Such a little thing. Such a big consideration.

How much did you pay for your current bowhunting setup -- including bow, arrows, the entire works? Maybe a grand or more? Now, consider that without 50 cents to a $1.50 worth of fletching to steer your arrows, all that money amounts to absolutely nothing. Only including the right fletching will allow your state-of-the-art shooting system to produce consistent accuracy. Despite that, many archers take the least expensive link in the shooting chain for granted.

Material Matters
When it comes to choosing fletching material, there are but two basic choices -- man-made plastic or feathers grown on a living, breathing turkey. Each has its distinctive strengths and weaknesses.

Plastic vanes are 100 percent waterproof and, overall, the most durable choice. Plastic provides adequate lateral support and steerage. Plastic vanes also are extremely aerodynamic and offer a speed advantage beyond, say, 50 yards. The downside is plastic vanes are not terribly forgiving after contacting arrow rests or obstacles encountered in flight because they offer no horizontal give. Plastic vanes also are relatively heavy.

Three, 4-inch standard vanes, for example, weigh about 28 grains, compared to seven grains for the same number and size feathers.

Feather fletchings are extremely forgiving around arrow rests and in-flight obstacles because they collapse horizontally. This makes them the only real choice when shooting arrows off the shelf of a traditional bow. Conversely, feathers are stiffer than plastic laterally (when pushed from the sides) and therefore provide superior stabilization, especially with broadheads. Since feathers are lighter, they allow faster launch speeds.

The downside is the effectiveness of feathers suffers greatly when wet. They also fray after prolonged use, require frequent replacement and cost nearly three times as much as standard plastic vanes. Further, feathers can create excessive flight noise and are noisy when scraped against vegetation or clothing.

I love plastic vanes (for compound bows) and couldn't live without feathers (for traditional bows). Still, I hate the shortcomings of both.

Arizona Archery Enterprises' new Max Hunter vanes follow the short, high-profile trend with a broadhead vane that's only 2.1 inches long, just over a half-inch high and weighs just 6.5 grains.

Size Matters
Not too long ago, 5-inch fletchings (and 125-grain, fixed-blade broadheads) were king.

The emergence of smaller diameter carbon arrows and 100-grain heads now means 4-inch fletchings rule. Although 5-inch fletchings are still an indispensable part of traditional archery, 4-inchers get the job done in nearly every other capacity.

In the new age of mechanical broadheads, it's not uncommon for bowhunters to employ standard fletchings of as little as two or three inches. Shorter fletching means less mass and improved aerodynamics, both of which translate into additional speed and flatter arrow trajectory. If overall accuracy and forgiveness aren't affected, there's really no reason to change -- though I find it important to stress that bowhunting shouldn't be confused with 3-D shooting.

When bowhunting, using the largest fletching practical (instead of the smallest you can get away with) is generally the safest approach. Straight broadhead flight with even the smallest vanes is certainly possible under ideal backyard conditions, but "real-world" bowhunting has a way of tossing ideals to the winds. It's better to err on the side of caution -- and gain some forgiveness -- than botch a shot opportunity.