the smaller vanes surely do look nicer, but the truth is, for indoor , spots, Vegas, etc. ...indoor target,.....speed means absolutely nothing, and the sooner your arrows are stabilized, the tighter your groups will be....and the only way that stabilization happens is with lots of drag on the dull end of the arrow. most target guys prefer feathers because they make more turbulence than vanes, and turbulence is drag.
the trade off, (of course there's a trade off), is a little higher maintenance, especially if you use a blade rest..... more fletching replacement, simply because feathers don't wear as well as vanes, but in spot shooting, if your serious about it, that's the nature of the beast and feathers do tolerate a little contact better than vanes, but do wear out faster.
one trick or little known secret,.... is to set your rig up with just a small up tear....1/8" or thereabouts. that gets the fletch up, away from the rest, as they pass, and it won't hurt the groups one bit, but that clearance will give the feathers un-countable more life.
another aspect is that with a blade, you can monitor the spine adjustment of your large dia. shafts, by watching the wear pattern on your feathers. when all is good, you will see the riser side feathers wearing just a bit faster, than the outside feathers....the natural "paradox", moves the fletching up and away from the riser as it passes the rest, that puts that inside fletch in light contact with the blade when the feathers are large or have some helical on them. if the opposite is happening, the outside fletch is wearing faster, a little more point weight or poundage will help your flight. if both bottom fletch are wearing, a slight raise in nock height will help.
although the accepted knowledge is dead level arrow travel, it's not always the best, for target shooting.
