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Parabolic vs shield cut feathers

12K views 22 replies 18 participants last post by  stevelong 
#1 ·
I shoot a locally made one peice bow 45 # made in the south west of australia where i live. About a year ago i switched to parabolic feathers becuse of reading they were faster and slightly quieter for hunting. I had 6 shafts with damadged feathers so i scaped them and glued some left over shield cuts. The differance at the range is chalk and cheese. Im shooting tighter groups with these shields than ever did with parabolics. Havent hunted with them yet. Interested in hearing other opinions. Thanks Plant Gas Wood Automotive wheel system Grass
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#3 ·
Yeah starting to think the reason my shield cut shoot with better results is because my shafts arent tuned as good as i thought they were. Or is it the fact my form and draw lenghth has evolved in a year?? . Mayby what worked a year ago doesnt now and the shield cut is straightening my arrow quicker. Might be time for another tuning session... errr i hate them.
 
#5 ·
I've not done a ton of testing but I'd GUESS if you can see a dramatic change - - it's SOMETHING. both shields and parabolic same length feathers?
I have felt like some of my fletches are noisier than others due to height......so it stands to reason there's SOME STEERING / flight correction differences as you change fletches.
However it alters accuracy, ? DUNNO ?
 
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#9 ·
Thank you for your well educated input. You guys in the u.s are light years infront of us down under. First of all sorry for the upside down pics. Dont know what happened. No never heard of mark ballard. The height of my shield cut sits 3mm higher than my parabolic. Thought i would run into contact problems there and have to adjust my knock but no not the case. (Sorry about the metric mesurement) both feathers have zero off set. And yes they are definately easier to see in the target.
 
#11 ·
Only time I really noticed a difference in the feather cut was when I tried Banana cuts. The first chopper I got made a high back besides more feather surface. They did look cool in my back quiver. Then I shot them. I will be gentle and say they compared to flu-flu’s in noise and speed.
 
#12 ·
Over the years it seems many archers intuitively sense that the parabolic design should produce less noise and drag. But is it so? I have never seen a careful test. I hope one of the science type guys on here will someday rig one up.

Or maybe I don't. I prefer the look of the shield cut and would be displeased to learn they are truly less efficient. Never mind. - lbg
 
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#13 ·
Im a shield cut man. Its all Ive ever shot and to me they are the classic fletching. It makes sense that parabolics would be slightly faster and have less noise because there is less feather. Less feather less drag less noise.
 
#14 ·
In my experience, the difference is in the way the fletching hits the shelf when the arrow is not perfectly tuned or in the case of a bad release. The shield cut is less forgiving when it comes to those scenarios.
 
#16 ·
I like the looks of shield-cut, but I wanted to try some so I ordered a pkg of parabolic. I fletched a few arrows with parabolic, and while they are obviously different in appearance, side-by-side the surface area seemed very similar, and there was no discernible difference in flight or POI. I even replaced a couple of damaged shield-cut feathers with parabolic feathers on individual arrows; I have a few arrows with one or two parabolic feathers. Still no problems in flight or POI.

All the arrows I shoot are full length GT Hunters and Hunter XT with 3x4" feathers. I generally shoot 20-30yds, occasionally to 40yds at my backyard range.

I've gone back to the shield-cut, and henceforth I'll replace any damaged parabolic feathers with shield-cut.
 
#18 ·
I have and shoot both styles on different and sometimes the same arrows. not mix and match though, as in one arrows fletched with shield and one arrow is fletched with parabolic. from the shooters perspective I See no difference, although I have not tested for groups or anything like that. only speaking about sound. however if you stand down range behind a shed or somewhere safe, and listen to the arrows go past you cannot hear the parabolic’s at all. the shields are much much louder in flight. which sucks because I like the look of shield cuts better myself. but I do believe that game animals of any type Could easily be spooked by the sound of your arrow hissing it’s way to them. But on the other side of the coin tons upon tons of game animals have fallen to shield cut feathers. it’s just one of those things I guess, but I do like stacking as many of the odds in my favor as possible. so for now I’m shooting parabolic‘s. Also I’ve noticed that the more damaged the fletching’s become the louder they get. And that’s all I got (on feathers at least) in my very unscientific world of trad gear testing.
 
#19 ·
I have tested this for a TRADLAB study. I used 3 decibel meters The most expensive of the three records the sound in time series.

It is true shield are louder than parabolic and 5” are louder than 4” and so on.

I don’t recall the exact numbers now but i obtained the quieted broadheads and feather /fletching config and i believe I could get an arrow 9 yards away from the target before it was louder than the ambient sound level. The loudest was 12 yards if I remeber.

Trad vanes were the quietest


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#20 ·
Re: Parabolic vs shield cut fletch. I have lived and hunted Western Oregon with archery tackle for over 50 years. I've used both feathers and vanes depending on the weapon of choice. While I've never gone deeply into the technical side of bow and arrow performance, rather choosing as quickly as possible 'what works best'. Over the years some things become blatantly obvious to a ' git er done' bowhunter. One of them is that shield cut feathers or vanes are noticeably louder than parabolic cuts of either fletching type especially used in combination with vented broadheads.

When hunting in an over story of trees, surrounded by dense blackberry growth, and in a dense fog common on most Pacific coastal mornings, the sound of arrow flight is extremely magnified. I would liken it to a scud missile.....and I'm very hard of hearing.

The combination of the shield cut fletching and a vented broadhead was a poor choice for me as a spot and stalk hunter. For me it is strictly 4" parabolic 3 fletch with a non vented head delivers the quietest package.
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