Gas Pro sure did knock it out of the park with this one. If you somehow haven’t heard of naca vanes until now let me tell you all you need to know about them. With the new gyroscopic effect of these vanes they offer up to 400% more arrow rotation than any other vane on the market. And let me tell you they’re worth every penny.
The steps involved in how to Fletch Naca vanes are:
- Selecting the fletch height
- Ensuring full contact
- Glueing the vane
- Tipping the vane
Trust me by the end of this article you’ll be a pro at setting the Naca’s up.
Fletch Height
The first thing to decide when shooting any fletch is what fletch height you would like them to be at. This simply means where on the shaft you would like your fletch to be. This is going to be different for everyone. It is determined by how much of your face is “in the way” of the fletch. You’ll want the fletch far down the shaft enough that it is not touching your face but you don’t want it too far down either. You won’t know for certain until you fletch an arrow and draw it up if it will clear your face but if you grab a buddy and draw up a bare shaft you’ll have a pretty good idea.
Keep in mind that different fletches may require you to put them in a different place. The best example I can give you is the switch from outdoor vanes to indoor vanes. Indoor fletches usually have a taller profile, meaning the distance of the highest point on the fletch. I shoot GP-280 vanes for indoor which are only 2.8″ long but they are xxx tall.
Even depending on the profile of the vane you may be getting contact with your face, with either parabolic or shield profile.
Ensuring Full Contact
Here is the thing I struggled with the most. Trying to get full contact with these vanes is tricky but not impossible. You may need to sacrifice a few vanes just to glue on and see is it making full contact but once you get it nailed then you’ll be flying.
99% of fletching jigs will have the option to adjust the angle of the fletch you are putting on in the instance of my fletching jig (bitzenburger) it is an alan key you gotta loosen and then you can adjust the angle of it.
So to ensure full contact you can start by putting your fletching jig to 0 angle or straight. Next go ahead and grab your jig and put the Naca mould into it along with a fletch. Without glue clamp down the fletch onto the shaft of the arrow. Now your going to inspect as best you can if you are getting full contact with your fletch. If the tip and tail of the arrow is fully connected with the shaft then you are good to go, if it’s not, then while you have the angle screw loosened you can adjust the left and right position of the fletch and mess around with it until you do get full contact.
Now your going to tighten down those angle screws and fletch one arrow at your chosen height, when you remove the jig from your fletch you got to inspect it just to be sure that it is still fully connected to the shaft. I’ve had plenty of times where it looks spot on in the jig and then I glue it down and it’s just off. If it is off (I know its frustrating and you feel like you wanna keep going with it but trust me) strip that fletch off, adjust the angle a tiny bit more and try again. You’ll hurt your groups if you fletch 12 arrows with fletches that aren’t getting full contact.
Gluing your Fletches
Note: You must fletch Naca vanes with a straight Clamp.
Normally this would be straight forward but with the Naca’s as you’ve probably seen there’s one extra step. The mould, the mould makes it a lot easier to get through fletching. A little trick that you should definitely consider doing is once your fletch height is set glue the side of the mould into your jig. From experience if you’re not super careful all of the time the mould can move around in the jig meaning you’ll have fletches at different heights which we do not want at all. By gluing the mould into the jig it will eliminate the height difference between all the fletches. However it must be noted that you may need to replace the mould after a while as excess glue may fall into the mould making it harder to place a fletch into it. Mark on your jig where the mould is placed so when you replace the mould there will be no difference when you swap them over.
Now with that out of the way we can talk about actually gluing the fletches. With this vane (or any vane for that matter) a little goes a long way. If you are having lots of excess glue on the sides on your fletch when you clamp it down then you might be using too much. I would recommend about 1.5mm height of glue evenly along the fletch. Once the glue is applied and you clamp the jig down and wait about 30 seconds. Then lift the jig and the mould will come with it leaving the fletch behind on the shaft of the arrow. You’ll have to break some muscle memory seeing as you’ve glued the mould into the jig you don’t need to open the clamp every time your changing the fletch.
But from here on out it’s same old fletching that you know and love.
Tipping the Vane
Another thing you need to know about these vanes (and a lot of the other GasPro vanes) they’re very soft. The reasoning behind this is when an arrow passes through a target with other vanes on the market they will loose their shape and fly differently but with GasPro vanes they make them soft so that they can pop back into shape after they pass though. So because these vanes are soft they need a little extra protection, and you can give it to them.
To properly protect your vane you’re going to put a pea sized blob of glue at the tip of the arrow. As if your fletch hits off something it’s going to hit the tip of the fletch first so that is the part we need to protect the most. Personally I do this with all my vanes not just my Naca’s and I’ve never had one of them fall off. So it’s tried and true!
Once that’s done leave the arrows overnight to let the glue to fully curate and then you’re good for going in no time you’ll see them groups come in.