Shooting a bow at night
Equipment
Contributors to this thread:
Planning a hunt overseas for wild boar.
Most of the hunting is done at night - stalking under the full moon light.
I am told the best sights are "red dot" sights. I know about the ones for rifles, is there such a thing for a bow sight? Or does it just mount on the stabilizer?
I would like to hear from anyone who has shot a bow at night!
I've shot lot's at night but we usually light-up the target. Use the largest peep you can find, tape up the gaps above and below your peep where the string splits. Use a light(not too bright) on your pin (prefer single pin), black out all light coming off your sight, except single pin. Practice-Practice-Practice!
When I shot a compound, we Used to do "coon shoots" at a 3D range with an illuminated crosshair type sight, worked pretty well.
Shooting instinctive with recurve or longbow is simpler but range is necessarliy limited, and the method I use requires at least enough ambient or artificial light (moonlight is sufficient)to "feel" the relationship of bow hand to target
Shots with just regular pins with lights?
I am watching the next full moon to try out my "usual gear" (and my rangefinder - I am told they don't work at night...)
Bigpizzaman- When you say tape up the gaps above and below the peep what exactly do you use? I might try that for deer hunting.
I made a 200 lumen red light that fits in my stabilizer receiver for pigs...but I shoot bare bow/ instinctive.
Works great out to 30 yds or so!
Pig lights up, look at my spot I want to hit...whammo!
Get rid of your peep all together. I use the IQ sight. I dont hunt after legal hours, but when practicing I could shoot at a silhouette at O'dark-thirty.
What about a red-dot sight - anyone ever heard of that for a bow?
I found Thru-Glow Archery Red Dot sight on the web - anyone ever tried those?
It is legal where I plan to go (Turkey) to hunt in complete darkness under the full moon.. FYI only
DorityCrk- when you say "Bigpizzaman- When you say tape up the gaps above and below the peep what exactly do you use? I might try that for deer hunting." I hope your not hunting deer at night unless Wisconsin allows that.
man I envy you, I've read that they have some monstrous boar in Turkey, Iran, etc. .. not much hunting pressure due to socio-political situations
I can't help you much with shooting in the dark but I am curious where you are going in Turkey as I spent a month and a half studying/traveling all over the country last summer.
I hunted hogs at night in texas one summer. we just used a light behind us and a light on the sight. I can see doing some of the things Bigpizzanan said helping alot. Its a rush for sure.
Link- No, not hunting at night. But in low light conditions it is easy to look over or under your peep.
I've used a red dot sight on my bow for years. In fact I started using it so many years ago that I had to make my first mount! I now have a HHA Optimizer Light Plus mount (not sure they still make it) which accepts a Weaver mounting rail. The red dot I use is a Tasco, and have never had any problems. Nice thing about the red dot is that it eliminates using a peep sight...it is a scope after all. So there are no parallax issues if you don't have the exact anchor point every time.
I've used a red dot sight on my bow for years. In fact I started using it so many years ago that I had to make my first mount! I now have a HHA Optimizer Light Plus mount (not sure they still make it) which accepts a Weaver mounting rail. The red dot I use is a Tasco, and have never had any problems. Nice thing about the red dot is that it eliminates using a peep sight...it is a scope after all. So there are no parallax issues if you don't have the exact anchor point every time.
Got ya Dority. Just checking, sometimes you never know.
Google Kill Light...they look awesome and I saw Tom Miranda using one recently on a TV show while hunting hogs at night...the hogs didnt even know he was there!!
Have seen Kill Light on TV also and looks neat.
I tried hunting pigs spot & stalk with full moon in TX and was blown away at how skittish the pigs were.
Moon was bright enough to cast shadow, so we didn't need any light to see. We wore camo & stalked as carefully and quietly as we would have in daylight and pigs would pick us off and run immediately. Not sure if it was something related to UV or similar or if they were just more spooky at night, but I never even got a shot off.
I used a red dot scope on my bow for target shooting one year. Worked well in that application, as it was an excellent indicator of torque in the bow hand, as well as a very accurate sight.
However, when I tried to use it in hunting situations, especially in low light where it would seem to be most helpful, the plan failed. My red dot scopes (I have two, and tried a few others) had about ten different brightness settings, but they started with "Too Darn Bright" and went upwards through "Searchlight"! They all began with lights so dimly lit that in full daylight outdoors the dot could barely be found, but when I was standing in the dimly lit woods and my eyes had become accustomed gradually to the natural lighting, that light level was way too intense.
It was impossible to make out anything past the red dot when the ambient light in the woods was still ample for walking around safely and legal hunting hours were still in effect (we can hunt from a half hour before sunrise until a half hour after sunset here...in deep woods or on a cloudy day, it's getting fairly dark).
I then mounted the red dot scope on my muzzle loading rifle for gun season, thinking maybe the lack of overhead foliage later in the season would increase the available light in the background enough to make the dot useful. That helped a little, but not enough. The scope's on a shelf in the garage, waiting for a useful application, or for my return to indoor target shooting.
I suspect your best bet would be a lighted single pin, and probably the IQ sight mentioned above or a No-Peep that works on the same principle, if you really need a peep. Probably even better to train to shoot without one, using the old-fashioned method of finding a reliable anchor spot and using it without any peep. We all shot that way back when I was getting started, and shot quite well until we ran into some smart-aleck with a peep. Then, of course, we all really needed peeps. The slight advantage provided by the peep when shooting targets in daylight made them indispensable for that activity, even though we'd been shooting very nearly as well without them for years.
Pin lights are available with adjustments in brightness. The one in my current Timber Ridge sight is so dim on he lowest setting that I can see the background very well at first and last legal light, and can not even tell the pin is lighted until the ambient light is pretty low. That's the amount of lighting you want for moonlight hunting. There also pin lights with infinitely adjustable rheostats so that you can set the light at ANY level that is appropriate to the conditions at the time and place, without having to choose between the two or three settings that someone else found to be sufficient choices.
For what sounds like it will likely be conditions requiring fast target acquisition in very low light, with reliable hunting accuracy, I'd go that way, and I haven't shot a bow WITHOUT a peep in the string for thirty years.
Sounds like a fun trip. Good luck.
I've only been able to hit things with the aid of a light, lighted red dots or lumenated scopes impead your view, best mount a laser.
Kurare's Link
Lighted single pin sight + sniper hog light = deadly combo for bowhunting at night especially pigs. This light is really well made and it has a switch that one does not have to hold in order for the light to work (pressure switch is not suitable for shooting a bow in my experience...) Super bright HUNTING lights designed especially for bow hunting with two mode switch (hi and low light setting). I searched long for a bow light that works and this is it. As we are both from europe I guess you can imagine I have some experience with wild boar hunting:-) This light costs a bit more but it is well worth it. Good luck!
Janez
Forgot to add that I use single pin HHA sight with HHA sight light. Instead of peep I use Bow Anchor Sight which glows in the dark and works great!
Janez
I see you are from Quebec, not Europe LOL.....