tune your vertical sight bar

[robbo]

there's been a lot of talk on here about bow tuning etc but i haven't seen one yet about tuning your sight so here goes.

This is something that i hadn't even thought of until an experienced club member passed on the know how. Even though i had a good walk back test, at every distance change i would have to adjust my windage, sometimes by quite a lot which cost me loads of points during the round. On good advice i carried out the following procedure and the result is now no windage change at all from 90m down to 30m (on a calm day).

have your bow completely made up with all attachments, lean the bow against a chair (or get friend to hold it for you) the same as you would as if you were checking your centre shot. Have the sight extender bar fully out and move the sight block to the very top of the vertical scale.

Stand behind the bow and line the string up down the centre of the limbs and riser, take a mental picture of where the string crosses the sight pin rod. Now move the sight block to the very bottom of the scale and repeat above procedure.

The string should cross the sight pin rod at exactly the same place for top and bottom of the scale, if it doesn't then your sight needs adjusting. Most sights have got one elongated hole for this adjustment. Simply slacken the bolts that hold the vertical scale in place and move in toward the riser or away from the riser depending on your string alignment.

Repeat process until the string lines up at exactly the same place for top and bottom of the sight scale. Once done you may have to adjust your windage to compensate for adjustments you just made.

you should now have to make minimal if any windage changes across the different distances.

[clickerati]

Photos for illustration would be handy.

[joetapley]

Even though i had a good walk back test, at every distance change i would have to adjust my windage, sometimes by quite a lot

That's a bit of a contradiction in terms. Suggests your walkback methodology is faulty. Would recommend a walk back only as a verification check on a bareshaft method. (And though others might not agree IMO for the average archer can be used for some degree of micro-tuning of the button spring).

As far as sight bar alignment goes I would check the high-low pin alignment with sight bar fully extended and fully retracted i.e. 4 points. If the sight extender not parallel to the bow plane you can also get right-left issues if you change the extension length for different distances.

[morphymick]

The other way is to pick an aiming point on the target and without moving your shooting position, shoot a vertical line of arrows by adjusting the sight block in the vertical plane only.

If the arrows fall in a vertical line then the sight alignment is ok, if not vertical, then adjust the sight bar to suit.

Assuming that the riser is vertical to start with.

Mick

[sarahjrd]

or you could turn the sight backwards so the pin is almost touching the string and then move the block down. This way it is easier to see if the pin has moved left or right of the string. I was told to do this by a fellow archer and i found it worked very well

[robbo]

Photos for illustration would be handy

sorry clicki, digi cam has died, no pics for a while.

[WhitehartFB]

I found the quickest way is to align the sight bar with the string when the bow is strung.

Shooting arrows will not give good results because there is too much that can go wrong such as not having the riser vertical at release.

Like the idea of turning the sight round, not heard that one before.

When checking the string allignment make sure the limbs are not touching anything i.e the floor or resting on a chair.

[Bald Eagle]

I use two spirit levels, one on the string ( with the bow clamped in the bow vice at vertical) and the smaller one on the sight bar, adjust the sight bar bolts 'till they both align!

[FlightyRachel]

I did that aligning with the string thing and worked out I had a wonky sight. I reckon someone trod on it once. Not me, I hasten to add. It is quite annoying.

Rachel

[joelondon]

one method i was shown was to use post it notes as a guide stuck onto the sight runner, this giving you a straight edge across to the left of the string (the other side of the note) to check alignment to, i hope i made sense with that explanation!!!