3" Vanes

[jody5252]

Greetings. Using the Bitzenburger jig, I used the straight/offset clamp, for 3" Flex-Fletch vanes. If I were to use the RW Helical clamp, would the vanes, rub in the rail and cause accuracy problems and/or tear the vanes?? Really not sure to try a 2" vane, because I use larger, fixed blade heads... Thanks, just curious. J.

[xcaliber]

I use NAP Thunderheads, pretty hefty fixed blade, and I have better flight with the 2" Blazers! I think that if you choose the 3" vanes, you should fletch them straight. My opinion, I'm not an arrow builder per say, just been doing my own, and everyone I know for about 10 years!

[jody5252]

Really? Wow... The 2" Blazers, with NAP heads, on arrows, from a 355... I am impressed! Straight/offset. That is how I fletch my arrows... Thanks for the input...

[nchunterkw]

Blazers work great at stabilizing a fixed blade when you fletch them with lots of helical. Many here use an Arizona EZ Fletch Bolt. It's puts on about as much as you can without the vane hitting the rail. IMO most 3" vanes are too soft and fold down at the instant the arrow is fired. I have better luck with real feathers when I go bigger than the blazer. You also need more FOC for a fixed blade. Just some food for thought. See a recent thread on aluminum versus brass inserts regarding FOC.

[Boo]

I doubt you'll have a problem with your 3" vanes but the Blazer will work better. The Arizona EZ Bolt puts on much more helical than a Bitz can.

[flightattendant100]

I doubt you'll have a problem with your 3" vanes but the Blazer will work better. The Arizona EZ Bolt puts on much more helical than a Bitz can.

X2 The first arrow you take out of an Arizona EZ Bolt, you will think you messed up it has so much helical, but they sure fly well.

[cdn.redneck]

with all types I've been trying this is only my opinion.
I like 2" vanes better than 3"
Gateway 5" feathers work great with NAP BH and better stability and flight than 3" as Gateway feathers are hand cut. not much difference between 3" and 4" feathers.

[Cossack]

This by someone from another site:
"I'm not sure who you would have heard from that would make a statement that faster arrows are more difficult to stabilize, but this statement is totally inaccurate. These days we have been achieving the greatest levels of accuracy with the fastest shooting crossbows, so this would totally disprove this statement.

When an arrow is properly splined to a bow or crossbow barely any vane length or feather is needed to achieve good recovery and stability. This is the exact reason that many competitive archers will take different splined bare shafts and go through bare shaft shooting exercises. Once they find the spine that performs the best on their bow at 10 - 15 yards, they only require a tiny amount of vane length to achieve maximum performance with solid stability. This gives them the optimal amount of speed coupled with good stability.

Hunters never seem to quite understand or be willing to undergo these exercises due to the time and associated costs of purchasing different shafts with different spine stiffnesses. Never the less, this is still one of the most effective ways to achieve the best possible spine match-ups. Longer vanes apply more friction and drag to the rear of any arrow. This in tern slows down velocity and causes an arrow to fall downward sooner.

Only an arrow with a fixed blade Broadhead is steering controlled from the front end and therefore requires a higher rate of spin and longer vanes to compensate for improper steering from the Broadhead. The slower the speed of an arrow, the more rotation is required to achieve the same rate of rotation as a faster moving arrow. The higher the velocity of the arrow, the faster it will spin with less offset or twist required to achieve a higher rate of spin.

In simple terms this means that a faster arrow will require less effort to achieve a higher rate of rotation and therefore it will be more stable in flight than a slower moving arrow.

Vanes or feathers should only be used in the length necessary to achieve stable arrow flight, anything longer will diminish velocity and will prevent you from achieving optimal performance by robbing you of speed and K.E. Kinetic Energy)."

[Limbs and Sticks]

Blazers work great at stabilizing a fixed blade when you fletch them with lots of helical. Many here use an Arizona EZ Fletch Bolt. It's puts on about as much as you can without the vane hitting the rail. IMO most 3" vanes are too soft and fold down at the instant the arrow is fired. I have better luck with real feathers when I go bigger than the blazer. You also need more FOC for a fixed blade. Just some food for thought. See a recent thread on aluminum versus brass inserts regarding FOC.

