How important are vanes/fletchings?

[pressfit]

I'm not sure if my xbow is getting stronger or my target is getting weaker..but yesterday I got up in my shooting house to do a little practice.. the first 3 bolts went through the target and 6-8 inches out the back... I pulled them out and ripped 2 vanes off one bolt and pretty much deformed /mangled another one... I climbed back up and just for the heck of it shot them... right in the bullseye... the 2 that were trashed shot as good as my other 2 that still looks fine... just wondering how important the vanes really are..??

 

[bigtex]

Just depends on the bow is my guess. My bow shoots like crap if any of the vanes are messed up. It's still pretty accurate at 20 yards or so but after that it gets worse as the yardage increases.
I've already re-fletched a dozen bolts just getting sighted in.

 

[Frank G]

Agree here in a pinch I woulkd send a bolt out to 20 but not any greated distance.

 

[encore06]

A bare arrow may shoot well at a close target using a field point, but put a bh on and it'll be a different story.

 

[smokepolehall]

Yup out to 20 yds or so bare shafted wid field pt shoot plenty good. You add a BH's to it & it will get eratic. Has no rudder then to steer it jus lets the BH an air deflection have their way. I haven't done much testin on this, so try it out n see what it does at 30-40 yds.