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Shield cut vs parabolic vanes

Do you think there is a difference between shield cut and parabolic vanes performance wise? 2 vanes of same size one shield cut and one parabolic.

I use shield on recurve for aiming reference when the tip of fletching touches my nose

Other than that and looking “cooler” not sure...

Yes

Parabolic's are slower somewhat. The fastest 5" I have shot are low profile banana's. You see bear hunters with heavy arrows or African guys shooting them. They scoot.

K~

I’ve always heard that parabolics are faster and quieter than shields. Don’t know about low-profile bananas, but I had a dozen arrows with high-profile bananas and they were nearly as loud as my flu-flus.

I suppose flight-shooters would know best for low drag, but what they use would doubtless create some compromise when it comes to keeping a Broadhead on course.

JMO, shield-cut feathers look nicer than parabolics, but a shield-cut vane seems like a stainless/synthetic flint-lock.... But I might give them a shot anyway, should I ever run out of vanes.

I've shot both this year (VaneTec 3" for parabolic, Q2i's 2.1" for Shield). The Q2's are made of a more sturdy material and one thing I've noticed is that they don't collect as much blood on a pass through as the VaneTecs. Groups at longer ranges with the same arrow gave similar results. Length and height did not match between the 2, but weight and overall surface area was similar.

I like 4" shield cut natural wild turkey feathers I send them to stkyx & have them cut as far as performance ???

Well, I guess it is rocket science. The more aerodynamic the fletch the faster it goes, farther it goes, and makes less noise.

Yea I think shield cut is slightly louder. But the noise comes from possibly More drag. So shield cut could control a little More and shoot more accurately?

But if you want more drag for accuracy why don’t you just go to a longer parabolic with less noise and have the best of both worlds? At some point you pass the tipping point of having more drag than is necessary.

That’s about the size of it. Pick your poison, ‘cuz there’s no free lunch.

Plus, Shields. They’re just plain Purty.

And with that said, Howard Hill developed his French Curve in a wind-tunnel.

From quietest to loudest: banana, parabolic, shield, Pope and Young cut. Quiet equals less air turbulence(drag). Makes little difference at close range other than game reaction. At longer distance say 60 meters the less drag starts to show up on target. Of course shooting fingers and making a poor release the more drag may tighten the groups. I like parabolics and shield both. Pretty close to the same with parabolics having a SLIGHT edge. Been building arrows for 40 years or so.

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