Well, I've rumor that the noise from a feathered arrow stays behind the arrow, in other words, the arrow gets there before the sound....This always seemed kinda hokey to me....the speed of sound is much faster than my arrow for sure. I just switched to feathers, and to get my Muzzy to fly good, I did have to fletch it helical, and am still playing with things to see what's what. They do make a bit of a hiss, because I stood down range and, well, it's a long story, but we were PERFECTLY safe during this test, but I did hear the feathered arrow over the plastifletch. BUT, it is not very loud, in fact, I heard the bow much better than the arrow, and the bow was 25 yards away, and by the way, my Hoyt is pretty quiet. In addition, I shot a deer opening day and she had no idea of what just happened to her. I will be staying with feathers.

And yes, the more your feathers are ruffled, the louder they will be.