Feathers will lie down as they contact the rest, but only to a point. If the arrow is too close it will effect flight. Shoot bare shafts and see if they straighten out and are tuned well. Then you might trim down the feathers just a tad with some scissors so eliminate the contact. Carbons seem to be notorious for better flight and resulting better accuracy, so if you sank 12 into the bull with them don' t hesitate to use them for hunting. Especially if you don' t get the woodies figured out. I love shooting and hunting with woodies, but if came down to it I wouldn' t have any qualms about shootin those toothpicks they call arrows
Brandan