For those of you who have some experience here I'd love to have some advice.

I'm tired of shooting arrows with vanes that are not up to par, and I'm not sure what device I could use to fletch my arrows for relatvely inexpensive. I've seen an Arizona fletching tool on the Cabelas.com webiste, but it's about $43 and I'd have to talk wife into that...[] Also, what kind of vanes do you prefer to use and where do you get them??

Thanks!

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I use the BPE fletcher and the cabelas one both wofk great, bohning vanes seem to last longer hope this helps.

They re-designed the arizona last year with a heavier plastic. I swear by the arizona myself.

I started using the Arizona last year - love it. I also place a small dab of glue at each end of the vane like someone else mentioned.

Thanks fellas, I think I'll invest in that Arizona fletcher then when I get the extra $$. What type of vanes do you prefer? How about size? I've used both 4 and 5" vanes but what are the pros/cons to each?

I use the Jo Jan. But I think the Arizona fletcher would be better for me. Usually I only need to flech one vane and my jo jan will only so one at a time. I have a hard time getting the vanes lined up only doing one because my nocks are archers flame lighted nocks and they turn I also use a WB rest. Get one that will do all three at the same time. As for fleching I had some break on me the last day in Pa. It was around 0deg. and I had bohnig and some other brand that I'm not sure of anyway the bohning fleching was fine but the other kind broke.

As with everything, it doesn't pay to be cheap. And the beauty of fletching your own arrows is that you can experiment. And to answer the question> longer fletching = more stability but mre drag/ adversely a shorter fletching will give you less drag= a bit more speed but less stability. I've experimented and found thatfor hunting with my set up , the differences were negligable. But the heliacal is more important. If I use too much angle the fletching gets torn apart easily as it passes through my rest. Advice is great as a reference, but really, experiment as much as you can afford, to ultimately find what will perform the best for your style of shooting and equipment.CHRIS

I have a Arizona EZ fletcher too. Fast and accurate fletching tool. It just does not have any adjustment that can be made. For my purposes it workd great.




One bit of advice for you that I have learned the hard way and I now need a new one.

Make sure that you do not use a glue that will run down the vane and get into the pivot point ot the fletching arms. It will glue the arm closed before you know it. Make sure that you use a gel type glue that will stay put when you apply it to the fletching.


Another note: If you use Bohning vanes do not clean them before glueing to the shaft. They have a chemical applied to the base of the vane for better adhesion.

I use a Jo Jan single fletcher with AAE plastifletch vanes. No complaints with either so far. I'm redoing my Blackhawks with a 6 degree helical. Took a couple tries to get them to stick but I finally figured it all out.