Sights on Trad Bows
Equipment
I purchased a used recurve and the previous owner installed a customized old metal sight with pins. I shot it a few times and it made too much noise for me. I am relatively new to trad equipment and have been practicing with this bow instinctively, but was wondering if anyone shoots or hunts with trad equipment with sights?
TW, Although I have never hunted with a sight on my trad bows, occasionally I'll put on an old pin sight, like you describe, to check my form for bad habits. I would'nt rule out hunting with it. Nothing wrong at all with that. Very popular in the 60's, and 70's. Have fun, bwhntr
I tried shooting with a sight on my recurve, I didn't like it. I had to hold at full draw to long to get on target.I shoot much better with a bare bow,you just have to practice alot.Besides the whole reason to go traditional is to get rid of all that junk.
I hunted for years with my Black Widow bare-bow. I shot it very well, practiced about 6 months before the season and only wounded game. I put on a sight & a peep and killed a buck with it the first time I shot at game. I have retired it to foam & paper animals since, although I do love shooting it. A compound with sights is my huntig bow now; like it was before the Widow.... Instinctive didn't work for me in the crunch time moment.....
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A long time ago before wheels I had a stickbow I put a pin sight on. It didn't last long.
I shoot a single-pin on my metal-riser recurve..... I have to say I am much more accurate with the sight....
Last year I decided that I wanted to hunt with traditional archery gear and I spent the first half of the year trying to be consistent shooting instinctively. I found that I had a hard time being consistent with the first shot and tended to shoot high. I ended up buying a SRF sight system from 3-Rivers Archery and it helped me be more consistent. With the SRF sight you use a technique that is sort of a cross between instinctive and pin sights; the SRF sight is used more to obtain a consistent sight picture than to actually aim for a certain distance. The system worked for me but I can see others may or may not like it. One other thing I would suggest is that if you are using a sight you probably need to use a lighter poundage bow otherwise you will not be able to settle and hold the pin on target. I used a 45 pound Quinn stallion.
Here’s the buck I took last year
John
Started out many, many years ago with recurve and no sight.
After much practice over several years, found that I just didn't have the hand-eye coordination to get really good shooting instinctive.
Some people can, some can't. IMO, it's much more difficult for those of us with strong prescriptions in our glasses, because of the change in apparent target location with a slight change in glasses movement. Takes away the ability to accurately point at something downrange without a sight reference near the eye.
I did get reasonably accurate without sights by using the gap method. Shot 230's indoors that way for a few years, with an occasional 240+, but eventually hit my limit that way and further practice seemed to yield no more score improvement.
Put pin sights on the old recurves for several more years. Was quite competitive in local club shoots that way, even against the compounds, especially after adding a string peep.
When I bought a compound and started playing with it, I often took both bows to the range for practice. After a while, it became obvious that no matter which bow I started the day with, I could shoot the same scores with either after warming up. The difference was in the first few shots.
I was on target and very close to the spot with the first shot with the compound, and I was there after five or six warmup shots with the recurve.
Hadn't had any deer give me the opportunity to shoot a practice round to get loose while hunting, so I retired the recurve and stayed with compound.
Still shot fingers for many years and finally switched to a release last fall. Age and a little arthritis was starting to limit my practice with fingers, and there were getting to be very few competitors in the finger classes at local shoots.
I noticed a similar effect as when switching from recurve to compound, in that the full accuracy seemed to be there from the first shot with the release, whereas with fingers there was still a slight warmup process to get full accuracy.
It was to a lesser degree this time, as the starting point with the compound was acceptable hunting accuracy. When shooting the recurve without warmup, the first couple of shots might very well be out in the two or three ring of a standard single-spot target, and after warmup most were 4's, with the rest about equal between 3's and 5's. By comparison, shooting the compound and fingers, the first couple shots might well be 3's, and after five or six shots to warm up, 3's were rare, and there were more 5's than 4's. With the release, I can pretty well count on at least a 4 with the first shot of the day.
Others may get different results. I think that for me, I pretty well exhausted my potential with each method. I enjoyed them all. Personal preference?...I'd have to say the compound, sights and fingers was the combo I liked best, but I'm still getting used to the release, so I probably haven't given it enough time to be fair.
I do like shooting my arrows better than I liked hunting for them behind the target.
Thanks for the input guys, JM nice buck and I shoot a 45 pound recurve.
I'm still toying with the idea about sights for my recurve and compound. I shoot both barebow. I have the SRF site, but haven't experienced using it that much. Maybe this summer. Sights on Trad bows go way back when, so it's not somethng new. Most Trad 'elite' will frown on it, but do what your happy with.
There are ways of quieting trad bows.
Start with your brace height. If its making that much noise you might have string slap.
Is the arrow flight good? I guess that's where you should start. What model bow and what is the manufactureres recommended brace height?
I dunno, but seems to me that the goal of accuracy and effectiveness with archery tackle of any type is as "traditional" as it gets. Nothing all that complicated or "junky" about a simple sighting device mounted on a bow.
CJ, the noise was from the pin on the sight. the bow itself is nice and quiet and arrow flight is good. It is an AMF Red Wing Hunter Recurve, 45#, I believe that the brace height is 7 1/2.
LocDoc, I agree, the "elite" will frown but I am only concerned with accuracy, especially if I plan to hunt with the bow.
All the traditional people whine about compounds using sights. If you are going to be traditional be traditional, dont ride the fence.
Whitetalkiller, You made my point exactly. Most Trad 'Elite' are not old enough to know that sights were on traditional bows many years ago. Just check out old archery catalogs from the 60's and 70's. Or even better, old copies of 'Bow and Arrow' magazine. Sights on a recurve is not "riding the fence". I'm still not sure who coined the phrase 'Traditional bows'.
quote: "All the traditional people whine about compounds using sights."
Not true - only a few of the retro trad wannabe's do that - the ones trying to recreate something that never was. Usually found scratching for their arrows behind the target.
Steve
I used to tape a match stick to my recurve. Who remembers doing that?
I remember my buddy doing that stihl. The only time I tried sights it lasted about an hour before I ripped them off and shot my compound instinctive.
If a person does not have the time to dedicate to barebow shooting and the learning curve then sights are a must. It does not work to go back and forth.
tobywon, I think you might be SOL on this. You might be able to locate one of the old sight rails online or something. If they stick out too far or are too long they will vibrate. It starts in the rail and travels to the pin.
CJ I agree, no matter how tight the pin was it still made noise. I am having fun shooting it instinctively, but am not at the point that I would hunt with it yet.
Man of Stihl..... back in the late 70's and 80's when I hunted only with a recurve, I did the same thing (i.e.,, taped a matchstick to the riser as a sight pin). For the last several years I have been shooting compounds with all the gadgets including sights and peep sights. Last week, however, I decided I wanted to get one of my recurves (55#) out of storage and start practicing with it. It's hard to beat the sheer pleasure of shooting a nicely balanced recurve bow. However, I don't think I would trust myself shooting it instinctively while hunting. It's been too long since I shot regularly with a recurve and I doubt that I could ever match the accuracy of my compound out of the gate with a bare bow recurve. Like Russ, I don't think the deer or bear will give me to many warm-up shots. So, I'm in the market for a relatively inexpensive sight that I can put on my recurve. The modern traditionalist (oxymoron?) may wince at the thought of a sight on a recurve, but as many of you have stated, this was not uncommon 25-40 years ago.
