for me, it depends on what you consider what "matters"...

if you have more confidence in custom arrows, then that is a tangible effect that i believe is important enough to warrant the purchase.

I have only bought arrows from Jerry at southshorearcherysupply.com for the last 7 or 8 years or so. lots of my friends just use the big box arrows. my vanes seem to never come off unless i shoot them off. theirs come off in targets. plus i like the ability to select my wraps, and i always have my arrows wrapped. i like white, for the help in finding the arrow, and the ability to see blood on an otherwise black arrow a little better.

IDK if the squaring helps or not with my accuracy, but i believe there is a noticeable difference in how well my vanes stick to the arrows. Plus i like the ability to select which vanes i want, and not have to go with one or two options that you get otherwise.

now if you are only talking hunting accuracy, then there is probably no difference. the old president of my old club in VA, killed tons of deer every year with no thought whatsoever in his setup. buy arrows from bass pro for $60/doz, screw on mechanical broadheads, kill deer. he has no idea what his arrows weigh, how fast his bow is, etc... that makes my head hurt, but probably because i'm a mechanical engineer, and i like details...

 

All the arrows I have bought from Bow shops have been straight fletched and may work fine with mechanical broadheads. I shoot fixed blade broadheads and a helical fletched arrow seems to work better with 2" blazer vanes. I have also found that with 4" vanes straight fletched arrows shoot good even with fixed blades.

 

Hate to even admit it on here , but I'm shooting pre fletcher arrows, cut to length from my local Sportsman's and my groups run 4 inches at 70 yards. 6 inches at 90. I guess it mostly depends on the brand. I'm shooting 300 spine GT hunter xt's . My fletch never come off so ,That's good enough for me. I've seen some pretty poor fletch jobs from both my local shops and I'm to busy with young kids to want to fletch my own right now.


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Same boat as Grumpy. I currently shoot arrows that I purchased from Carbon Express, and arrows that I had made. I can't tell the difference and they all fly very well.

 

The "problem" (and it's not really a problem) with pre-fletched arrows is you can only cut the arrow from one end, unless you strip the fletching; and this isn't always the best practice.

I spin my arrow shafts before cutting to see which end, or if both ends, need to be cut; one end will usually have more wobble than the other.

Not a big deal if you are buying good arrows to begin with, but it's just another option you have for building from a raw shaft Vs. pre-fletched.

In reality it probably doesn't make that much difference, but it is a step I take.

 

I prefer helical fletching so I buy shafts cut to length with inserts installed from Eders. I use Arizona mini with blazers and use super glue. Zero issues for me.
Unless your a pro archer square cutting ends and spine index is over rated in my book. For me and many others the weak link is the archer more so than the equipment!

 

I like building my own. I can put a helical on them that store bought arrows don't come with, but that's only 1 reason. You have more choices of what vanes or even fletching if you like. I prefer to use white vanes and white wraps for hunting that are not available at dicks or even BPS stores. All together the time to make up a dozen arrows is very minimal. I would say no more than an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish. That includes spin testing ,gluing in the inserts, putting the wraps on and fletching them. I even set the insert to line up with my vanes so when I screw a broad head on ,the broad head lines up with the vanes. At the stores they just glue and push the insert in. There's a little pride when building your own arrow and when you send an arrow you built through the rib cage of an animal it just adds to it IMO.

 

I went through the whole thing. When I was young I bought the pre made arrows. Then as I aged I had them custom made. Now I do my own. And I was( am) happy with all of them. It's just nice to be able to adjust things, try things, re fletch one arrow, move fletching slightly, change colors, number of vanes. All kind of advantages of doing them your self, and it's easy to do. And saves a little money also.

 

^^^this right here^^^

I went through the same process, starting with pre-fletched arrows, and finally learning how to do my own. I think custom arrows are definitely a better product, but you have to decide for yourself if its worth the extra cost. If you choose the custom arrow route, I will say its definitely worth it, in the long run, to learn how to do your own. It wont take too many batches of arrows to recoup the cost of the equipment. Not to mention - if you have any friends that bowhunt, its an opportunity to earn a little side cash. Even if they're not on the custom arrow bandwagon, everyone needs a few arrows re-fletched now and then.

 

I've made my own arrows for several years, which was nice in allowing me to experiment and get exactly what I wanted. Due to a number of combined circumstances, I just picked up a half dozen pre-fletched carbons that the store cut to length for me. Initial impression is, no difference from the similarly fletched carbons, using field points. I expect little to no difference with broadheads, based on their behavior, but we will see. These are 1 degree offset, though, not helical. I would be more skeptical of helical variances.