No one needs more of THE OVER RATED FOC to shoot fixed bh's, start with a good fixed blade, There are those that shoot them with under 15% foc on a 350gr arrow.

[sumner4991]

This by someone from another site:
"I'm not sure who you would have heard from that would make a statement that faster arrows are more difficult to stabilize, but this statement is totally inaccurate. These days we have been achieving the greatest levels of accuracy with the fastest shooting crossbows, so this would totally disprove this statement.

"

Not sure I disprove this statement, but, in my findings, the faster the bow shoots, the easier it is to find faults with your equipment.

Your flaws will be exposed quicker and more dramatically, the faster you go.

I do agree that we have come a long way with equipment specs. Where the flaws are showing up is in the arrow build . . .from the broadhead to the vanes . . .if there's a flaw, then a fast bow will expose it.

Anyway, back on topic . . .you will gain more consistancy with a twist to the vanes, especially in hunting conditions. If you are shooting in a shed, then straight is just fine.

[vixenmaster]

I sold my E-Z Bolt fletcher, i didn't need all of the Helical that was built into it. I kept my E-Z RH Helical fletcher & it does all i want it to do on the BH's i tend to use. I also use Fusion 3" vanes & find no trouble wid the length hittin or rubbin the arrow slot side.

[jody5252]

This by someone from another site:
"I'm not sure who you would have heard from that would make a statement that faster arrows are more difficult to stabilize, but this statement is totally inaccurate. These days we have been achieving the greatest levels of accuracy with the fastest shooting crossbows, so this would totally disprove this statement.

When an arrow is properly splined to a bow or crossbow barely any vane length or feather is needed to achieve good recovery and stability. This is the exact reason that many competitive archers will take different splined bare shafts and go through bare shaft shooting exercises. Once they find the spine that performs the best on their bow at 10 - 15 yards, they only require a tiny amount of vane length to achieve maximum performance with solid stability. This gives them the optimal amount of speed coupled with good stability.

Hunters never seem to quite understand or be willing to undergo these exercises due to the time and associated costs of purchasing different shafts with different spine stiffnesses. Never the less, this is still one of the most effective ways to achieve the best possible spine match-ups. Longer vanes apply more friction and drag to the rear of any arrow. This in tern slows down velocity and causes an arrow to fall downward sooner.

Only an arrow with a fixed blade Broadhead is steering controlled from the front end and therefore requires a higher rate of spin and longer vanes to compensate for improper steering from the Broadhead. The slower the speed of an arrow, the more rotation is required to achieve the same rate of rotation as a faster moving arrow. The higher the velocity of the arrow, the faster it will spin with less offset or twist required to achieve a higher rate of spin.

In simple terms this means that a faster arrow will require less effort to achieve a higher rate of rotation and therefore it will be more stable in flight than a slower moving arrow.

Vanes or feathers should only be used in the length necessary to achieve stable arrow flight, anything longer will diminish velocity and will prevent you from achieving optimal performance by robbing you of speed and K.E. Kinetic Energy)."

I have read a similar article. Interesting...

[jody5252]

I sold my E-Z Bolt fletcher, i didn't need all of the Helical that was built into it. I kept my E-Z RH Helical fletcher & it does all i want it to do on the BH's i tend to use. I also use Fusion 3" vanes & find no trouble wid the length hittin or rubbin the arrow slot side.

I use flex-fletch, 3" fletched straight/offset... I will try a few on the Bitz' jig (RH helical) same as I fletch my vert. bow, arrows.

[nchunterkw]

Fletchings don't stabilize an arrow due to spin like rifling does to a bullet. An arrow rotates very few times at 20 or even 40 yards. Fletchings stabilize via drag, and act more like a rudder. Bigger have more drag than smaller. Helical has more drag than straight. BHs up front require a little more drag to calm down than a FP.