Recurve Sights - Aire Valley Archers

Sights
Andrew Smith
The sight used in
recurve archery is
different to that used
in compound archery
with a peep sight, or
for a rifle
as well as lining the blurred vision of the
string up on the bow sight window in the
same place each time, commonly known as
the string picture.
In its basic form a sight is no more
than an adjustable pin/ring or combination of the two attached to the bow, which
allows the archer to aim on the gold. Moving the position of the sight pin up, down,
left or right changes where the bow is pointing, so hopefully your arrows go where they
are aimed.
Good form is important together with
not trying to hold the sight pin as still as
you can on the gold. This often leads to a
collapse in form and the arrow doesn’t go
where it has been aimed. Good body posture, a solid reference point and a sight pin
floating around the gold will give much better results.
What do we want in a sight?
GO SIGHT SEEING
Andrew Smith gives the lowdown on
what to look out for in a recurve sight,
including design and fitting
W
hen selecting a recurve sight
you won’t be short of choice
but they do vary in price from a
few pounds to hundreds. Manufacturers are always bringing out new or
enhanced models, so when making your
decision what should you look out for and
which features might make your life easier?
What does a sight do?
I was surprised to hear a relatively new
archer say the other day that they had never
been taught how to use a sight. When I
mentioned lining up the string and the importance of a consistent reference point
I was met with a blank stare and a shrug
of the shoulders. The sight used in recurve
archery is different to those used for compound archery with a peep sight, or for a
rifle. These both have a front and back sight
to line up, whereas in recurve archery there
is no fixed point back sight. The back sight is
involved with shoulder positioning, standing
up straight and getting all the basics correct,
Ignoring the different designs and features,
the four most important attributes of a good
sight are: that it does not move once it is
set in a position unless you adjust it, that
it does not rattle or lose screws, the colour (most come in black or silver but some
manufactures do offer blues, reds and golds)
and finally how easy and accurately you can
change the position of the sight pin when
making small or large adjustments.
In general how well it does all of this
depends on your budget. Bear in mind that
a simple metal club sight for around £15 will
do the job just as well as one costing £150
providing you remember to tighten up the
screws after every six to 12 arrows.
Sight designs
Designs these days fall into three basic
camps and then there are hybrids of these
designs. The first is the simple club sight
where a screw holds the sight block/pin on
the rail. The next uses a worm drive with
a quick release system to move the block
up and down and the third system is a
one-touch system that requires no locking
screws. The other consideration is the position of the sight bar. Some manufacturers
52 BOW INTERNATIONAL
052-053 Smithy_Rev2.indd 52
21/4/09 13:58:21
Sights
Andrew Smith
put it out away from the bow on the end of
the extension. Others locate the bar close to
the bow and have an extension arm holding
the sight pin away from the bow. The idea
here is that there is less weight away from
the bow, acting like a stabiliser. However,
sights in this price bracket are so light it
really is down to personal preference.
The price also follows the same trend.
The more complex the mechanism – such as
the one-touch systems – the more expensive
it will be.
Choosing a sight
Choosing the right sight is not easy and
the decision will be based on the features
required and how much you are willing to
spend. It is best to look around, talk to club
members, visit your local pro shop and ask
questions. The difficulty is that everyone will
have an opinion, but you will get some idea
of the good and bad points. For example,
I use a £120 Shibuya Dual Click sight because it is light and solidly built and I like the
assurance that I can lock down the sight
block. For me the inconvenience of undoing a locking screw to move the block up or
down is not an issue, but many archers these
days prefer to spend £50 to £100 more
on the one-touch designs. Neither choice
is wrong.
When buying your first sight it does not
really follow that the most expensive sight is
the best choice. I am not saying that there is
anything wrong in spending £200 upwards
on a sight and putting it on a £100 riser,
but perhaps I would have spent the money
the other way round or invested in slightly
better arrows. The counter argument to this
is that once you have bought a good sight
there will be no need to change it when you
upgrade your handle.
Within each design you get what you
pay for in terms of the materials’ quality, the
accuracy and smoothness of the adjustments
and the quality of the manufacture. Don’t be
fooled into thinking that a £70 lookalike of
a £200 sight will work the same or last as
long, but it might be the better choice for
you and your wallet, especially if you only
shoot once a week.
