As far as feathers being more durable, I have found the opposite to be true. I don't know about anyone else. When shooting feathers, if any part of the feather enters too far into the target it gets all mangled and unable to shoot. I also noticed that if you have any rest contact then the feather will start to wear at the point of contact. As far as vanes, you can hit the rest and shoot through any target you want. Yes, they will be all wrinkled but if you take a hairdryer to them they straighten out as good as new with no need to re-fletch. The only time I ever have to refletch vanes is if I am too lazy to keep pulling arrows and shoot 6 into a bunch causing me too shoot through a vane. (This would be easily avoidable if I wasn't such a bonehead)