Which fletching for indoors and why?

Humble82

New member
Firstly a big thank you to everyone who helped with my last question regarding arrow spines and length.

I now have my Platinum Plus arrows with an 1816 spine and I am now looking at the options for fletching. This will be for the indoor season and I am using a 30 pound recurve.

The way I see it, the most viable options are as follows:

Use 70 or 100 mm spin wings. Likely this would be XS wings.
4 inch feather fletching with a 3 degree straight fletch
4 inch feather fletching with a 3 degree helical fletch

My question therefore is which one and why? As I know it?ll likely be mentioned, the durability of the XS wings is not too much an issue, they are quite cheap for the sheer quantity provided, I?ll be taking 6 arrows but only shooting 3 and they seem easy to replace.

Advice much appreciated.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Hmm, this is of interest to me too, only I'm getting some cheap X-Busters for the indoor season, thanks to one of the Facebook groups ;)

The only thing I'd suggest when it comes to helicals is something I only came across recently, in this Jake Kaminski video about 'advanced fletching', which is to test first to see what the direction of 'natural spin' from your bow is - indoors there's no distance to correct the natural spin & send it the other way so it's important to get the direction right & work with that for the helical.

[video=youtube_share;7drTGLfIg68]https://youtu.be/7drTGLfIg68[/video]
 

turtle

Member
Fletching induced spin will massively overpower natural spin, which has only a tiny amount of force I understand. According to a physicist who weighed in on a previous discussion on the subject, the natural spin direction likely a product of which hemisphere you live in. I just can?t recall the name for it. This massive differential will especially be true with large vanes/feathers and offsets/helical. JK is an amazing archer, but he?s in a small minority of pros (from what I have read) in terms of worrying about natural rotation. Also, he?s shooting tiny vanes over very long distances, so in theory, natural rotation might be more significant.

Back to the OP, anything with ?more? will work well. My preference would be 3-4? feathers on standard diameter shafts of average weight, with a helical or offset. I don?t shoot spin wings so can?t comment on them. I?ve shot left and right helical and noticed no difference at all. The only differences have been down to the quality of tune.

Hmm, this is of interest to me too, only I'm getting some cheap X-Busters for the indoor season, thanks to one of the Facebook groups ;)

The only thing I'd suggest when it comes to helicals is something I only came across recently, in this Jake Kaminski video about 'advanced fletching', which is to test first to see what the direction of 'natural spin' from your bow is - indoors there's no distance to correct the natural spin & send it the other way so it's important to get the direction right & work with that for the helical.

[video=youtube_share;7drTGLfIg68]https://youtu.be/7drTGLfIg68[/video]
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
I think it's the "Coriolis" force you're talking about.

I'm aware JK is not 'the voice of the majority' on various matters, but at least he shows his theories being tested!

If only it wasn't so damned expensive for that jig he uses :(
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Spin of the arrow aside, any advice regarding the fletchings?
Pick something that pleases you, try it out. If it 'works', sorted. If not try something else.

Changing vanes isn't expensive (compared to a lot of archery choices ;) ) & is quite therapeutic anyway. Relax. Have fun. Experiment. What suits you might be totally different to anyone else, so what?
 

Corax67

Well-known member
Here’s an idea - use normal fletchings.

The primary reason people stick big fletchings on indoor arrows is because they are using oversized (incorrectly spined) arrows to gain an advantage with line cutters and they need to iron out all the associated vertical & horizontal whip which comes with them by inducing as much spin as quickly as they can.

Surely a much better idea is to use a correctly spined set of ali or carbon arrows matched to the bow & archer with a set of 1.75” or 2” vanes which will be very accurate at 18m/20yds and concentrate on form to maximise your grouping & drive up your score rather than hoping to pick up the odd extra point here or there through a line cutter.



Karl
 

bolerus

Member
indoors is a very different beast than outdoors

there is very little time for fletching to sort an arrow out, so in my opinion, you want the bigest fletches you can feel comfortable with

I use 4" feathers on both compound and recurve. I also put them on using fletching tape, and have no issues whatsoever (just clean the arrow shaft first)
 

KidCurry

Well-known member
AIUK Saviour
Here's my half penny worth, for what it's worth, probably half a penny :)...

