After a little discussion in the "Technical" thread on the effectiveness of shooting wet feathers, I decided to do a test when I got home. I took two of my arrows and submerged the feathers in water and let them soak. Worst case scenario, right? After a while, I grabbed on dry arrow, the two wet arrows (in a mug to keep them wet) and headed to the target.Before each shot with a wet arrow, I removed it from a large mug, nocked it and shot with it still dripping. Please keep in mind that I haven't shot for about 2 weeks, so I'm a little rusty.

Results:
FIELD POINTS
20 yards - no difference
30 yards - no difference
40 yards - no difference

Broadheads (G5 Montecs):
The center shot was at 30 yards with the dry arrow. The arrow on the right was at 30 yards with a soaked arrow. The left arrow was at 40 yards with a soaked arrow.

BTW, just so you know, this is what the arrows looked like when I nocked them:

For those who think that once feathers get wet, you can't get them to look decent again, here's a shot after I briefly dried them with a blow dryer and ran my fingers across them. Remember, two were soaked. Which ones?

I know the lighting is bad on the last pic, but the flash made themdisappear. One thing to keep in mind..... after shooting the dripping wet arrows, when I walked to the target, they looked like a$$, but they were barely damp. I can only conclude that launching from 0 to 270 fps in an instant leaves almost all of the water behind.
Just wanted to share all of this with you. I know that I'm not worrying at all about shooting feathers, regardless of the weather.

Thanks for doing all the work LittleChief. Excellent job! I was going to do my "experiment" this weekend but now, with your thorough test and assessment, I will just take the word of you and quicksilver. It looks like the blowdryer thingy works real well too.

Another myth busted.[8D]


I have said this for a while but no one seems to believe it.A perfectly tuned setup also makes a big difference.


Looks like a dead deer to me.

That is why feathers are the way for me...

Exactly. I've used feathers for over a decade, and never worried about the weather. If you say you're rusty, I'd bet the differences in POI (point of impact) can be accounted for in shooting error alone. I know that I always carry one arrow in my quiver tipped with a field point, and I've taken it out -- completely soaked during a downpour -- before getting down from my treestand, picked out a leaf and centered it almost every time I've tried it.

I did that once,the leaf turned out to be a rock and the last I saw of my arrow had sparks fluing off of it flying about 100 yards through the woods in pieces.

But I could show you a tighter group with wet Blazers...[8D]

j/k If it's raining that damn hard, it's worse on having wet strings and cables than it is worried about the feathers/fletching etc....