low brace height & fletchings?

[punch]

So I have made a couple of shortish bows (54-56") lately and l like them better than my longer flat bows.   I will be using a 4-5" brace height and now I need to think about fletching.   I have always made arrows the same way 1/2" from nock to back of feather, 5.5" shield cut feather for a total of 6" from nock to front of feather.  This always worked well since my bows were longer and set use for a 6" brace height. So now that I will be using a shorter brace I would have to either pre draw to clear fletchings or use shorter fletchings.  I am thinking shorter fletchings is the way to go. I figure that as long as they are the same surface area that they will work just as good as longer.  How do you get around a short brace? What are your experience with short fletching?

[PEARL DRUMS]

The rules say a spined arrow and bow should shoot 4" feathers, 5" feathers or no feathers. I've never made arrows specifically for a short brace short bow because I wont with them, so I shoot what I have in the back yard. You can always cut some full length feathers to 4.5", glue them on and trim them to shape with scissors. Looks pretty cool and primitive. 

[punch]

All of my feathers are full length.  I have a Lil ' chopper to die cut them. Of course if I am using shorter fletchings I would be using scissors to cut or if I tune the shafts well I can use my 4" lil chopper

[Danzn Bar]

The rules say a spined arrow and bow should shoot 4" feathers, 5" feathers or no feathers. I've never made arrows specifically for a short brace short bow because I wont with them, so I shoot what I have in the back yard. You can always cut some full length feathers to 4.5", glue them on and trim them to shape with scissors. Looks pretty cool and primitive. 

I think the same Chris......A correctly spined arrow to the bow....the archers paradox would allow you to shoot about any length fletch..
DBar

[PEARL DRUMS]

If your hesitant? Try four 4" feathers. That's 16" compared to your normal 16.5" with the three 5 1/2".

[Drewster]

If your arrows are spined correctly for the bow, you could shoot them accurately with no fletchings.  I would think three 4" fletchings would do great if your arrows are well matched to the bow.

[JW_Halverson]

When spine is matched to the bow carefully, you can cheat yourself down to very little fletching at all, if that is what your little heart desires.

One of the nicest set of arrows I ever made for myself had long fletching, but it tapered from 3/8" high in the back to nothing at the front. Not much surface area, but they worked just fine.

[Pappy]

I shoot 3 4in feathers most of the time on all my bows.  Clearance is one reason/ I leave my arrow nocked and bow hanging when hunting most of the time is another and my bows really don't need any more slowing down is another. They work fine with the proper arrow spline as has been said. Wind doesn't seem to bother the smaller feathers as bad either which is another plus.
 Pappy

[DC]

Flight guys use tiny fletching and their arrows fly fine. Bare shaft them first and you should be able to get away with next to nothing.

[punch]

Flight guys use tiny fletching and their arrows fly fine. Bare shaft them first and you should be able to get away with next to nothing.

Yes but accuracy is not a priority for them. I will be using these to hunt.

Thanks Pappy that is what I thought but wanted some others to give their experience.   I usually shoot bare shafts at 10 yards, if they fly good they become arrows. I usually don't spine them, I just flex them a bit to see if they are close to 50# cedar shaft.

[sumpitan]

I use a 5 1/2" brace height (measured from the back) on my mid-length bows (56 - 62"). My fletchings are cut from full-length feathers and are a tad under 3" long, three per arrow. I leave them quite high to keep enough surface area, and they steer my target and hunting arrows alike fine. This gives me fletchings that lay inside the low brace when the arrow is nocked, perfect. I favor high FOC on my arrows (around 15 %), which lessens the need for fletching area.

Fred Asbell wrote in TBB III that he hasn't seen anyone get good arrow flight from a wooden bow with fletchings shorter than 5 1/2" and less than 3/4" high. I'm glad this isn't exactly so.

Tuukka

[Pappy]

I read the same thing years ago and thought that was fact, not so, if you need that much feather for good arrow flight you need to retune you arrows. Nothing wrong with big feathers  if you want them other than they slow your arrow down but they are truly not need to get good flight.
 Pappy

[Chief RID]

On a fairly center shot bow where you can use darts, or arrows that shoot like darts, it would not matter. I like a lot of paradox and I don't spend a lot of time on tuning. My arrows fly like crap, so I need a lot of fletching to get my arrow stabilized, especially inside 10 yds. I am lucky if they get straightened out by 30 yds. One day I am going to spend more time tuning and less time shooting but it has not happened so far. If I have something go wrong on a fat doe, early season and I somehow can blame my fletching , you will probably hear me bellyaching about this.

[punch]

I use a 5 1/2" brace height (measured from the back) on my mid-length bows (56 - 62"). My fletchings are cut from full-length feathers and are a tad under 3" long, three per arrow. I leave them quite high to keep enough surface area, and they steer my target and hunting arrows alike fine. This gives me fletchings that lay inside the low brace when the arrow is nocked, perfect. I favor high FOC on my arrows (around 15 %), which lessens the need for fletching area.

Fred Asbell wrote in TBB III that he hasn't seen anyone get good arrow flight from a wooden bow with fletchings shorter than 5 1/2" and less than 3/4" high. I'm glad this isn't exactly so.

Tuukka

Fred Asbell statment in TBB III was the reason I always shot 5 1/2" feathers.  I just took his word for it and never really thought about it until recently.

[riverrat]

 i use short bows about the length you mentioned. with a 26 in. draw. max. i use a two whole feather fletch. one on each side , from secondary feathers, also from smaller bird wing feathers, and cut down longer feathers. kind of like a Cherokee 2 feather fletch but instead of cutting one side of the feather down, i just leave it as is. heck ive made 3 whole feather fletched arrows from small bird feathers ive found. make your arrows 2 in. or so longer than your draw. it helps stabilize them. example, i draw 26 inches. i want my arrows between 27 and 30 inches . 28 inches being what id call perfect. my brace on my 53 inch. elm bend through the handle bow is 5 inches.from belly to string.at the nock end of the arrow i have just enough room for my fingers in front of the nock. they actually touch the back of the feathers.the feathers are aprox. 5 inches long. but since they are 2 feather fletch laying flatish against the shaft they lay flat against the bow as well. work better in my opinion than traditional style fletchings on a shorter bow.with a shorter brace.besides it lets you use all them feathers those other guys dont want.if i do make a traditional fletch on my short arrows, i cut them to about 4 1/2 inches. leave them a tad taller than if they were longer. ive seen plains arrows with 7 inch long fletches but they were cut down to very short for height.but the brace on some of those style bows ive seen sometimes is very short too. but im thinking those fletches are very stiff and take the beating they are receiving.or maybe they are not expected to last very long. i.e. you hit a buffalo up close . it runs it rolls to get the arrow out. arrow breaks....its not gonna last long enough for the fletches to wear out. just my thoughts....Tony