Fitting the sight to your bow
Fortunately bow and sight manufacturers
make sight blocks and the position of the
screw holes the same. The big differences
are the threads used. The most common
are 3/16", 4mm and 5mm. Most pro shops
carry all these sizes in varying lengths to
get a good fit, which is just as well as the
imperial screws are not common on the shelf
of your local DIY store. 3/16" screws are generally supplied as standard with all new sights.
Once you have fitted the sight to the bow you
may find on the cheaper worm drive models
that the sight scale and mechanism are upside down if you are left-handed. Again, this
is one of the things to consider when making
your choice. Sights are manufactured to
fit and work with right or left-handed
handles, although some of the entry
level ones will fit both.
Even the cheapest sights have an
adjustment to tilt the sight rail left or right.
This is quite important because it allows
you to get the rail running vertically parallel
with the bow string. Handles vary in quality
and you may find that the sight rail is not vertical when first fitted. It will not be o u t
by much but if you do not adjust
this it will move your windage adjustments when you change distances.
Square
dot sight
pin helps
with
keeping
the bow
vertical at
full draw
Extension bars and sight pins
Get to know your sight
All the popular sights now come with an
extension bar of some sort and the first
question I am usually asked is where this
should be set. This is not an easy answer
positions, a single
This Shibuya has 14 forward extension
adjustment for
click
and
t
tmen
adjus
quick
button to press for
vertical planes
and
l
onta
small movements – in both horiz
as like many things in our sport it
can be personal. However, here are some
guidelines:
The further away the sight pin is from
the eye the more the pin will float around,
but small adjustments will be less critical to
where the arrow lands. Some archers like to
have the pin in focus and the target blurred
and vice versa depending on your eyesight.
This will also have a bearing on how far the
sight pin is located away from your eye.
At longer distances with the extension
fully out you may find that the sight pin is too
low and your arrows start hitting it, or you run
out of adjustment to hit the target. To remedy
this you need to bring the sight extension in
towards the handle which brings the sight pin
closer to the eye and changes the angles. For
very low poundage bows and for some juniors
it is not uncommon to reverse the sight so that
the sight bar is inside the bow.
Sights all come with a sight pin as standard, usually a ring and pin. In issue 50 George
Tekmitchov from Hoyt went into detail about
different sight pins and the benefits of each
one. But briefly there are many different sight
pins available from just a dot to open rings,
rings with or without dots in the middle,
crosshairs, variants of all these with interchangeable centres, bright flo pins and even
different size rings. The good news is that all
of them come standard on a 8/32 thread and
most new sight blocks use this
bushing, so swapping sight pins
can
be fiddly but simple. Although
only finger pressure is needed to fit the pin,
should more force be needed it is likely that
you have it cross threaded or a locking screw
has not been undone. This standard means
the option to experiment is vast and over time
this is worth doing as there will be one that
you eventually find which suits you best. The
biggest issue is not to over-aim.
Basic sight.
No extension
options or fine
adjustment
All too often I hear archers complaining that
they have moved the sight the wrong way.
It’s easily done but costly if you are chasing a
podium place, so learn how it works. Also take
time to make sure you understand the adjustments and the effect these have on where
your arrows land at different distances. This
will help you to reduce the number of wasted
arrows through adjusting your standard sight
marks to the conditions. For example, if you
know that five windage clicks move your
arrows one colour at 50yd you will be hitting
the gold much more quickly than somebody
who is just guessing and spending their time
hitting left and right.
The golden rule when adjusting your
sight is to follow the arrow. If it goes low
move the sight pin lower. If the arrow goes
too far right then move the sight pin to the
right and vice versa.
When swapping or changing your
sight all your sight marks will be different. One quick way to get an idea of the
new sight marks is to measure the distance from your sight pin to your arrow
with your old sight and then use these
distances on your new sight. It will only be
a starting point as the extension lengths
may not line up but it’s quicker and
better than guessing.
And finally
The best bit of advice I can give is to buy the
best quality sight you can that offers all the
features you require. If you are unsure which
way to go there is nothing wrong in buying
a simple metal club extension sight (not the
plastic ones, which bend), so long as you
remember to check all the screws are tight
after use. Remember spare locking screws are
hard to get, even for the pro shops.
BOW INTERNATIONAL 53
052-053 Smithy_Rev2.indd 53
21/4/09 13:58:30