Elivanes - What I Personally Use

Elivanes in the gold

As I said in a previous post, my favorite plastic vane is the excellent VaneTec Swift.  In fact, had I not found the vanes that are the subject of this post, I'd still be shooting Swifts.  However, after reading many encouraging posts on ArcheryTalk and seeing how many top-level archers use them, I gave Elivanes a try.  Now they're what I personally use.

What Are They?

Elivanes are mylar curly vanes.  They have a permanent helical molded-in.  They're extremely lightweight and are applied with fletching tape rather than gluing them on.  They come in a few different shapes and sizes.  I personally use the P3 vanes (P means Parabolic profile).  The S3 profile is also highly regarded.

How Well Do They Work?

Using my fletching jig set at 1 degree straight offset, I drew lines carefully on my Bloodsport One Series arrows using a mechanical pencil.  I applied the vanes using the double-sided tape provided with the vanes and taped the ends down using the provided black tape.

I've been using these vanes for close to six months now, with great success.  They have proven to be quite durable - I've not had to replace a single vane.  When the archer does his job right and releases cleanly, these vanes work remarkably well.  Because they're very lightweight, it gives you just a little more arrow front-of-center balance.  They correct any remaining wobble rapidly and get the arrow spinning for additional flight stability.  If you have a rough, plucky release though, they probably won't correct all of it out.  In other words, these are not good for beginners.

A Tournament Advantage

One advantage to using these vanes, besides the very good flight performance, is that you can replace them easily on the field or at the range - no jig required.  As long as you have your lines drawn on well and bring the tape with you, you can fix any ruined vanes at the tournament so you can keep shooting.

Summary

The Good: 

• Lightweight
• Fly really well - stabilize and impart spin
• Suprisingly Durable

The Bad:

• Won't compensate for a bad release
• Don't come with enough fletching tape
• Aren't good for beginners
• Aren't as pretty as the VaneTec Swift vanes

A Few Helpful Tips

As I said, the package doesn't come with nearly enough double-sided fletching tape.  There also isn't enough of the black end-securing tape.

Get a roll of Bohning fletching tape.  It'll last you several dozen arrows and besides sticking better, it's a tiny bit narrower and therefore works even better - provided you have your shafts cleaned well.

For the end tape, I picked up a roll of pinstriping tape from an auto parts store.  It was cheap and will also last for several dozen arrows.  As an added bonus, you can usually get different colors of pinstriping tape.

A Note About These Photos: the photos you see in this post were taken by me.  If you're wondering how I got such nice depth of field effects, I used a 1970s vintage Fujinon 50/1.8 (non-EBC) at f/4.0 on my Canon 60D.  No processing was done other than adjusting exposure and cropping/resizing.