I always thought the main advantage of 4-fletch was that the arrow was always oriented properly on the string. Never tried it myself. Logically, one could go with smaller vanes and still have the same total steering surface, I suppose...
). With traditional gear, I used to shoot 5 to 5-1/2" 3 fletch on wood shafts (and still do at times), but mostly shoot 3-1/2 to 4" 4 fletch now with wood and carbon and find it to be plenty of steering surface.
That's what I meant, though I might not have been clear about it. I like the idea, as index nocks can be a bit vague. My recurve shooting is strictly for fun these days, and the crossbow is kinda self-aligning.
i always carried my arrows in the quiver with the nocks timed in the correct position, so that I never had to be concerned about how the nock would set on the string. Stringing an arrow should be as much of a practiced consistant movement as drawing or finding your anchoring point.
For me to even need to look at the shaft to make sure the nock is in the correct position I would have had to of dropped the arrow. Not saying I never visually confirmed the correct nock and vane position because I did, almost every time, but there have been times that any effort to consciously verify it could of very well cost me a shot on an animal.
