My best arrows for minimizing wind drift are 4mm Easton Carbon Injections with 3-blade Spitfire broadheads and 3 Blazer vanes. Outdoor top target archers shoot small diameter shafts and small vanes for a reason….wind drift minimization.
Worst were my Easton 23-15 shafts, 5” feathers with a Zwickey 4-blade Delta fixed head.,,,but I killed tons of game with them shooting fingers. I’d see the tail of the arrow drifting downwind when I shot in crosswinds.
Concerning wind drift, as an engineer, archer and bowhunter I can confidently say arrow diameter matters, as does fletching area and quantity {3 vs 4 vanes). Broadhead “area” matters too. And vented fixed blade heads drift less in the wind but often are noisy in flight.
To accurately measure the absolute effects would require a “side wind tunnel”. Wind is never constant, my wind meter (anemometer) on the weather station shows that. And hilly terrain only exasperates the issue. Shooting rifle with wind flags in use also shows the variations along the target path on a 100 yd range.
Take any “tests” of wind drift with a grain of salt until some lab does them accurately as per absolute drift numbers. Until then, just look at the comparative projected areas of the shaft, broadhead and vanes and make your component selection. By projected area, think of it as the area of the shadow cast by the arrow, realizing it is spinning. The vanes and broadhead projected area needs to be averaged.
