Archery is a long season, and during the course of such a
long season, equipment can take a beating.
This year, it seems like the fletching on my arrows has suffered the
brunt of it. One reason is probably that
I’m constantly practicing. Every time I
hunt, before I get out of my stand I take a shot at a leaf on the ground to see
if I can hit it. Also, before I leave
the house for an afternoon hunt I take a shot or two at my 3D target.
And sometimes I just feel like I have a quirk or two that
needs straightened out and I spend considerable time working on it. Because we spend so much time actually in the
woods, we can go lengthy stretches without shooting at a target. So on Sundays I like to make time for
practice in between all the family stuff.
When you shoot as much and as often as I do, your arrows are
bound to take a beating. Especially the
fletching. Seems I’m always nicking my
fletching. I know I should use more
field tips when I practice a lot, but I figure that if I hunt with broadheads,
then I should be practicing with broadheads.
And my fletching pays the price for it.
I’ve always considered it a pain in the rear to fletch
arrows. I don’t like messing around with
all those vanes and glue. But now I
don’t have to mess with either, because now, when I need a quick fix for my
fletching, I use Quick Fletch.
Quick Fletch is a pre-fabricated plastic tube with
evenly-spaced two-inch vanes. They work
very similar to heat shrink tubing. You
slide the tube over your arrow shaft and use boiling water to shrink it down to
size.
One of the statements on the packaging is “Spend more time
hunting and less time fletching.” That’s
pretty much right on. I fletched a half
dozen arrows in about five minutes. The
longest part of the process was waiting for the water to boil.
Here’s how it works.
Clean the arrow shaft of all previous fletching. Use a scraper or razor blade to shave off all
the old glue so that you have a clean arrow surface to work with. Then slide the pre-fabricated tubing onto the
shaft. There is a light adhesive inside
the tubing that helps to hold it in place on the shaft.
Boil some water.
Don’t stand by the stove and watch the water as it heats up. If you watch the water, it will take forever
to boil. That’s what my grandma always
told me when I was a kid, at least.
Once the water’s boiling, dip the nock end of the arrow into
the water. Submerge all the way past the
fletching. Wait about seconds before
removing the shaft from the water, then wait about 15 minutes for it to dry
before heading out to the archery range.
Sure it’s fast and easy to fletch a half dozen arrows, but
the question is will they be accurate?
Yep, they’re definitely accurate.
In fact, they shoot just as well if not better than my “regular”
fletched arrows. And all without having
to move my sights.
Quick Fletch uses the NAP Twister Vane System. Twister Vanes are two inches in length and
are grooved on one side so that they spin your arrows 2x faster than normal,
un-grooved vanes. Faster arrow spin
translates into more accuracy and tighter groups.
Quick Fletch is also durable. If you have a pass-through on whitetails or
targets, the vanes are strong enough not to tear. Yet they are easy to remove by simply cutting
the plastic casing and peeling them off like a sticker. Once removed, they leave no sticky glue
residue behind. You can start all over
again with a clean shaft.
The only drawback to using Quick Fletch is that they tend to
be expensive. Expect to pay about $15
for six fletchings. Some might consider
that a small price to pay for accuracy.
Quick Fletch is available through New Archery Products (www.newarchery.com or www.quickfletch.com). If you have arrows that need fletched but
don’t have the time to do them, Quick Fletch is worth checking out.
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