Basic Equipment Guide - Sights

Parts of a sight
General information about sights
Sight pin or sight ring
Sight marks

Parts of a sight

General

There are many sights on the market which will suit the recurve or compound target archer, and costs vary from £5 to over £200. So what makes one sight better than another? Well it comes down to:

Build quality
Weight
Materials
Features

First of all, a sight is your only point of reference, so it MUST be solid in construction and must be able
to withstand the vibration in the bow without shaking loose. Therefore the build quality is important, the more flimsy a sights construction the more variation you will get in aiming point.

Weight and materials go together hand in hand, the heavier sights tend to be made from aluminium of steel whilst lighter ones now incorporate low density stiff carbon-carbon fibre composites for minimum weight and maximum stability. Depending on the design of the sight the sight frame (the vertical bit) may be mounted at the end of the side bar and this can result most of the weight being around 6-9" forward of the riser. Some sight designs keep the sight frame near the riser to minimise this effect. Remember also that although weight can be an issue, the weight of the sight is in general only a fraction of the weight of the stabiliser system so you don't need to go overboard on minimum weight.

The features of the sight, the ease of use, the degree of reproducibility, the smoothness of the action and your gut feel together with the price are in general what sways the day when it comes to choice of sight. In general go for a sight that can be adjusted easily and has the adjustments you desire.Also make sure you are happy with the way the sight locks-down and ensure that you can use it whilst holding the bow with one hand!

Will an expensive sight improve your scores? Very unlikely. The main thing to look out for is a sight
which locks down nicely and will not shake loose, but even the reasonably priced Cartel 2000 or Arten Summit sight at just above £30-50 will do the job nicely. If you’re paranoid about the forward weight, then the Arten Olympic sight at just below £90 will suffice. When you have reached a good level of
proficiency, then it is a good idea to have a sight which will allow small repeatable adjustments in
elevation (vertical adjustment) and windage (horizontal adjustment), so look for a sight which has some
sort of fine and coarse scales on it (often the fine scale can be found on the adjustment screws
themselves). All metal sights like the Sure Loc, Omega and Toxonics range are priced around £120-150 and the light weight carbon metal sights like the Shibuya run in at around £200.

Sight pin or sight ring

Many experienced archers shoot with only an open sight ring. For some reason this scares novices witless. BUT having a sight pin or crosshair can encourage over-aiming and the last thing an archer must do is consciously aim too hard (see technique section). The human brain is EXTREMELY good at centering concentric circles (try putting a coin in the middle of a plate… you’ll be amazed at how accurately you can position the coin), so since the target pattern is round, and the sight ring is round, why not let the brain do its work – it’s one less thing to worry about. Again, it’s a personal thing and everyone is different, but try it – you may find you like it.

Sight marks

Make sure, before going to competition that you get the opportunity to shoot the distances you will be shooting at the competition. MAKE A NOTE of the sight settings (the horizontal as well as the vertical position), and the weather conditions at the time (wind strength/direction, wet/dry, etc) In general a head wind will depress an arrows flight and therefore cause it to impact lower than normal. Similarly, rain will cause the arrow to drop slightly shorter. If possible. Don’t just take one set of sight marks, take a range in varying conditions. Those first few arrows at each distance can cost dearly if the competition is close.

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