On Arrow Maintenance
A well-made arrow is critical. The arrow MUST be in good order—well fletched and true.
If you are repairing your fletching frequently and tearing through the stave guard with them, you will need to adjust your bow hand during the release. You need to move such that the stave will not contact the exiting arrow.
You may also have a string that is too long for the bow, and thus the brace height is too short. Shorter bows will have a shorter brace height, but longbows should have a brace height the length of your fist with the thumb extended (fistmile) or slightly longer.
The quality of an archer is heavily related to his craftsmanship and attention to the maintenance of his arrows.
Many will say the everyday will take on a rag, but this should not be the case in the extreme. Practice arrows must still maintain their functional dignity.
Fully fletched, straighter, rigid shafts fly better and hit a target more often than arrows that lack these features.
A well-maintained arrow is predictable and thus easier to pilot; this is true of any form of archery.
The two rules of an arrow are: it must have a reasonable amount of feather fletching (these don't have to be—perfectly—symmetrical between arrows or even feathers on the same arrow but near so), and the shaft must be straight and rigid (over-spined).
There is no point in practicing with arrows that are crooked. Over time, the bends you heated straight may reappear and must be tuned straight again. A crooked shaft (even a slight bend that makes the nock, tip, and middle three nonlinear points) will not fly in your favor and will lack predictable control.
The fletching is needed to straighten your shafts in flight and keep the flight of your arrows predictable. Too much feathering will slow down the shaft but straighten the shaft sooner. Too little or uneven fletching will guide the arrow to more easily fly in unpredictable ways. Strip and refletch a shaft as soon as possible if the feathers are reasonably damaged.
If you have glued your fletching using hide glue, knife away the vane, sever the cord, and reduce the glue; soak the area where it is glued, allow the glue to soften, and then wipe away the glue.
Make sure that all arrow fletching are providing near-equal resistance or coverage, or the imbalance will affect the flight—probably not as much as you may think.
If your shafts are not striking true for one of the top-mentioned reasons, they must not be used while hunting game. You cannot hunt if your arrows will strike the target crooked or can fly in unpredictable ways. Use more fletch and ensure the feathers are fresh and unworn with hunting arrows.
If you have a powerful bow, you can break a nock on an arrow at the cast. Sinew or thread wraps your shaft just below the nock groove to ensure a robust nock.
A great archer will spend a great deal of time with fletching—when this is what you are doing, then you're on your way.
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