Blazer vaines?
 

I shoot gold tip XT's 5575. Are the balzers a better vain to have on an arrow like this or will I do just as good with the vain that already comes on it. I have 4" helicals on my arrows. If the blazers are better how do you go about getting them on your arrow? Is the only way to get them on your arrows is to buy the blazers separatly and put them on yourself or what? Thanks. I have seen some other posts that tell that some of you guys put your own vanes on. I'm new to bowhunting, so another question I wanted to ask was what is a good fletching device on the market that pretty easy to use. Are the blazers helical or straight or both? Man, all this new stuff confuses me.

RE: Blazer vaines?
 

In my opinion, the blazer vanes are the best thing to come along with respect to fletching in a long time.

The answers to your questions in no particular order.

The only way I know of right now to get blazers on your arrows is to either buy them yourself and fletch them or to have a shop or online retailer custom build your shafts with the blazers attached. You can buy the GT 5575 shafts as just raw shafts and have someone, or yourself build them into complete arrows.

IMHO the best fletching jig out there is the Bitzenberger. Just a bit on the pricey side, but you can occasionally find them used on ebay and such. As far as ease of use, fletching is not exactly rocket science, the procedure itself is pretty simple. What takes a bit to get down is the technique that works for you. Do a search on the web, there is lots of good information on how to fletch arrows.

When attaching blazers to the shaft, you can fletch them straight (in line with the shaft), offset (slightly angled on the shaft), or helical (slightly offset with a sort of "S" bend in them....you need a helical clamp for your fletching jig to do this). That being said, I would say that if you are using fixed blade broadheads you should either pick offset or helical. I shoot mine wiht a right helical and am able to group fixed blade broadheads out to 80 yards.

The one big advantage to using the blazers is the fact that they are shorter means they weigh less so your FOC will be higher. This normally will improve broadhead flight.

As a comparison I have shot both 4" vanes and feathers for some time in various configurations. The best flight I was able to achieve was with 4" feathers fletched with a right helical. On a whim, I tried the blazer vanes and compared them to the feathers. One thing I noticed right off was that the blazers controlled the broadhead just as well as the feathers. Groups were just as tight. I also noticed that my arrows were much flatter shooting than either my feathers or 4" vanes. Out to about 25 yards, all of the arrows hit nearly the same point of impact. Beyond 25 the blazers shot noticeably flatter. Lastly they are quiet.

RE: Blazer vaines?
 

Thanks alot redline, I appreciate the info.