Who would hunt without sights?????

[John 4]

Funny that,when I started shooting in 1968-69,nobody used sights.
And most stickbow shooters today still don't.
Nice troll though,please carry on.

[Gurn]

Never tried them on my longbow, but if they work for ya........... hang em on yer stick an kill ya a big fat critter ta ett!!  

[Labs4me]

"Nice troll though, please carry on."

John 4, I agree 100 percent. This was the point I was attempting to make on another recent thread entitled, "Am I at Risk?..."

Someone tosses out the bait and "trolls". Then there's a little polite discussion. Then a few divergent opinions are offered up. Then someone will say that using sights is far more accurate and in the name of being ethical we owe it to the animals we hunt to use sights. Then someone will say, he knows a guy who routinely shoots in the upper 290s on a 3-D league and he doesn't use sights. Then there's less polite discussion. Then the anything-goes cavalry comes charging in yelling- "Shoot what ya wanna shoot! Hunt how ya wanna hunt! Who is so-and-so to say what is or is not traditional?!" Then there's considerably less polite discussion. Then the thread gets locked or pulled. Then three days from now, someone will ask why we've moved away from using stabilizers on our trad bows. And then...

Here's my opinion about sights. They're unnecessary for 5-15 yard shots and they look ugly as heck attached to $1,000+ custom traditional bows. Sorta like a booger hanging off the nose of a supermodel.

Discuss amongst yourselves. Huck and I are going to take my sightless longbow out to do a little rabbit hunting.

[VTer]

Nope, sights are a waste of money for me. Even back in my compound days I never used them. I never had a sight on my hammer so I figured I didn't need one on my bow.

[Steve G]

If I had to use sights I think I'd give up shooting all together.  ( Well Maybe Not ) Shooting instintivly is all the fun, and the total package. Yesterday at the local indoor range it was me and a buddy with trad bows and everybody else with wheelie's. We had some great time's sharing our bows with them as is the case, and shot respectivly. Even with the one local champ shooting the 10x ring at 35 yards I could be happy for him and yet completely content with my equipment.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

When I started I was using a wheelie bow with sights. Now I only have a long bow with no sights. I feel like my shooting ability got better

[ZaneD]

I personally won't use a sight, in my opinion, that's for the compounds. If you like them, go ahead, but go to a trad shoot and see if they let you compete. Better yet, go to a shoot with rolling and aerial targets and use that sight. I'd like to see how many you can hit.
"who would hunt without sights???"
I would, and I do it sucessfully.

[Adam Mooney]

Compound bows happened. Thats what did it. Thats just what I believe anyway. If you are going to use sight pins then I wouldnt call it TRADITIONAL then. There is just somthing about shooting a trad bow whether it is a recurve or longbow that just makes you feel closer to nature.....

[BAK]

Some very interesting responses.  I guess I have a different recollection than some as in my early years of shooting recurves sights were common.  And not just for target shooting.  A cursory search of old catalogs will show numerous sights designed to rotate to account for aiming down out of tree stands as well.
And contrary to what some may think my interest is not in stirring up issues between those who do and those who don't.  My concern is that there are plenty of trad shooters who could benefit from a spell of sight shooting but who for some reason feel it would be frowned upon by others.

As someone who used sights for a number of years back in the late sixties I remember how much my shooting improved when I was forced to concentrate on my form the way sights require.

[rabbitman]

Sorry Labs but I have not seen anything uncivil or out of line with this thread...until the troll comments showed up. There was no discussion about ethics , high 3-D scores or anything else you listed in your post, until you posted.  I do agree with you about sights on a trad bow but the rest of your post is nothing but speculation on your part IMHO.

[killinstuff]

A simple longbow with simple wood arrows and a close shot, that's what does it for me. Adding a sight would take away from the simplicity of my way of hunting and shooting a bow..

[Dan Worden]

Originally posted by John 4:
Funny that,when I started shooting in 1968-69,nobody used sights.
And most stickbow shooters today still don't.
Nice troll though,please carry on.

All those holes in old used recurves must be from worms then........


  :rolleyes:

[Shawn Leonard]

I agree with rabbitman Labs if ya do not keep bringing up your point about these type of threads it would be a forgotten issue on most of them. I do not like sights on my bow as I cant the bow quite a bit and sights only make things complicated. I also find it hard to say guys could benefit from shooting with a sight, when the bow has to be pretty much straight up and down and I see very and I mean very few guys shooitng this way in the field. If you are talking Olympic shooters and such than yes that is their style. I just do not see it at the shooots I go to. If ya want to use sights great, if it helps ya kill more critters I am all for them, but for most as ya see by this thread they are not. Shawn

[trapper1]

I've shot for 31 years and never shot sights, I'm terrible and judging yardage primarily because I never had to. Couldn't ever imagine shooting sights.
Trapper

[TonyW]

Dan-
All the holes in old recurves aren't from worms, they are from sights that were put on, taken off, and thrown away. The old recurves with holes for sights rarely have the sights.

Most of the old sights from the sixties are in landfills now.

[laddy]

I went out and shot my trainer bow, that has a sight on it.  Jeepers it's cold.  Anyway, with a raw beginner it does cut down on how much caulking i need to do to may garage, but man do you  need to watch your form.  My instinctive twitches do more to keep the arrow on the mark than I thought.  Take a bow with a sight on it and tilt your  head or the bow just a bit, look out garage wall, here I come.

[Rico]

I snap shoot way to fast to use a sight and I agree with Labs besides I like his dog pic.

[MJB]

Dan knows what them holes were for in the older recurves .

Mike  

[La. bowhunter]

The reason I left the compound bow to go to the recurve was because of all the gadgets: sights that light up, tell you the range, shoot laser beams onto the target, fall away arrow rests, 85% let off, one cams, two cams, one and a half cams, it just got so complicated.

The trad bow eliminates all these gadgets and makes for a simpler more enjoyable time afield. Yes it means that you may not take home as much game but when you do it will be a lot more fun and a lot more meaningful. If I wanted to shoot sights I would have stayed with my compound with the gadgets.

[Two Arrows]

Boy, there are days when I wonder why I don't use sights, and there are others where I am content with my shooting.

I believe there is alot of truth to what BAK said,
 "My concern is that there are plenty of trad shooters who could benefit from a spell of sight shooting but who for some reason feel it would be frowned upon by others."

I think some people, no, I know of people who would truelly benefit from using a sight and they know and admit to it also. But the particular individuals who I personnaly know and am referring to, have let their sense of pride get in the way of making that decision to go with a sight because they are sure they will be looked at differently by the people in their trad circles they hang out in.

For me, I haven't used sights on any of my trad bows. But, lately I have been thinking that my accuracy is in some need of improvement. I am thinking I might get a bow that is already tapped with inserts and I might get one of those sights that DAS makes.