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Left or right helical?

Kurt

Kurt

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Messages
2,331
Location
Massachusetts
It has come to my attention as I search for information on how to build better arrows that the determination of left or right helical for our personal setups is really predetermined....or is it? While bare shaft tuning I was reminded of a video I had watched that shows the natural rotation of an arrow shaft out of a bow regardless of the fact that it has only a field point, and no fletchings. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience regarding this? Is this an important finding, that I need to worry about as I move forward with my adult arrow build as it pertains to my selection of the bevel of my broadheads and the fletching of my shafts. I will be honest and say for all the 28 yrs of my bow hunting experience/deer killing I have shot a right helical fletch. Although now I know that the natural rotation is left. Is this important to change to left bevel and left helical, left feather, left off set?

Also If someone could help me learn to post a video on this darn thing from youtube onto the forum I will post the video showing this phenomena. Thanks in advance. Kurt
 
I messed with this for about 3 arrow shafts..... The float in water technique. I had 1shaft spin clockwise for 6 out of 10 tries and counterclockwise the other 4. I just got right hand everything and make the arrow spin that way. I guess you could be anal and have rightys and leftys but that sounds too tedious to me
 
Pretty sure I saw Levi Morgan in a video switching up his right and left helical to tune his arrows. I guess if you’re like him and your entire livelihood depends on the accuracy and precision of your arrow it’s worth it. But I think if you’re not shooting in world class competitions you’re just splitting hairs.
 
Art_Vandelay said:
Pretty sure I saw Levi Morgan in a video switching up his right and left helical to tune his arrows. I guess if you’re like him and your entire livelihood depends on the accuracy and precision of your arrow it’s worth it. But I think if you’re not shooting in world class competitions you’re just splitting hairs.
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Well, me an ol' Levi probably shoot at the same level, but I hear what your sayin................. No we don't, I'm way better than him, Levi who?
All kidding aside, I thought as much. I ain't much of a hair splitter. I know even though all the stuff I run into on the interweb is true it may or may not be relevant to what I'm needing to do.
 
W/O a single bevel I think Your arrow does not rotate. Feathers fletched W/a straight clamp will still rotate R or L due to the quill but W/O fletch, I don't think so. I've shot LW for 50 yrs just because the fella that taught me shot LW. Now all my jigs are LW and never tried to change. JMO
 
Blacksmith said:
W/O a single bevel I think Your arrow does not rotate. Feathers fletched W/a straight clamp will still rotate R or L due to the quill but W/O fletch, I don't think so. I've shot LW for 50 yrs just because the fella that taught me shot LW. Now all my jigs are LW and never tried to change. JMO
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It's a fact that if you shoot a bare shaft with a field point your bow WILL rotate that shaft left or right on it's own.
 
I had a talk with a local bow shop for me about arrow rotation what what he says from the testing they’ve done is that arrow rotation is mostly dictated by the direction your bow is served and string twist. They tested this with a handful of bows and arrows bare shaft clocking on slow mo videos. Got into a deep conversation about the topic even about the direction the material is twisted and made that makes up the serving and bow strings.
 
Outdoorsman33 said:
I had a talk with a local bow shop for me about arrow rotation what what he says from the testing they’ve done is that arrow rotation is mostly dictated by the direction your bow is served and string twist. They tested this with a handful of bows and arrows bare shaft clocking on slow mo videos. Got into a deep conversation about the topic even about the direction the material is twisted and made that makes up the serving and bow strings.
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Thanks for the info.
 
Outdoorsman33 said:
I had a talk with a local bow shop for me about arrow rotation what what he says from the testing they’ve done is that arrow rotation is mostly dictated by the direction your bow is served and string twist. They tested this with a handful of bows and arrows bare shaft clocking on slow mo videos. Got into a deep conversation about the topic even about the direction the material is twisted and made that makes up the serving and bow strings.
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This is my understanding of how it works too. Right twist serving imparts counterclockwise rotation and the opposite for left twist serving.
 
Outdoorsman33 said:
I had a talk with a local bow shop for me about arrow rotation what what he says from the testing they’ve done is that arrow rotation is mostly dictated by the direction your bow is served and string twist. They tested this with a handful of bows and arrows bare shaft clocking on slow mo videos. Got into a deep conversation about the topic even about the direction the material is twisted and made that makes up the serving and bow strings.
Click to expand...
This is my knowledge on the matter too. My bare shafts rotates right, so I just went ahead threw on a right offset and bought right beveled broadheads. I don't think it will make much of a difference though if you have a bare shaft right rotation and a LH fletch.
 
LilBit said:
This is my knowledge on the matter too. My bare shafts rotates right, so I just went ahead threw on a right offset and bought right beveled broadheads. I don't think it will make much of a difference though if you have a bare shaft right rotation and a LH fletch.
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I wouldn’t think it would effect much until you thrown anything over probably 3 degree LH. You might start seeing a lose of energy because of the arrow trying to correct itself but that’s just a maybe. I haven’t done the testing myself but I’m sure someone out there has .
 
If the rotation is imparted by the twist in the string, and the direction the string is served, then it's not a very strong force causing the rotation, therefore it would reason that it's not a significant factor, and can be in general disregarded without appreciable erosion in arrow performance or a significant loss of down range accuracy. More important is matching the fletch helical and the bevel on the head. That's good to know, because I liked the Overkill Masai 200gr right bevel head, and I already own a right helical clamp. Now I should ask the magic 8 ball of the saddlehunter forum, Is a straight clamp, right wing feather important to efoc arrow performance, or is it good enough for me to just continue to shoot 2 inch blazer vanes glued on using a right helical clamp? Maximum distance to the target in a hunting situation, no more than 25 yards.
 
I think at most hunting distances here in the east, it really doesn't matter just be consistent. I have a bitz jig and have both right helical and left helical clamps. I have tried both and for some reason I always seem to go with left helical. I know it isn't true but in my head, I like the idea of the arrow spinning away from the riser instead of toward it. (I'm a RH shooter as I'm Right Eye Dominant) But it does not matter. I've said this before, when I was a teenager my buddies and I went down to Bowhunter's Warehouse in PA when they were the king, and they had a trick shooter there named Stacy Groscup. He was amazing, he took a brand new compound out of a box, slapped a rest on it and shot 8 inch pie plate discs out of the air with it. To, me that says a lot. He shot aspirins out of the air with his stick bow and arrows!!!
 
I'm lefthanded so I chose LW feathers and bought a bunch when I was getting started.
I have had to tighten tips ever since. I have dabbed hot melt, used o rings and even blue thread locker to keep my tips tight.

To the young guys that have not yet bought supplies I say buy RW unless you have a supply of lefthand thread field points and broadheads.

My two bits..
 
Art_Vandelay said:
Pretty sure I saw Levi Morgan in a video switching up his right and left helical to tune his arrows. I guess if you’re like him and your entire livelihood depends on the accuracy and precision of your arrow it’s worth it. But I think if you’re not shooting in world class competitions you’re just splitting hairs.
Click to expand...
I really, really, really wanna buy you a beer right now.

Shooting well enough to be able to tell the difference is like ranking very high in a MMORPG. You have a problem, and not even a cool one.
 
I used straight clamp with feathers mainly because that what the feather manufacture recommended with a whisker biscuit
 
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