How to Sight-In a Bow
So you got your best compound bow and all your gear, now you just need to know how to sight in your bow. Sighting in a bow is actually very easy to do and in this article, I’ll help you sight in your bow fast and efficiently, and hopefully without breaking any arrows!
How to sight in your bow Step 1
Before you even hit the range to sight in your bow there’s a quick bit of work you can do to drastically save some time. I call it the “preliminary sighting in”. With Guns, you might call this “Bore Sighting” What we’ll want to do is get the pins in the right ballpark left and right, and then up and down.
Left and Right pre-set
To get your pins set left and right before you hit the range to sight in your bow you’ll want to get them aligned with your arrow rest and your string. Basically, a good starting point is to hold your bow out in front of you pointed down range. Now align your eye directly behind the string so the string appears to fall right on top of the arrow rest, right down the center. This way your eye is directly behind the bow. Now your sight pin should fall right in behind that. Move the pin either left or right now so that it falls in line with the string and the arrow rest.
Up and Down pre-set.
The next step before you go sight in your bow on the range is to get the pin in approximately the correct vertical position. The first pin that we’ll be sighting in will be your 20-yard pin so this will be the one we’re setting now. The rest of your pins will fall underneath your 20-yard pin.
All bows have a standard 2-hole sight mounting system and it just so happens that on just about every bow with most sights and a regular extension, the 20-yard pin works out to be right about equal height with the top hole. So go ahead and move that pin to the same elevation as the top mounting and that should put you pretty darn close vertically.
How to sight in your bow Step 2
You’re now ready to hit the range to finalize sighting in your bow. Although that pin that we just preset is for 20 yards it’s always best to start at 10 yards first… just in case it’s off a bit. A small miss at 10 yards is much bigger at 20 yards The rule of thumb that you’ll always need to remember when sighting in your bow is “FOLLOW THE ARROW” That means if you’re hitting to the right, you move your pin to the right, if you hitting low, move your pin down. It’s always good to go in small increments. At 20 yards 1/8” can move your impact point over 12”.
That’s it! Now for your further distances move a pin right up just underneath your 20-yard pin and that should be very close to where it should need to be. It will vary from bow to bow depending on its speed, so just go back to 30 yards and repeat the same process you did at 20 yards. Just “Follow the Arrow!”