Vane Vanity

Gold Flinger

New member
Fonz Awardee
I've been using 44mm parabolic Flex-Fletch vanes for some time now, and I'm thoroughly impressed with them. However, being a bit vane, I fancy tarting my arrows up with some of the 47.5mm shield-type vanes. I don't want my efforts to be in vane though, so if anyone's tried anything in a similar vein and experienced problems, I wouldn't mind hearing about it. Will they change the way my ACCs behave?
(sorry for all the vane puns)
 

Gold Flinger

New member
Fonz Awardee
Not feathers Barry, the shield-shaped flex fletch. I went ahead and re-fletched with them and there doesn't seem to be any discernable difference. Apart from looking very, very sexy. Parabolics are sooo last year daahling!
I'll post a pic later...
 
R

rgsphoto

Guest
They will be fine as long as you get clearence and they don't cause too much drag on long distance stuff outdoors. Bigger fletches = more drag . Outdoors I prefer to use the smallest fletch I can get a way with. Indoors they will be fine. Clearence is the only thing to worry about indoors. Feathers are king indoors, no question. very tuff as long as they are stuck on properly and small contact problems are less of a problem as they move out of the way.

Rich
 

Marcus26

Well-known member
I've been using a vane by Bohning outdoors recently on my X10's that I am very happy with. It's a 1.5" Shield cut X-Vane, but unlike most short vanes they have kept the height very small.
I use to use the 187 FFP vnes and was quite happy with them, but like Rich want something smaller again.
Indoors I am using 2.25" Quickspins, but seriously doubt they give me extra points. I shot feathers for a while but they didn't last as long. I suspect that the impact pushed them forward too much and they wore out quickly.

 

Tarkwin

Prince Of Dorkness
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
American Shoot
Which vanes?

I will shortly be investing in a new set of arrows (Navigators in mid - late Jan) but am undecided as to which vanes to employ.

I have installed Kurly Vanes on some of the spares of my current set but found them to be fragile ( I have lost 3 fletches after 2 portsmouths ) and a little fiddly to fit/replace. I don't have the patience to be replacing these things every week....

Are any of the spin inducing vanes more durable? Are they proven to offer an advantage over flexfletch or plastifletch vanes?

Things I have read.....

Easton Diamond vanes are AAE Plastis printed with the easton logo - I am not paying extra for that...

Quik spin vanes induce so much drag that on medium poundage bows <38 lbs the longer distances required for Yorks etc cannot be/are difficult to reach with any accuracy.

Any suggestions? What has given you the best results?

I might just head off and order up a bunch of different vanes and play with my spare arrows....
 

Gold Flinger

New member
Fonz Awardee
Hi Tarkwin, I had AAE fletchings on my starter arrows - they were what the shop fletched them with - and I thought they were rubbish. If you shoot through a soft boss, they have to be replaced. Similarly if you strike a fletching with another arrow, or if you have any clearance problems (I didn't think I did until my fletchings starting wrinkling up).
I seemed to spend most of my spare time replacing odd fletchings! Since I switched to Flex Fletch, I've never had to replace one. The only reason I changed mine recently is because I was bored. And vane!
Flex Fletch still wrinkle up a bit if you shoot through, but after about 10 minutes, they "recover".
If you do use them though, be careful how you stick them on: you'll have to clean the foot of each vane with acetone or similar. They seem to have a greasy residue, presumable from moulding. I neglected to do this first time and all my fletchings fell off on loosing!
 

Tarkwin

Prince Of Dorkness
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
American Shoot
*sigh*

I was going to take my arrows by the scruff of the neck tomorrow. I was going to head down to Quicks, pick up a lot of different fletches and then apply them to my spare shafts. THis was I could see what each was like to work with, what it offered over those I currently have and also how tough they were..

but oh no! Quicks aren't open until 29th - which won't give me the time to set up the arrows before shooting on Friday....

I hate Xmas....
 

joetapley

New member
Are any of the spin inducing vanes more durable? Are they proven to offer an advantage over flexfletch or plastifletch vanes?
From what I've seen (rather than used) for curved vanes I'd say the spin-wing are the more durable and the Curly vanes the least durable with K vanes between the two.

Curved vanes are theoretically mechanically/aerodynamically superior to flat vanes as regards arrow performance. At top level curved vanes are almost universally used for recurve target archery (so theory and practical experience seem to agree).

For the average club archer I doubt the difference in performance between flat and curved vanes would be noticeable. The choice generally seems to be based on the ease of the fletching of the curved vanes versus the higher durability of the flat vane.
 
Top