When I was working in NZ over 15yrs ago, I joined a group of ex-Malaysian state and district players. They were using plastic shuttles as in those days in NZ, cost of feather shuttles was very expensive in NZ then (much more affordable nowadays it seems). I was using feather shuttles before that. Switching to the plastics, I find the main difference was the amount of spin you could induce was practically none!!! Otherwise it provided uniform flight. Once the plastic shuttles start speeding up, you know it's time to change. We were playing in temperatures between 16-22C using Yonex Mavis 350 (Blue). The Carlton equivalent (Green) flight characteristics were almost feather-like but durability was not as good as the Mavis 350.
please elaborate the lack of spin for i am curious. when i slice the plastic shuttle i can see the plastic "fins" spin one way then back (i'm a lefty) if it's a forward slice. maybe a feather shuttle spins even more????
The Mavis shuttles we were using then (over 15yrs ago) were not really "spinnable" eg slice the feather portion during serve or do a chopping smash. Have not played with plastics again since, so do not know if it still applies.
Actually I'm not too sure how the feathers are harvested. I'd like to think that the geese/ducks would have been slaughtered anyway for their meat, or that the animals were plucked and the feathers allowed to re-grow. Therefore no animals were intentionally harmed specifically to obtain the feathers for producing shuttlecocks
