Left handed arrow help

Capizzo

FNG
Joined
Jul 14, 2020
Hey! First post. I was curious if anyone had any insight on left handed shooters loosening their broadhead on impact? I believe I heard it on probably an aron snyder podcast. Ive reached out to some "prominent" archery supply companies and no one seems to know.. just trying to get an answer before were too close to archery season to retune. I have my fixed blades flying great at 60 yards right now.. thanks!
 
Fletching orientation, not the "handedness" of the shooter, determines which direction an arrow spins. A left-handed shooter can use arrows fletched at a right offset/helical and vice versa.

If you're shooting single bevel broadheads, I'd recommend matching fletching orientation with bevel orientation so the two components are working to spin the arrow in the same direction. If you're not shooting single bevels, the short answer to your question is that fletching orientation doesn't really matter. If you want a longer answer, keep reading.

Right fletching (i.e., tip of the vane lying to the right of the tail when viewed from the nock end of the arrow) will induce clockwise rotation (viewed from the nock end), which would work to tighten a broadhead, and left fletching will induce counterclockwise rotation, which would work to loosen a broadhead. I'm not convinced that broadhead loosening is a legitimate problem though. The threaded portion of a typical broadhead ferrule is around 1/4" to 3/8" long, and the standard pitch is 32 threads per inch, which means 8-12 full rotations are required to completely unscrew a broadhead. I don't think an arrow achieves anywhere near that amount of rotation as it penetrates an animal (I'd guess less than one full rotation), so completely unscrewing a broadhead seems like a non-issue. A little low strength thread locker on the broadhead threads could be used to help prevent any slight loosening that might occur.

Since we're on the topic of fletching orientation, here's a rabbit hole you'll probably encounter someday if you haven't already: some folks recommend "clocking" your arrows to determine which way they "naturally" rotate then fletching to complement natural rotation tendency. Clocking is done by shooting a bareshaft with a mark drawn on the shaft at the 12 o'clock position at very close range and studying where the mark ends up to determine which direction the shaft rotated in flight. For example, if the mark started at 12 o'clock when fired and ends up at 3 o'clock, the shaft must've rotated clockwise in flight (assuming you're close enough to the target that the shaft didn't have time to make a full rotation). I've heard it conjectured that the direction the bowstring is twisted determines bareshaft rotation direction. I've tried clocking bareshafts in the past out of curiosity but got inconsistent results and decided it wasn't worth the effort. I've heard it claimed that if fletching orientation is opposite of natural (bareshaft) rotation, the arrow will start out rotating in the natural direction but will reverse directions once the torque created by the fletching overcomes the rotation initially imparted by the bow. Rotation will supposedly instantaneously stop altogether as the direction reverses, which some folks claim they can detect as a visual anomaly in the arrow's flight that occurs a few yards downrange. I'm not entirely convinced that rotation reversal actually occurs; I'd have to see some high speed camera footage to believe it. But even if it does occur, I think the practical effects on accuracy/speed are negligible. FWIW, I've heard Aron Snyder say that he tried clocking in the past but decided that there was no noticeable benefit.
 
Fletching orientation, not the "handedness" of the shooter, determines which direction an arrow spins. A left-handed shooter can use arrows fletched at a right offset/helical and vice versa.

If you're shooting single bevel broadheads, I'd recommend matching fletching orientation with bevel orientation so the two components are working to spin the arrow in the same direction. If you're not shooting single bevels, the short answer to your question is that fletching orientation doesn't really matter. If you want a longer answer, keep reading.

Right fletching (i.e., tip of the vane lying to the right of the tail when viewed from the nock end of the arrow) will induce clockwise rotation (viewed from the nock end), which would work to tighten a broadhead, and left fletching will induce counterclockwise rotation, which would work to loosen a broadhead. I'm not convinced that broadhead loosening is a legitimate problem though. The threaded portion of a typical broadhead ferrule is around 1/4" to 3/8" long, and the standard pitch is 32 threads per inch, which means 8-12 full rotations are required to completely unscrew a broadhead. I don't think an arrow achieves anywhere near that amount of rotation as it penetrates an animal (I'd guess less than one full rotation), so completely unscrewing a broadhead seems like a non-issue. A little low strength thread locker on the broadhead threads could be used to help prevent any slight loosening that might occur.

