One of the fletchlings on one of my arrows ripped off will the arrow still work fine?

Question

One of the fletchlings on one of my arrows ripped off will the arrow still work fine?

Answer 1

It depends on how well tuned your equipment is.  I can shoot my arrows with no fletching at all and it'll behave exactly the same way as with the fletchings on.  At the Olympics, I saw Juan Rene Serrano of Mexico shot with one torn fletching and defeat Vic Wunderle.  I admit, that at that stage, I wouldn't risk shooting with torn fletching.

Even if the equipment is out of tune, the effect won't be too drastic as long as you're shooting within 40m of the target.  I deal with a lot of beginners shooting club bows, so one their form is not quite perfect and two their equipment is far from being tuned.  Most of the time our arrows are missing one fletching, most fly fine.  Now if two fletchings are missing then you will start to see it spiral.

But, it's nice to have extra fletching on hand and some glue so you can repair them.

Answer 2

Many times I have seen arows do what, logically, they should not do.

An arrow which originally had three fletches: One fletch missing, one only half remaining, and only one fletch complete; the arrow flies just fine. If there is enough weight on the point end of the arrow, it should fly straight, even without any fletching at all.

Don't worry about the torn fletch, but do get it replaced as soon as it is convenient. Until then, be sure to trim off or re-glue any loose part of the fletching.

Answer 3

Nope it will wobble you need to fix it but the good news is that it is easy to do yourself or just have a shop do it for very cheap.