Is this enough vane?

[Uncle Awesome]

I am venturing into the world of arrow building. For my first build I am using 6mm FMJs with a four fletch on the back. I have been shooting 3 blazers since I began and they have worked reasonably well. I am switching to a four fletch and bought some VaneTec Swift 1.87. My arrows are 27” long, shot out of a Diamond Edge SB-1 set at 66 pounds and will have 125g VPA 3-blade non-vented broadheads. I ordered the vanes without ever having seen them and when they came, they looked really small. I started crunching the numbers to see if the four canes might equal the surface area of the three Blazers. I used the basic area of a triangle (1/2xBxH) and deduced that the Blazers have a total surface area of 1.71 square inches compared to 1.2 square inches for the VaneTecs. That’s a 30% reduction. Can anyone tell me if they will still steer the VPA broadheads well or do I need to size up? Or is this something I just have to figure out through trial and error? If that’s the case, are there any tell-tale signs that accuracy is suffering because of inadequate vanes? Thanks!

 

[Billy Goat]

In my experience you will know if they work or not. Kinda depends on how well you get your bow tuned, but the height of the vane seems to be a bigger issue than overall surface area, it's a matter or creating enough drag on the back of the arrow. Larger broadhead the larger the drag on the back you need. I have some 4" low profile parabolic vanes that didn't like larger fixed blades.

 

[Zac]

Man I doubt it. Nock travel has alot to do with what vanes you can get away with. I'd shoot VPA an email and see, but I don't think you want to even be close when your all jacked up and shooting at an animal.

 

[5MilesBack]

Only one way to find out.......shoot them. Three regular Blazers will work great with most BH's, so I would expect those to work fine with the VPA's. As for the 4-fletch Vanetecs.....again.......just shoot them to see. But whenever you change anything on your setup, I'd re-tune to that. If they tune, great. If not, try something else. I do all my BH tuning at 60, and that always provides great results at every distance short of that, and normally out to 80 as well.

 

[dkime]

I am venturing into the world of arrow building. For my first build I am using 6mm FMJs with a four fletch on the back. I have been shooting 3 blazers since I began and they have worked reasonably well. I am switching to a four fletch and bought some VaneTec Swift 1.87. My arrows are 27” long, shot out of a Diamond Edge SB-1 set at 66 pounds and will have 125g VPA 3-blade non-vented broadheads. I ordered the vanes without ever having seen them and when they came, they looked really small. I started crunching the numbers to see if the four canes might equal the surface area of the three Blazers. I used the basic area of a triangle (1/2xBxH) and deduced that the Blazers have a total surface area of 1.71 square inches compared to 1.2 square inches for the VaneTecs. That’s a 30% reduction. Can anyone tell me if they will still steer the VPA broadheads well or do I need to size up? Or is this something I just have to figure out through trial and error? If that’s the case, are there any tell-tale signs that accuracy is suffering because of inadequate vanes? Thanks!

Gonna be a no for me, Vane selection is based on arrow velocity for myself and many others. I have hunted with vanetec swift 2.25 four fletch on arrows that are above 290fps. With the speed you are running, to gain optimum foregiveness you're going to need to go back to a blazer or the vanetec swift 2.85.

 

[Uncle Awesome]

That’s intriguing. Can you tell me more about the relationship between arrow speed and vane size (or point me to a source of info on it)?

 

[dkime]

That’s intriguing. Can you tell me more about the relationship between arrow speed and vane size (or point me to a source of info on it)?

Jessie Broadwater actually just talked about it in a recent BJM podcast. For me it always made sense that arrows stabilize based on rotation. Rotation is a product of drag from the vanes. Drag is a product of velocity. Increase the velocity and a greater drag force is able for to be created from less surface area.


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