Effective
Aiming
Systems
Sighting
Systems
by Bob Robb
You
can only shoot as well as your bow sighting system will allow. What do
bowhunters really need?
There are few things in life that flip my switch more than poorly-designed, cheaply-made hunting accessories. Over the years, very few things have disappointed me more than one of the many different bow sights I've taken hunting. They've cost me more than one opportunity at game. That's why I made a myself a promise years ago-no more fragile bow sights would ever find themselves attached to my riser!
Fortunately, there are more excellent hunting bow sights available at reasonable prices today than ever before. Bow sight design and manufacture are evolving rapidly, the result being innovations like easy-to-see sight pins and/or stadia wires, easily-adjustable sights featuring fewer and fewer moving parts and compact construction are becoming common. Accessory and sight companies like ABC Pivitol, Accra, Advanced Archery Products, Chek-It, Cobra, FINE-LINE, Fisher, Keller, Predator Products, Montana Black Gold, Sight Master, Sonoran Bowhunting Products, Specialty Archery Products, Sure-Loc, Timberline Archery, Toxonics, and TruGlo, among others, all make excellent hunting bow sights. Many large bow companies like Browning, Hoyt USA, Martin Archery, and PSE, among others, also offer excellent hunting sights.
Sighting
Systems
A bow sight is part of a total sighting system that can include a peep
sight or kisser button as well as some "add-on" sight accessories like
small lights for illuminating the top sight pin in dim light. Peep sights,
which force you to keep your head erect and anchor consistently, are used
by most archers today.
"I see more and more bowhunters shooting a peep today simply because it helps them shoot more accurately," said Kurt Hintze, National Sales manager for Browning Archery and himself a highly accomplished bowhunter. "One reason is that most all top 3-D shooters are using peeps and bowhunters feed off their success.
It also takes much more practice time to become a good shooter without a peep than with one and that's something most bowhunters don't have these days."
The key to using a peep sight for bowhunting is to make sure the aperture is as large as possible. This lets in the maximum amount of light, critical when you're trying to find your pins or stadia wire at dawn or dusk and won't noticeably affect accuracy when hunting. FINE-LINE's hot new Sta-Brite peep is the leader of the pack in this regard. Some peeps, like the FINE-LINE Pick-A-Peep, which comes with a 1/4" aperture and two adjustable slides, one for hunting and one for target shooting, come with adjustable apertures to make this process easier. The Shurz-A-Peep, Golden Key Line-O-Peep and Game Tracker Dusk Vision Peep Sight are excellent peeps, as is the FINE-LINE Original Zero Peep Sight that has recently been redesigned with a Cable Clip.
Fixed-Pin Sights
By far the most popular sight type today, fixed-pin sights offer tremendous
flexibility in that several sight pins can be added or removed as your
needs dictate. Each pin can be set for a precise distance. Shots taken
when not at these distances -- as most shots at animals are sighted at
"between the pins." Because of the simple design of most fixed-pin sights,
they can be made with few moving parts and constructed like a rock.
The choices between the sight pins themselves are varied.
Small-diameter pins are best when distances are long and the light
is good, with larger-diameter pins better in lower light. For many years
the only pins available were either 6/32-inch or 8/32-inch, but now some
sights, like the FINE-LINE 'ULTRA-GLO' Series feature .019 dia in both
the Crosshair and Pin models.
The first sight pins designed to help bowhunters see in dim light, like the Saunders T-Dot and Dot Sight Pin, as well as the Meprolight Tritium sight pin are fast being replaced by the new wave of fiber-optic sight pins. These pins gather the maximum amount of available light in dim light conditions when deer and other big game animals are most active, making shots possible earlier and later in the day than ever before without the use of electronic lights. Companies making quality fiber-optic sight today include TruGlo, FINE-LINE, Sight Master, Browning, PSE, Sonoran Bowhunting Products, Montana Black Gold, Toxonics, Savage Systems, Original Bright Sight, Cobra and Scout Mountain Equipment, among others. Bowhunters can also purchase fiber optic sight pins separately from companies like TruGlo, probably the largest and most successful manufacturer of advanced fiber optics, Timberline Archery and Game Tracker.
Crosshair Sights
Crosshair sights are excellent hunting sights. They function the same
as pin sights do with horizontal stadia wires moved up or down to place
the arrow on target at a specific distance. The vertical stadia wire helps
the shooter from inadvertently letting the bow cant left or right during
the shot and also helps when shooting between the pins.
The first crosshair Bow Sight came from FINE-LINE and is still one
of the most used and rugged ever made. When others followed the FINE-LINE
example, many were flimsy and broke easily. The best however are built
to take the inevitable bumps and bruises a bowhunter will give it. For
many years the leader of the pack in the crosshair sight market has remained
FINE-LINE whose crosshair sights
are built like the Rock of Gibralter. Another disadvantage to early crosshair
sights was their deep black stadia wires which are almost impossible to
see in critical low-light situations, especially when using a peep sight.
