Which Arrow should you Use?...it depends

What Arrows to Buy?

Cedar shafts, Carbon or Aluminum? First of all select your arrow shaft spine according to the bow, and weight you are shooting. An archery dealer can help you there. Determine what you will be using your bow for mostly. If you want to be rustic, with your stick or recurve bow, cedar shafts are the ticket. If however you are into a compound, you will probably need to consider either carbon or aluminum. Depending on you goal, carbons are more durable, and lighter resulting in a flatter trajectory. Aluminum are less expensive and a little weightier, allowing for slightly higher kinetic energy. If you will be hunting Elk or Moose, for example, I would opt for a heavier aluminum shaft. For whitetail deer, or turkey or even bear, a lighter shaft would be fine, either an ultra-lite aluminum or a carbon arrow. If you will be shooting at long distances, such as at pronghorns, a lighter shaft will help reduce distance judging errors. In any case, any properly tuned arrow will work. Carbon arrows are more expensive, but will generally take more beating than aluminum, but aluminum are a lot cheaper to loose.

Broadhead Arrow Tuning

Broadhead tuning requires a bow that is properly tuned in order to achieve accurate and consistent arrow flight. Shooting form, proper center shot and proper nocking point must be achieved before any broadhead shooting takes place. Fetching clearance with the bow and rest is also vital and overlooked by many shooters in the tuning process. Fletching contact (even with feathers) can present an incorrect center shot cause a lot of confusion during the tuning process (see below). Incorrect arrow spine can also cause center shot problems for finger shooters and nocking point problems for release shooters. Finger shooters put a horizontal torque on arrows and release shooters exert a vertical torque upon arrow release.

Broadheads must be perfectly straight and aligned on the arrow. Broadheads should be assembled on the arrow, tightened and SPUN like a top, on a hard flat surface to check for straightness. Try your broadheads in other good, straight arrows until you get absolutely no wobble.

One important point to remember, adding a broadhead to the end of an arrow is like adding small fletchings, any angle that arrow leaves the bow is generally the angle that the arrow will want to follow until fletching is able to control the flight of the arrow. If everything is in a straight line, straight and consistent arrow flight is easier to achieve.

Occasionally inserts or outserts, for carbon arrows, need to be turned in order for the broadhead to spin properly. 2-part epoxy is good for this purpose as its slow cure time allows the archer to check the arrows as the epoxy begins to harden. Broadheads should be turned on the arrow as the epoxy thickens until the arrow spins true. Then stand the arrow up straight for the glue to cure.

Hot melt adhesive is also useful(especially for aluminum arrows). But working time is very short and occasionally must be reheated to achieve a true spin. All of these problems must be addressed prior to an archer tuning broadheads. If all of these problems are corrected broadhead tuning can be a snap.

Typically compound bows are tuned to shoot a bullet hole through paper, recurves and long bows are best tuned to shoot a bare shaft straight. Both methods are generally done at ranges of 3 yards, 6 yards, and 10 yards. Perfect broadhead flight can be achieved through this method. If for good broadhead flight is found, then arrows are shot 20, 30, 40 yards, etc. and checked for broadhead grouping. When broadheads group well, then consistent arrow flight is achieved. Occasionally some minor rest and nocking point adjustments may be necessary to achieve good grouping.

Broadhead groups that consistently deviate high and low can benefit from minor nock adjustments. Conversely, groups that show a horizontal deviation can benefit from minor center shot adjustments. In both situations adjustments should be made minutely in 1/16" increments or less, in either direction until groups close and become more consistent.

Many bowhunters still believe that consistent grouping of fields points and broadheads into the same sight point is possible and sometime this can happen, but this today's faster and harder shooting equipment, this can be difficult. If a bowhunter wishes to attempt this, adjustments can be made to nocking point and center shot to move groups closer together.

Broadheads react to the direction in which they are launched much more that target tipped arrows. If broadheads group to the left of field points then the arrow rest should be moved to the right. If broadheads group above field points, nocking points should be lowered. This adjustment can be reversed for opposite conditions, but remember to make adjustments in very small amounts and to pay attention to broadhead groups if they begin to show variances.

Broadhead tuning can be an arduous affair or can be very simple. A lot of time and patience is necessary to achieve this task, but...Perseverance pays off!

As bowhunters, we should take the time to set our arrows up properly. Not only for our shooting consistency, but for a clean kill and less suffering on the animals part. Bowhunting is all about being conservationists and practicing responsible hunting.

Fletching

A few comparisons of fletchings

Feathers

• Feathers are lighter than vanes, thereby making your arrows slightly faster.
• Feathers are more flexible, thereby reducing arrow wobble from any incidental contact the fletching might have with an arrow rest.
• Feathers are slightly quieter (barely noticeable by the human ear... but deer?)
• Feathers come in left wing, or right wing packages - the natural bend of the feather.
• If you are using feathers and your fletching tool has a helical (a bend or twist) then your feathers wing must match the helical (either right or left).

Vanes

• Vanes, being made of plastic, are more stable in wet weather environments and will provide more consistent flight in all weather.
• Vanes can be placed on arrows without regard to left or right wing that must be considered with feathers.
• If you are fletching arrows yourself for multiple needs, vanes might be more practical and easier to customize.
• Vanes are slightly heavier than feathers thereby adding weight to an arrow and hence adding kinetic energy.
• Vanes are less susceptible to damage. (in the field that might count for something)

Remember = Storage of arrows will impact the back end of arrows as well. If arrows are stored in a case where the fletching or vanes are protected from being squashed then good for you. If however, you are guilty of leaving your arrows in a shooting quiver, then feather fletching will be damaged quicker than vanes.

Which one is right for you? The weight difference is almost negligible and can be discounted in most cases. The real concern should center around weather conditions and arrow clearance. If I knew that I would be hunting in both wet and dry weather, I would probably opt for a more consistent vane. If I were hunting in the arid west, with little likelihood of rain, feather fletching might be a better choice. If the arrow is coming out of the bow with significant contact with either the bow as is the case with a recurve or stickbow, I would definitely go with feathers. You should be able to avoid most vane contact with a modern bow with properly tuned arrow rest, so vanes should not hurt you there. Bottom line...pick up both to practice with and make your decisions based on personal experience.