This will be my first year hunting whitetail.I have a Buckmaster 2000 bow.My arrows are Goldtip 5575 carbons.I have a 29"draw at 65lb pull.I'll be shooting a 100 grain fixed 3 blade broadhead.Should I use feather or plastic vanes?What size vanes would you use?I'm going to have a pro shop set my arrows up.Should I have them offset or helical?If helical what degree?I want the straightest flying,most forgiving arrow I can get.Thankyou

GUNS AND KNOWLEDGE ARE THE BEST PROTECTION AGAINST TERRORISM

What're you shooting now? If you've a cut away riser and shooting a release with a prong style rest vanes will probably clear fine. Especially if you had a drop away rest. If vanes will shoot out of your bow without hitting your riser, go with them. You won't have to worry about rain messing them up. If you're getting contact, or close, you may want feathers because they'll lie down when they hit the riser and preserve the arrow flight. You said you want the most forgiving arrow you can get, so I'd recommend going with 4-5" feathers with a helix. The thing is that the larger you get with the fletching it's more forgiving, but it also slows your arrow down more. You can go to Trueflight Feather's website (www.trueflightfeathers.com)and they list some of the benefits of feathers over vanes. That may help you make your decision.

God bless,
Brandan

With your setup, arrows to be more specific, it's tough to get much of a helical which is the best fletch setup for fixed blade heads.

Once you have a tuned bow with matched tuned arrows the key to good broadhead flight is to get the arrow spining as quickly as possible out of the bow. This is done primarily with a helical fletch or at least, an offset fletch. I don't recommend straight fletch with fixed blades heads or planeing can occur more readily.

I shoot a helical 4" vane with my 100 gr. 3 blade Muzzy broadheads. I have used this setup on different arrows from Beman Trophy Hunters 70/90's to Beman ICS's, Easton XX75 and Easton XX78's and all with perfect arrow flight and groups out beyond 50 yards.

The amount of helical you can get away with is determined by the diameter of your arrow and the clearance need for your rest. Have your proshop check out your setup and help you decide.

Feathers definately drag more air and help a broadhead to stabilize and I recommend feathers to shooters having problem with flight probably due to a untuned bow or unmatched untuned arrows. A 3" feather drags more air than a 4" vane so you can see the corrilation to a 4" feather and so forth.

IF all else is right, 4" vanes are more than adequate and weather friendly.



<font color=blue>Good Luck and Good Shooting</font id=blue>

<font color=red>Rob</font id=red>

I would use vanes of 4&quot;, with a helical twist. Good luck this fall!!

A bad day of hunting beats a good day of work!

Hey IrishLad32 thanks for the information on trueflight feathers. I found that site very helpful. I always thought the opposite though about plastic and feathers. I always thought that plastic would be faster because feathers had more drag. I guess I was wrong. Thanks for correcting me.

Thanks to all of you,it helps alot to hear from archers with alot more experience.I'm taking my bow hunting safty course now.The man teaching us said that feathers are more forgiving.In wet weather he says to use unscented hair spray or dry fly.

GUNS AND KNOWLEDGE ARE THE BEST PROTECTION AGAINST TERRORISM

Vicking, the Trueflight website also talked about some waterproofing products available. I wouldn't recommend any kind of hair spray. My experience with hair spray is that is binds my hair together. That would be conterproductive to feathers. If they hit something such as a rest, riser, brush, etc., the arrow will deflect instead of the feathers folding. Especially as a traditional archer, my arrow wouldn't even leave the bow before getting messed up. I'd recommend going with one of the marketed products or some unscented talc powder. The purpose of talc powder is to absorb moisture, so whether feet or feathers it should work <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>. I'm not completely sure, but a bottle of fletch-dry (not even sure it's called that), is around three of four dollars and will handle about three dozens arrows. I've never waterproofed my feathers before, but have payed for it when in the rain. I should take my own advice and look into it.

God bless,
Brandan