i shoot archery and i use the actuall feathers on my arrows the parts of the feathers are starting to break off and ruin the feather any way to prevent this from happening in the future thx

First make sure they’re put on the arrows properly, make sure the shafts were clean when you put it on, make sure they’re spaced evenly, put a dab of glue to the front and rear ends of each feather.

Then, when shooting, as the other poster said, be sure to have the index feather facing away from the bow. Index feather is just a fancy name for the one feather that sticks straight out of the bow, meaning directly perpendicular if you’re looking from the nock end of the arrow while it’s on the string. If there’s is no one feather that is sticking out, then your nock is put on improperly.

Once you’re done with all that and you’re still shredding feathers, then it’s time for tuning. First get yourself one of those foot spray, you know the ones that cures athlete’s foot. Make sure you get the regular foot spray not the clear kind. Spray some of that stuff on your bow, around where the arrow might make contact, around the shelf area. Shoot, and every shot watch the sprayed area for contact marks.

When arrows are making contact, usually the problem is either the arrow is too weak or too long. An arrow can be perfectly spined but if too long you can also have clearance issue. Too long meaning the arrow is sticking out well over 3" at full draw. If your arrows are sticking way out like that, you need to get weaker shafts so they can be cut to the proper length.

I’m looking online for the easton genesis arrows 1820. i don’t know the difference between arrows with feathers and arrows with vanes. can anyone tell me the difference please?? or what they are
(I’m trying to buy them online)

Vanes are cheaper(for the most part) and easier to work with than feathers. However the vanes are stiffer and if you have contact between the fletching and your bow (due to poor tuning), the feather will be more forgiving.

Now this part is nitpicking, but vanes are also heavier than feathers. There’s a measure in archery called FOC. FOC is a percentage difference between the center of gravity of the arrow and the actual center of the arrow. The higher the FOC, the more forgiving the arrow is. Think about it this way, an arrow unlike a bullet is not a simple point projectile, even when pointed towards the target, a lot can go wrong to the back end of it to make it go off course. The higher the FOC, the more the weight of the arrow shifts towards the point, making it act more like a simple point projectile. Vanes, being heavy, lowers the FOC of arrows. But the difference in FOC won’t be apparent until you’re shooting long distances.

1820′s huh? That’ll be some super tough arrows.

my girlfriend just bought her own bow, she has a little trouble keeping the arrows on the block of foam, the first thought for a back stop was a old sheet of plywood, but when the arrows hit they either warp and bend or bounce tearing out the inserts. any other good idears??

There is a product called HOMOSOTE that you can buy at Home Depot or Lowe’s..It’s a construction material that comes in 4′ X 8′ sheets and is 1/2" thick. It is gray in color and is made of compressed recycled paper fiber..The National Field Archery Association uses it as a back stop behind targets in Archery tournaments all over the U.S. It won’t hurt arrows, doesn’t cause the inserts to fall out,makes the best back stop I’ve ever seen. It will stop arrows shot from a compound bow easily at any range. They will penetrate but only go in about 3-6" making the arrows easy to pull out………Last I bought cost $15.00 a sheet..Completely weatherproof too!

I have some archery arrows and was buying some nocks, and They wanted to know what the 4 digit code on my arrows was. What is the significance of those numbers?

On almost all aluminum arrows the code refers to the overall diameter of the arrow shaft and the thinkness of the metal of the shaft. The first 2 numbers refer to one stat and the second 2 numbers refer to the other. Unfortunately I don’t remember which is which. Basically you will want the overall diameter to match the width of the point you will use and you want thicker metal for heavier draw weight bows (basically any draw weight over about 65lbs) A good archery store will carry the same model or arrows but with the different sized diameters and thinknesses to allow for different bows, inserts, points etc. There isn’t really hard and fast rules with these size and you can just try different arrows to see what seems to work best. Many good hunting stores will test fire multiple arrows with different fletching(feathers), inserts or points on your bow to see what seems to shoot the smallest cluster.

I want to buy my BIL arrows as a b-day gift. He got a bow last year and my sis says he needs some new arrows. He is very novice – purely recreational shooting at targets set um in the yard. Neither of us knows anything about arrows. She found one of his old ones and measured it – it is 83cm long and 6mm wide. Does anyone know if I need to get exactly the same thing for them to work with his bow? I know they can be made out of different material wood/aluminum right?
As he is a novice she thought he would probably prefer more cheaper ones than few higher end ones – Anyone got any advice? I want to make sure I give him something he can use.
Thanks!

You’re best off to get the exact lenght, because they were likely cut to fit him and his bow. You shouldn’t be able to find wooden ones, but if you do, stay away from them. They are for low powered bows.
No need to get two kinds, really, as they would shoot differently, and he needs consistent performance to get good at this. Just get some high quality aluminum ones, and don’t spend the extra money on the carbon fiber type.