Since we're on the topic of fletching orientation, here's a rabbit hole you'll probably encounter someday if you haven't already: some folks recommend "clocking" your arrows to determine which way they "naturally" rotate then fletching to complement natural rotation tendency. Clocking is done by shooting a bareshaft with a mark drawn on the shaft at the 12 o'clock position at very close range and studying where the mark ends up to determine which direction the shaft rotated in flight. For example, if the mark started at 12 o'clock when fired and ends up at 3 o'clock, the shaft must've rotated clockwise in flight (assuming you're close enough to the target that the shaft didn't have time to make a full rotation). I've heard it conjectured that the direction the bowstring is twisted determines bareshaft rotation direction. I've tried clocking bareshafts in the past out of curiosity but got inconsistent results and decided it wasn't worth the effort. I've heard it claimed that if fletching orientation is opposite of natural (bareshaft) rotation, the arrow will start out rotating in the natural direction but will reverse directions once the torque created by the fletching overcomes the rotation initially imparted by the bow. Rotation will supposedly instantaneously stop altogether as the direction reverses, which some folks claim they can detect as a visual anomaly in the arrow's flight that occurs a few yards downrange. I'm not entirely convinced that rotation reversal actually occurs; I'd have to see some high speed camera footage to believe it. But even if it does occur, I think the practical effects on accuracy/speed are negligible. FWIW, I've heard Aron Snyder say that he tried clocking in the past but decided that there was no noticeable benefit.
Didn't expect such a detailed answer for my first post haha. Thanks for the info! I'll double check everything when I get home. And go from there.
 
Fletching orientation, not the "handedness" of the shooter, determines which direction an arrow spins. A left-handed shooter can use arrows fletched at a right offset/helical and vice versa.

If you're shooting single bevel broadheads, I'd recommend matching fletching orientation with bevel orientation so the two components are working to spin the arrow in the same direction. If you're not shooting single bevels, the short answer to your question is that fletching orientation doesn't really matter. If you want a longer answer, keep reading.

Right fletching (i.e., tip of the vane lying to the right of the tail when viewed from the nock end of the arrow) will induce clockwise rotation (viewed from the nock end), which would work to tighten a broadhead, and left fletching will induce counterclockwise rotation, which would work to loosen a broadhead. I'm not convinced that broadhead loosening is a legitimate problem though. The threaded portion of a typical broadhead ferrule is around 1/4" to 3/8" long, and the standard pitch is 32 threads per inch, which means 8-12 full rotations are required to completely unscrew a broadhead. I don't think an arrow achieves anywhere near that amount of rotation as it penetrates an animal (I'd guess less than one full rotation), so completely unscrewing a broadhead seems like a non-issue. A little low strength thread locker on the broadhead threads could be used to help prevent any slight loosening that might occur.

Since we're on the topic of fletching orientation, here's a rabbit hole you'll probably encounter someday if you haven't already: some folks recommend "clocking" your arrows to determine which way they "naturally" rotate then fletching to complement natural rotation tendency. Clocking is done by shooting a bareshaft with a mark drawn on the shaft at the 12 o'clock position at very close range and studying where the mark ends up to determine which direction the shaft rotated in flight. For example, if the mark started at 12 o'clock when fired and ends up at 3 o'clock, the shaft must've rotated clockwise in flight (assuming you're close enough to the target that the shaft didn't have time to make a full rotation). I've heard it conjectured that the direction the bowstring is twisted determines bareshaft rotation direction. I've tried clocking bareshafts in the past out of curiosity but got inconsistent results and decided it wasn't worth the effort. I've heard it claimed that if fletching orientation is opposite of natural (bareshaft) rotation, the arrow will start out rotating in the natural direction but will reverse directions once the torque created by the fletching overcomes the rotation initially imparted by the bow. Rotation will supposedly instantaneously stop altogether as the direction reverses, which some folks claim they can detect as a visual anomaly in the arrow's flight that occurs a few yards downrange. I'm not entirely convinced that rotation reversal actually occurs; I'd have to see some high speed camera footage to believe it. But even if it does occur, I think the practical effects on accuracy/speed are negligible. FWIW, I've heard Aron Snyder say that he tried clocking in the past but decided that there was no noticeable benefit.

Here's an okay slowmo video that shows the arrow reversing direction.

 
Interesting video, thanks for sharing.

Well there you have it, rotation reversal clearly is possible. I don't think I'd go to the effort of re-fletching, but if I were building arrows from scratch I might as well fletch them to complement bareshaft rotation direction.
Sure thing! I started looking into it while getting ready to build some arrows and decided that it probably wasn't worth the effort of messing with. I've seen a couple people saying they gained a little fps bump, but most people say it didn't effect the arrows at all.
 
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