Fletching Orientation & Shelf Contact

[Ryan K Sanpei]

As I mentioned before, I've done a bunch of test in the past, but I've never documented them. Now that I have some spare time here and there, I've decide to retest a few things that I feel has helped me in terms of tuning my bowhunting rigs.

I've played around with fletching for years. From 2" to 5", parabolics to shields, two fletch to four fletch, 90 degrees to 120 degrees, and even tried staggering my fletches.

For this test, all I'm comparing is two different fletch orientations and it's impact off of the riser.

***Please keep in mind that these results are also affected by the size and shape of the arrow shelf and strike plate, which is one reason why testing results vary.

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

How I prefer to orientate my fletching.

Cock feather out.

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

The first thing that I did, was I taped my riser with masking tape to show the lipstick tracks.

Then, I grabbed the lipstick and one arrow. Lipstick is messy, but it leaves a great trail. (some prefer to use things like foot powder)

Then I applied the lipstick to the "contacting feathers". I applied a little too much but figured it would show up even better.

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

First I shot my preference of orientation.

Here's what the tracks look like after the shot, as mentioned, I applied too much lipstick and it's darker than usual. What I did in the past was I tried all the common orientations until I found the one with the least or lightest amount of tracks. This orientation always came out the best for my personal set up.

I set up this test so that it would produce two results. Impact on the riser and how it affects arrow flight, so I also set up my paper tuner. It produced a bullet hole on the first shot.

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

Then I rotated the nock to have the cock feather out.

Here's what the tracks look like. It even marked the under side of the shelf.

Here are the results through paper.

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

Ok, I know that could've been a bad shot. Even I said that to myself, so I decided to take a second shot with the cock feather out.

Almost the exact same results through paper.

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

So was my first shot a fluke??? I spun the nock back to my preference of fletching orientation and shot through the paper. Talk about pressure... All the evidence was now on this one piece of paper. LOL!

Not perfect, slight nock right, might have been a slight short draw due to the nerves... LOL! excuses, excuses... yes, I'm a bowhunter...

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

I've done these test with a bunch of different bows, fletches and fletching orientations. I've definitely had some interesting results over the years.

One thing I can say... When tuning broadheads, it's so much easier from me when the arrows are flying clean off of the shelf from the start...

 

[South Cox]

Hmmm.....mental note...rotate nocks in the morning!

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

It's pretty interesting to see how many things affect arrow flight for stickbows. In the past, I would be told that I had a nock high issue, so I would keep adjusting the nock until I felt like throwing the bow in the garbage can! LOL!

 

[BlackWidowTackle]

Nice it tell me a bunch! Thanks Ryan!

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

Anytime BlackWidowTackle!

 

[gobbler1662]

Dang it Ryan, i've always shot cock fletch out. Now i've g go to turn to cock fletch up. Thanks for sharing that

 

[Ryan K Sanpei]

Dang it Ryan, i've always shot cock fletch out. Now i've g go to turn to cock fletch up. Thanks for sharing that

You're welcome.

Please keep in mind that the results from each set up may vary. I just posted this to give guys one way to test for fletch contact on their specific rig.

Aloha!
Ryan