Who said anything about tournaments? They are not the be-all end all to archery, DB- some of us couldn't give a crap what "pros" shoot or "tournaments". Pros shoot whatever they are given, or paid to shoot- and thus they jump from company to company year in and year out if they are not getting the "deal" they need/want.

pros shoot vanes for less downrange velocity decay, and the fact that feathers won't hold up on a spring blade style rest (again what alot of "pros" use).

Put a fixed blade broadhead on the front of your arrow, and feathers kick vanes to the curb.

Have a form goof under pressure which causes contact with a rest or cable, or if you hit a twig you didn;t see and those vanes flop around like a fish out of water and your broadhead planes off line. Ever watched slo-mo footage of vanes vs. feathers?

If it's raining so hard that your feathers get soaking wet, you've got no busniness bowhunting cos any bloodtrail will get washed away. Modern feather sprays and powders work fine, and the addition of a fletch cover will help in a moderate rain or snow if yo are that worried. I hunted with feathers for YEARS and never had one of these mythical "feathers collapse in the rain" issues. I also leave the woods if it's pouring. For those Pacific Northwest guys, I could see this being an issue, but for 95% of the bowhunters out there feather would work just fine.

However, vanes are FAR more affected by chnage in temperature- ever spray one with food powder? the compressed cold air makes them stiffen up and shrink- Same thing happens when you take your bow out of your nice toasty case/truck and walk to your stand in cold weather.

Bottom line- they have both issues, they both excel, and you cannot say one is overall better. I stopped listening to "pros" years ago- most of them are only concerned with cha-ching- especially in the current state of this industry (i.e. which is a joke)