Turkey feathers or plastic fletching for recurve bow?

[Deleted member 115654]

Feathers ---- good enough for Fred.

 

[ascig]

I would go Turkey. They work better than plastic as stabilizing an arrow quickly. But not great for long range because of how much drag they have.

 

[Medic77]

I use feathers for all my bows (I shoot off the shelf) but check out Tradvanes. I was skeptical at first but the fly really well off the shelf.

 

[Greyfox]

My standard arrow of 40+ years. Port Orford Cedar. 5 1/2" LW Tru-Flght feathers... Hill broad-head for longbows, Bear Razorhead for recurves. 140/125gr steel field tips/blunts for targets or small game.

 

[longbowelk]

Nice setup. I am not knocking your choice of heads. I did use the Bear heads for years. Never was that fond of the Hill head. I still have a bunch of the Bear heads. I tried a few different razor heads, then used the Zwicky , and now use the Grizzly. I've killed deer with the Bear and 3 elk with Zwicky(1), Grizxly(2).
My preference now is the Grizzly. Being single bevel i just like the ease to put that razor edge on them.

 

[VLD Pilot]

Stay with feathers. Get the "Feather Dry" powder. Pour in a gallon zip loc bag, place feather end of one arrow in bag, gather bag around shaft and shake it for a few seconds. Do each arrow this way. This is what I use for my hunting arrows. I build all of my wood arrows with mostly turkey feathers from my turkey I get and my friends turkey wings. The feathers you buy that are colors have most of the water repellent qualities boiled from then when coloring.
I have been shooting and building traditional gear for 30 years and I don't see much issue with wet feathers unless you are shooting longer distances due to the small amount of weight the moisture adds to the arrow. You can also place zip lock bags on each shaft, over the feathers and zip it closed around the shaft while in the quiver and as you take from quiver and nock it, you can pull the bag off of the feathers and stick in pocket. I do this when I know I'm hunting in the rain a lot, like in CO. Where I do most of my hunting, in KS, during the deer season time I hunt I don't get any rain. It is either sleet, snow or just so dang cold the snow doesn't stick to the feathers.
Good luck.

Mike

Yep works great. I've been using the same stuff for close to 30 years. Same bottle I bought I'm still using. Lasts forever. My bottle has screw on lid with a hole it in for the arrow to slide into feather side down in the bottle. Screw the lid on and shake. The feather get coated then remove arrow and shake off excess powder. That powder lasts for many rainy days on stand. Feathers all the way with traditional equipment. I used fletched arrows with my compound also till just a few years ago when I went to a fall away rest, them switched to 2" vanes.