blade heads - plane off course. A bit slower, for sure.
Your helical appears rather mild. It won't have that much effect on a vane. I shoot helical feathers with the most helical I can get on the shaft with the jig I use. All it does, is give me more confidence that the broadhead is going where I'm pointing.
TOO MUCH HELICAL ??
