Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Hen Feather Wear

Lots of ways to rig up that appear to work just fine. My rig (as bought and still is) has a leather pad on the shelf and faux calf hair side plate. Guess I shoot that till it wears out.

Have to say, shooting with cock feather in has stopped the feather wear problems and the arrow flies beautifly. I sure don't hear the arrow striking to the bow window.

Just for grins, was thinking about dusting the shelf and side plate with baby powder to see where the shaft and feathers are actually touching as they pass by. Might work. If not, maybe some old fashond "Christmas Tree" spray on flock as that stuff has just a bit of sticky to it.

Here is what the felt pads looks like after reducing the thickness - you can see the foam pad under the felt which provides a good cushion. This particular one has several years of wear on it and has lots of life left. Most of the wear is from the hen feather on the outer edge of the shelf - virtually no wear on the portion in contact with the shaft. Lots of ways to make things work - I use a lot of velcro also...

JGray: Looks good!

Proly 30 recurves over the years.
None shot cock feather in.
Never needed to.

If such helps your arrow/noise flight............you've got something going on that needs fixed.
Sounds more like a bandaid than a fix to me.

But do whatever.

Confidence is an important thing. Whatever works and builds your trust.
But make sure it really is trustworthy.

Can't argue cause I'm short on experience here. But the arrows are flying sweet, little to no bow noise, and I'm getting as good a group cock feather in as when it was out. Only difference I can see is that the hen feather not getting all beat to heck. Granted, I could clock the nock and roll that hen feather into the gap, but it seems there is no need.

And as you note: "Whatever works and builds your trust". Wise words.

Thank you all for the sage insights.

Most times weird/ non standard setups.......dont work.
But sometimes they do.

Had a mgmnt guy swear his setup was good as he had probs before and after the change did not.

I saw his arrows fly and they were.not good.

They evidently were horrible before.
Since he could now sorta group and things looked better he thought he had arrived.

A tuneup and nock turn and he shot, best groups, but low.
He said he couldn't see his arrows fly anymore.

I just smiled. They were bullets.

Once he finally heard a well tuned bow, saw good arrowflight ( lack of seeing LOL ).....he finally understood.

Thats all im trying to say.....if you really have a system that delivers, so be it. Just double check.

There is a ton of BS on some archery and even trad forums IMHO