Did some bare shaft testing a few weeks back looking at the initial rotation of arrows, fletched and bare shaft. Well it ain't coriolis. Some makes rotated clockwise some rotated anti clockwise. More to do with arrow construction. A latter test showed very little, but some, rotation on aluminium. 18m is about enough room to correct this with small vanes. Big vanes work better, but if you test the arrows first little vanes will do the job well.
However, the arrow spin is not your only concern at these short distances. Your arrows will come out the bow wiggling like a new puppy. You also want to dampen this as well as an oscillating arrow may cost you the odd point or so. My choice for skinny arrows indoors is Gaspro 3" spins or for aluminium arrows Gaspro 4" or, my favorite, 4" feathers. Feathers give minimum contact issues and give better dampening for wiggling puppies.
 

Rabid Hamster

Well-known member
Ironman
for info: I shoot X7's 2114 spine with 100gr points which is correct for my draw weight (no fat arrows for a line cutting fiesta)

I use Trueflight Parabolic 3 Inch Feathers. they are a little bit larger than say ep-23's - but they stabilize the arrow quite fast yet arent huge. they are big enough to see in the target and you never have clearance issues because they are plastic feathers. if they take a mangling they can be fixed over boiling water althou if shot outside and they get really wet ..... its a while till they dry out.
 

Andy!

Active member
According to a physicist who weighed in on a previous discussion on the subject, the natural spin direction likely a product of which hemisphere you live in.
I am absolutely astounded that anyone who claimed to be a physicist would suggest such a thing. It's so ludicrously stupid to try and link something like that.
 

bimble

Well-known member
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
AIUK Saviour
I am absolutely astounded that anyone who claimed to be a physicist would suggest such a thing. It's so ludicrously stupid to try and link something like that.
That and it's been demonstrated not to be case... :ROFLMAO:
 

Andy!

Active member
That and it's been demonstrated not to be case... :ROFLMAO:
You don't even need to demonstrate it. The fact that an arrows natural spin remains a consistent direction, regardless of if it's being fired east or west immediately makes "Coriolis Effect" the suggestion of an imbecile.
 

Libris

Supporter
Supporter
Well, coriolis effect does have an effect in long distance ballistics as does the direction of fire but really only really on trajectory; it’s effect on the spin of a round is non-existent compared to initial rifling spin. Technically, it’s always there for any projectile but is so insignificant for everyday items as to be non-existent. For an arrow? You‘re ‘aving a laugh mate.
Of course, it should be borne in mind that the weight of an arrow also varies depending on which latitude you‘re shooting from... 😉
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Oh, lawd. This is gonna go 'weight vs mass' next, innit? What's next, quantum fields? ;)

I'll be running my own experiment over the winter, 4" feathers vs 4" Bohning Zens on X-Busters.
 

Andy!

Active member
Microgravity would have more effect than coriolis depending on how close you to the equator, but then you're arguing over which is the most insignificant thing to be worried about. At least coriolis is predictably insignificant, where microgravity variations are variably insignificant. In Australia, microgravity variations can be surveyed if there isn't already a map. Over ruling both of these issues is the tendency of pre-existing holes in target butts steering arrows once contact has been made. I used to think that this was bollocks when I first heard of it, but some pretty basic calculations confirmed that Top Hat points for indoors were actually a good idea in terms of gaining points. They totally do shunt the arrows into pre-existing hole centers if the lip gets caught by the point.
 

Rik

Supporter
Supporter
So, use top hats, and shoot with someone good...? If you shoot with someone rubbish, the hole density outside of the middle might reduce your results instead...
 

Andy!

Active member
So, use top hats, and shoot with someone good...? If you shoot with someone rubbish, the hole density outside of the middle might reduce your results instead...
The application for Top Hats pretty much applies to indoors and nowhere else, where you're shooting on your own target. It's also important to be good enough that your first shot is in the middle of the ten, and you or your official repositions the target precisely back over that central hole.

When the margins of error are so close that you NEED to utilise the centering capability of special arrow points, if you're not already an excellent shot, you're absolutely wasting your time.

Next time you see an arrow in the middle of a new Vegas target, look where the arrow enters the paper. If there's a distinct gap between the arrow and the target paper on one side of the shaft, and bunched up paper on the other, the arrow has had it's path shifted by following the hole.
 

Mikethenailer

New member
Big heavy points, low profile fletchings, keep it simple. I have used 1 inch microvanes, large feathers and now use low profile Bohning vanes. Not much difference between them if you have vane clearance. The feathers look nice but are high maintenance.
 

Kernowlad

Supporter
Supporter
I use what comes with the arrows.

Only outdoors in windy conditions so I consider the vane size.

I do like a bit of fletching though; rather satisfying.
 
Top