Left Wing, Right Wing,,,no difference

[ReadyHawk]

#5067

I have a left wing helical clamp and have been fletching with left wing feathers all along. A friend gave me some right wing feathers…so I fletched them up the way I always do, which amounted to right wing feathers in a left wing clamp. The arrows flew the same with NO difference in point of impact! Either my bow is incredible tuned (BamaBow Elite Classic) or it makes no difference to the feather which clamp you use.

[Homer]

#36912

Interesting! I hope someone who is knowledgeable about this chimes in with an explanation … like Fletcher maybe. I thought the individual “quills” on the feathers were aligned differently depending on which wing they come from and having them on “backwards” would at least be noisy? 😕

[ReadyHawk]

#36938

I was surprised by the results too.

[rayborbon]

#36947

I have never clamped left feathers with to right helical clamp or vice versa. However I have shot both left and right fletched feathers and have found no differnce in point of impact. Therefore I shoot whatever I get my hands on.

[LimbLover]

#37019

ReadyHawk wrote: I have a left wing helical clamp and have been fletching with left wing feathers all along. A friend gave me some right wing feathers…so I fletched them up the way I always do, which amounted to right wing feathers in a left wing clamp. The arrows flew the same with NO difference in point of impact! Either my bow is incredible tuned (BamaBow Elite Classic) or it makes no difference to the feather which clamp you use.

I shoot Bama’s too and don’t think it has anything to do with tuning. I would have to see what you are doing to know for sure.

When I started fletching my own arrows I made every mistake imaginable – including fletching LW in a RW clamp. It didn’t work out very well.

Did you lessen the extremity of your helical? You could definitely make it work by adjusting your clamp to fletch more like a straight clamp would.

I think the only issue you would run into is trying to get the feather to sit properly and glue flush on both ends.

Also, what fletching are you using shape wise?

I agree with you Mudd. I just started fletching LW because I’m finding a larger variety of feathers on clearance in LW. I don’t notice any difference.

[ReadyHawk]

#37290

Gateway 4″ R/W Parabolic fletched with a L/W helical clamp with about a 10 degree offset. Same set up I use for L/W. Good contact of the feather base with the shaft (Carbon Express Heritage 150).

[Ripforce]

#37513

As a Bama shooter ” its the Bama” LOL! I have have done myself fletched LW with my right wing clamp had no issue with flight!:lol:

[Ripforce]

#37517

Oh FYI as long as all 3 feathers were left wing fletched with Rt clamp they did fly great! However I did fletch one arrow and wasn’t paying attention and ended up with an arrow with 2 lefts and one right wing now that one did not fly worth a crap!

[turok]

#37544

I tried this once with my recurve when I ran out of rt wing, the only ones I could get were lefties. shot to same point of impact, just did not seem to spin quite as fast. Never mixed them.
Mike

[ReadyHawk]

#37566

Like I said in my original post,,,the feather doesn’t seem to know the difference.

[SteveMcD]

#38051

Ditto what Ray said. 🙂

[Patrick]

#41823

The clamp determines where the fletching sits on the shaft, so no matter whether they are right or left wing it shouldn’t matter. BUT, it just seems they’d be harder to fletch and there’d be more of a chance they’d fall off…especially if you are using a drastic helical setting.

[Chad Sivertsen]

#42668

Mixing R and L wing on the same arrow normally does not work. Feathers have a smooth side and a rough side, the rough side grips the air thereby steering whatever is attached be it bird or arrow. With R and L wing on the same arrow the frictional surfaces are fighting each other and the arrow could fly erratic.

I agree with Patrick that the feather will lay better on the shaft by following there natural direction right or left.

[ReadyHawk]

#42858

Yeah I agree with ya Chad. I don’t mix the feathers. Just fletched RW with a LW helical clamp. No problems with flight characteristics or point of impact. Didn’t know about the smooth side, rough side thing. Learn something new every day! Thanks.

PS: By-the-way, just robinhooded one of them today.

[George McCloskey]

#53159

Trueflight has excellent guidance and clarification on their website that may help in this thread. I shoot left helical as a right handed archer, but as everyone has observed, it doesn’t really matter. The arrow doesn’t start its rotation until well after release.

Here’s the link for the Trueflight piece: http://www.trueflightfeathers.com/guide.htm

[ReadyHawk]

#54213

Thanks,,,I’ll look into that.

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#55320

Whew. From the title I thought this was a political thread…:wink:

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