sights - another traditional hunting style

[Archie]

I shoot a BW with a homemade sight.  Dad conceived it, sent it to a friend who machined several them out of aluminum.  It's a ramp-style, and works with Black Widow's top limb bolt, and the guys at BW installed a factory insert for the bottom.  I shoot a more olympic-style, and don't cant.  I'll try to get a picture posted if anyone's interested.

[trashwood]

Archie - I love to see a pic if ya can get one to post.  I am always interested in the work of the inventive bunch that make up trad archery.  thre is a bunch of clever folks out there

rusty

[wihill]

I would like to see it also, Archie!

I'd be happy to talk a bit about my sight, Rusty.

The newer sights that are on the market are mostly designed for wheelbows.  The natural center of adjustment is based around the offset of the cutout on the riser, which is much father over than on a traditional bow.  A rest on them can be as much as 11/16 over, which is why they need such a large amount of adjustment.

The riser shelf on my Gamemaster is cut very closely to what a wooden traditional bow would be, so because of it I had to move the sight housing all the way to the right just to get the pins centered with my shooting style.  

I also have a low anchor point.  With a mechanical release, my anchor is at the back of my jawbone.  With fingers the closest approximate I could find was with the tip of my index finger at the corner of my mouth on release.  Becuase of this I had to move the sight housing down to have enough elevation for longer yardage.

On the subject of pins, my pins are all space equi-distant, with the top most pin set for 10 yrds, then twenty, 25, and 30.  The only thing shot at 30 and beyond is paper.  Even 25yrds is pushing my luck IMO, but it's always nice to have a reference.

The 3rd axis adjustment is nice to adjust for cant, but I hold my bow almost vertical on the shot.  There's only a minimum of adjustment with the 3rd Axis, perhaps only 3-5deg, possibly less!  A nice addition in the sight housing a bubble level, it help me know I'm holding the bow correctly.

The hardest thing to think about, for me anyway, is to not focus down on that pin as a given point of impact.  I'd like it to be, but I'm also not holding back a given drawlength on a solid wall, with 80% letoff and three points to hold a solid anchor.  I don't have time for that at full draw, so instead I just use the pins as a reference, as a guide to tell me about where I should be lifting the bow.  The SRF looks to do the same thing with it's distinctive shape but decided lack of pins.  I think this is just as effective, and possibly more so becuase it allows you to have a complete view of the sight picture and still have a visual reference for yardage.

My next adventure will be with an SRF, I just need to decide on what size.

[George D. Stout]

In the northeast area during the late 60's and into the 70's, sights were common on hunting recurves....it was the odd guy out that didn't have one on his bow.  That's why you see so ,many used bows with holes drilled in them.  They aren't their for looks 8^).

[Ia Hawkeye]

Fellas, you are talking sights not sites. Sorry, but I read so many threads that confuse the two that I just had to respond.

Having said that, and probably piss@@@ some one off,
 good shooting using your "sights" !!

[Archie]

I'll post a pick of our homemade sight as soon as Photobucket fixes a problem they're having with my account.  I can't log in!

[trashwood]

Ia LOL thanks we'd have never guessed but I have always tried to decided.  do you site a sight or do you sight a sight    

if you do site (verb trasnitive) a sight (noun) is the resulting mental image named after the verb (site picture) or the noun (sight picture).  seems like the metal picture is not a picture of the sight (that would be in a catalog) but a picture of the act of using the sight thus a site picture    ????

rusty

[Coldfingers]

Sights can be a good thing. Was a feller up here that made one from lighweight gas welding rod. Made up in a "V" shape and tuned on a target of given width for vitals of game intended.

The "V" was squeezed together so that it curved to provice a sight picture that would plunk the arrow into the center of the vitals at any range (outside edges of V bracket kill zone at all yardages. Took any guesswork out of rangefinding, provided fast and accurate shooting and was pretty foolproof once set up.

He used it on a wheelbow but would work just fine on a trad setup. I seem to remember that he used an 18" wide target to set up with...chest cavity of moose, body lenght of fox, three grouse width.

Watching thread with interest. Shoulder problems and Line Haul driving keeping me from shooting as much as is necessary to be confident.

Thanks,

Scotty

[trashwood]

Aye, Scotty, there is a place for sights in the recurve world i think.

I was going to try to get this psoting done by Wednesday but Wingnut came up with a hunt and I have got my 2009 kit ready.  going to have to beg off a week and get back on it week after next.  I;ll have some more interesting stuff coming in form vendor we mightg want to look at.

I got to get arrow made and start tuning, wash my camo and find my binkie.

rusty

[Coldfingers]

find the binkie first Rusty...other stuff will take care of itself.

Good Huntin.

Scotty

[Archie]

Scotty, I spent 20 years growing up in Fairbanks.  Sure miss it up there!

[Paul WA]

Myself and many others hunted with sights back in the early 70s and never gave a second thought to drilling holes in the riser to mount them or to mount a small stabilizer...PR