Good Morning the 'Western Horde'.
From what I can see so far, 5" adds greater stability earlier on but at the expense of drag. At longer distances, say greater than 30m the drag slows the arrow down quicker. Also 5" fletches are more susceptible to high winds. For clout shoots, winds can have a significant effect on.
Yep.
(Plus beyond 40/50 metres vanes, which have even less drag, can be a better option.)
Now 4" sheild cuts have appear to be less influenced by high winds and seem to have less drag thereby improved arrow speed. This translates to less drop at longer distances, say above 40m and greater range.
Yep. Plus the cross-sectional area of the cone of dispersion will be less.
So does this mean that at shorter distances, say less than 30m, longer fletches are preferable?
Personal choice - but I lean that way.
I should say fletches with a greater area rather than longer.
Does anyone have any thughts and comments about the different fletch profiles?
Fletches that are noisy are turning KE of the arrow into sound which means drag. The noisier the fletches the larger the drag. And tall fletches are noisier.
(However sometime you want noise - especially if you are doing a display - people expect the arrows to sound like the ones they see/hear in the movies.)
To date I don't see any difference in performance between parabolics and shield cuts. I haven't used any of the other profiles though.
Measure the area of the fletch. It varies. The large the area, the more the drag. Look at the medieval design very long but very low so the drag was not that high - although, still more than they probably needed. You also need to hand cut some 'Elven' fletches, in your copious amounts of spare time, just so you can see how they perform.
There are shield cuts and there are shield cuts - I have 5" shield cuts that have a greater area than the equivalent 5" parabolics and the reverse.
I have noticed that the commercial 3" Shields I have been using over the last couple of years are substantially higher in the fletch than 3" parabolics.
Try some 2 1/2" fletches for longer ranges.
Somewhere along here you need to take into account how high the fletch has to be to start working effectively due to the flow effects close to the shaft.
(3/8" seems to ring a bell as being a good start point but without any evidence I would not categorically say that is the height.)
Final comment - try shooting 6 fletch speed blunts (Flu-Flus). It is interesting how little effect varying spine values have when you are using them.
Long fletches look good to my eyes.
Mick
One other thing I've learned the hard way is to always fletch your competition arrows with very bright fletches. Once when shooting at 50 metres, using darkly stained arrows with 3 x 4 inch barred fletches, I couldn't see my arrows in the target, even with my prescription glasses on. After the first shot, I just did the same thing for all the subsequent shots for that round. When I went to retrieve my arrows I was dismayed to see all my arrows grouped very tightly in the dirt below the target face. This wouldn't have happened if I had been using my usual white fletches.
I cannot see the fletches at anything over 30 metres as I am looking end-on onto the arrows but I can see the nocks. For some time I used Orange nocks on my compound and so could see them easily. However, recently I changed to yellow nocks as some other people had started using orange nocks. The first thing I discovered was I couldn't see my nocks! Yep - you guessed it Yellow nocks don't show up against the gold background. So now I am using orange nocks again for it.
I would also like to do some tests comparing the performance of 4 x 4 inch fletches comparing them 3 x 4 and 3 x 5 inch fletches. Unfortunately, I've lost the accessory to my fletching jig that allows for 4 fletch arrows and these jigs are no longer made. Maybe its time to buy myself a new fletching jig.
Easy solution. Fletch what would normally be the two "Hen feathers" on a 3 fletch. Then take the shaft out and turn it over. Then fletch another two "Hen feathers" on a 3 fletch. The result is a fletching profile of 60 deg, 120 deg 60 deg, 120 deg. I often use it.
Grahame.
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the club i shoot at uses these little things about 1 1/2 inches long, the arrows wobble all over the place... i dislike them.