Aiming strategies

[Rik]

Originally Posted by GeoffT

I read an article a few years ago about how the brain automatically lines up concentric circles. This helps to centre the scope in the peep, the circle in the peep and the circle with the gold. It also helps you to focus on the centre of the gold and not the sight.

Which may not be useful, when you're trying to aim off... It seems to me that it *might* be easier to aim off with a dot, than with a circle.

[Little Miss Purple]

As a newbie I was advised to remove the dot from the sight right to avoid trying to focus to hard!! I was also advised to use the largest sight ring I could find!

Personally I hated the larger sight ring and it had an adverse effect on my shooting at the Bronte - I remember moaning about it every time I shot!!

Originally Posted by Rik

Which may not be useful, when you're trying to aim off... It seems to me that it *might* be easier to aim off with a dot, than with a circle.

This is not an issue indoors, I'm not sure what is best outside. Aiming off is not something I do anyway, the large ring sight is not too good for this. A fast compound and the right arrows seem to help here. It depends on what kind of wind it is. I prefer to adjust the sight a little. What works for some may not work for the other.

[Tarkwin]

Originally Posted by Little Miss Purple

As a newbie I was advised to remove the dot from the sight right to avoid trying to focus to hard!! I was also advised to use the largest sight ring I could find!

I have recently installed a pinless sight ring and have noticed a small improvement in scores - could be down to this, or could be natural progression. I have however noticed that I don't spend as much time thinking...left, left, up, up....it seems to settle much easier...

T.

[Bald Eagle]

I found, in my recurve shooting days, a small hole in my sight aperture to work best for me indoors and out. I tried the cross hairs, pins with dots etc. etc. but I was trying to put the dot on the gold or the cross on the gold. I found it more natural to focus on the gold and let the sight "float" and it usually settled centre. As a top coach once said, KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid!

[Cakemeister]

Thanks all for your comments- I'll have a think on which idea's going to work for me! Practice is definitely the word & I haven't had much of that since mid- December.

[LineCutter]

I've tried rings & dots & shot equally well (or badly) with either. I went back to using a pin because, unlike the compound archers ( ) I found that I couldn't persuade myself to aim off for the gusting wind that always seems to afflict my outdoor competitions. We shoot in a big hole in the ground, so it's barely a problem with practice shooting.

I did have a dot with a fibre optic insert, but that kept breaking so I now use the pin with the centre hole unfilled - a ring in a pin, in a ring! Who cares, if it's gold coloured in the middle of the sight while I'm looking at the gold I'm happy & the errors from there are usually not 'cos the bow's pointing in the wrong direction when I loose.

[Marcus26]

I never ever ever aim off (on purpose) even in heavy wind. I always cant my bow into the wind and use the bubble to determine the correct amount of cant.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Marcus26

I never ever ever aim off (on purpose) even in heavy wind. I always cant my bow into the wind and use the bubble to determine the correct amount of cant.

That's one approach. Aiming off is another. I guess that both take a fair amount of practice to get right.

My comment was largely aimed at the assertion about open rings: if you tend to centre them automatically, then it's going to take some effort (and maybe a good deal of practice) to get used to aiming off with one - if you were to choose to use that strategy...

Actually, someone mentioned using a large dot. I suspect that might have similar advantages/disadvantages to using an open ring.

Has anyone here tried anything more exotic? Cross hairs, split bars or posts?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by tarkwin

I have recently installed a pinless sight ring and have noticed a small improvement in scores - could be down to this, or could be natural progression. I have however noticed that I don't spend as much time thinking...left, left, up, up....it seems to settle much easier...

T.

OK. Let's deal with the dot/ring question. There's no doubt that for the majority of recurve archers an open ring (size is a matter of personal choice) works best. For compound however, given the magnification of the lens in the scope and the presence of the peep sight, the sight picture is very different and aiming takes on a whole new importance.

I believe that you can't shoot any better than you can aim, so anything which simplifies aiming is to be welcomed. Indoors, for me at least, a big dot does this. Outdoors I still use a ring on the lens but, as I said, I'm thinking about changing.

Incidentally, Chris White (for one) uses a large dot outdoors.

Adam