Many bowhunters painted the stadia with fluorescent paint to overcome this
handicap. Today several crosshair sights, like the FINE-LINE
Ultra-Glo, Timberline Archery Natural Light Crosshair Scope and Seneca
Range Finder Sight feature fiber optic stadia, making them easy to see
in poor light.
Movable-
Pin Sights
The theory behind bow sights with movable pins is that by moving the
sight pin to adjust to the target distance the archer could always aim
with his pin dead-on the target, thus eliminating the guesswork of shooting
between the pins. The ideal situation would permit the archer to dial in
the distance to the target with a range finder before coming to full draw.
Sight Master, the originator of the concept builds the best movable-pin sights around with their Pro-Elite a superb hunting sight that I've used in several different situations with good results.
Pendulum Sights
Designed expressly for the tree stand hunter, pendulum sights feature
a single horizontal cross wire or pin that is permitted to freely pivot
on a hinge so it rises as you take aim closer to the base of your tree
and drops as you aim farther away.
Together with a fixed vertical stadia wire, the two give a precise aiming point out to 30 to 35 yards, the exact distance being directly proportional to arrow speed. Beyond that distance the system breaks down. Some pendulum sights attack this problem by adding a couple of fixed horizontal pins or stadia wires to give the shooter an aiming point at longer distances.
The better pendulum sights will allow you to adjust the length of the pivoting arm thereby fine-tuning the sight for your own individual arrow speed. However, sights without this feature give acceptable accuracy at the distances at which they are designed to be used. One disadvantage of some pendulum sights is that they tend to be a bit noisy and their moving parts can break or stick. There are several good pendulum sights on the market, including those by ABC Pivitol, Predator Products, Keller, Saunders, and Advanced Archery Products.
Important Hunting
Sight Features
When it comes to hunting bow sights, the KISS principal-Keep It Simple,
Stupid-certainly applies. Those bow sights with the fewest movable parts,
least number of screws and knobs, that need the fewest number of different
Allen head wrenches to adjust and secure are compact and relatively light
weight are the ones that will cause you the least grief over time.
The better sights have simple vertical and horizontal adjustments. Many
of today's sights also permit the entire sight pin block to be moved as
a single entity while maintaining the solid integrity of the sight. This
is a great feature, especially if you sight the bow in, then bump the sight
bracket or find the bow goes out of tune just a bit and you are forced
to adjust the arrow rest or move the nock point slightly to regain the
tune you want. You then must re-sight in only one pin- usually a mid-range
pin-and the others are going be very close to exactly on the money. This
will save you a bundle of time.
One often-overlooked hunting sight feature is a rugged pin or stadia
wire guard.
A pin guard cannot be too beefy. After dinging pins for many years, I have often cannibalized a bow sight I didn't particularly like just to get it's oversized pin guard for one I did like to shoot.
"I can remember back in the old days hunting with an old Merrill pin sight," said Jim Velasquez of Horizon Bow Company and a very experienced bowhunter. "Once I was chasing a big bull elk and fell, totally trashing all my sight pins to the point I couldn't hunt any more. Ever since then I've believed that without a good pin guard a bow sight was useless for hunting."
Some bow sights feature a beefy clear plastic pin guard that does two things-protects the sight's fiber optic sight pins and allows in additional light for easier aiming in low-light situations.
Hunting sights must also attach securely to the bow riser. Some attach directly to the riser with two large screws, while many more use a dovetail mounting system. The dovetail system provides the most flexibility while still holding the sight in place like cement. With a dovetail mount you can easily remove the bow sight for transportation then reattach it quickly and easily. One helpful hint is to mark the edge of the both the male dovetail and female dovetail bracket with the sight attached with white paint or an indelible marker. This way you can be sure that the sight is replaced in precisely the same position each and every time, assuring a consistent point of impact. To minimize any noise that may be created where the bow sight attaches to the riser, I like to pad both the riser and the bottom of my sight's dovetail bracket with a small piece of NEET stick-on felt.
With today's speed bows, stacking the sight pins becomes necessary in order to have a pin set at the distances most of us like to set our sight pins at - 20, 30, 40, and 50 yards. When selecting a bow sight with this feature try and choose one with as few moving parts as possible. There are several available like this, but also many with lots of thin arms for each pin that will certainly rattle loose at just the wrong moment.
Choosing a Hunting
Sight
There's no secret formula in choosing a hunting bow sight except to
select one that fits your shooting style, hunting technique and personal
preferences. With sight design and technology changing rapidly, the best
way to see what's out there is to visit a well-stocked archery pro shop
and look over several different makes, models and designs. Ask the shop
owner to let you shoot a couple of different sights on the indoor range
to get a feel for them. If two or three appeal to you about the same, make
your final decision based upon the KISS principle.
However, KISS doesn't include the word "cheap." To avoid heartbreak at the wrong time -- like when a good buck finally walks into range after a season of searching -- buy the best bow sight you can afford. Then take your time and precisely adjust the pins or crosshair stadia wires until you know exactly where your bow is shooting at various distances.
Doing so will help you both enjoy shooting your bow, and your chances
at success this fall . . . Bob Robb