How to Sight in a Bow: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you are a devoted or a professional archer, you are familiar with the shooting form of your bow. One of the formations for archery shooting is attaching sight and sighting in a bow. Attaching sight drastically improves your shooting accuracy with the use of pins or crosshairs. On the other hand, a professional archer may find it harder to how to sigh in a bow.

Here, we are going to describe the best way to sight in a bow that you can do with the best bow sight on the market. If you are an entry level archer, we will be assisting you through the process of how to sight in a bow for the first time, or more specifically:

1) How to sight in a bow: step by step guide

2) Fine tuning your bow

3) Adjusting pin, 2^nd axis and 3^rd axis

4) Recording settings, bow safety and tips

How to Sight in a Bow?

One thing that archery hunters find challenging is sighting in a bow. Sighting in a bow is barely a hard task to accomplish. You merely need to start the shooting with the top pin. You just need to use your common sense, check how the trajectory is and make sure, arrow is not going out of the target.

Step 1: Check Your Bow is Tuned 

If you are an expert at archery, you still need to optimize the bow sighting, each time you shoot. Even if you are able to shoot the 30 yards target with precision doesn’t mean you are going to get the optimum and the finest performance out of the bow. So, you need to check the bow is flawless at shooting and fine-tuned.

• Fine tune the bow prior to sighting-in

• Later, re-sighting the bow when you are ready

Step 2: Adjusting the Pin

You need to ‘chase’ the arrow with the pin this time. You need to repeat the steps using this method. You should start using each pin for every 10 yards and start pinning at 20 yards.

• When you test shooting an arrow, focus on the arrow’s path. If arrow hit low and turn to the left, you should move the pin low and to the left

• Once you hit the bullseye at 10 yards, retreat at 20 yards readjust you pin to make your bow all set for the 20 yards shot

Step 3: Adjusting 2^nd Axis 

The 2^nd axis of a bow sight indicates clockwise or counter clockwise position of the bow sighting. Some of the archery sight doesn’t have the 2^nd axis functionality, but fortunately, if it’s there, you need to adjust the sight while pins are plumb with the bow string.

• Simplify the adjustment of your archery sight, mount 2 or 4 foot level and in vertical position

• Make sure the lines or plumb is in the bubble

• Take another level and check to make sure the level is plumb

• Once all the plumb is set, take a sight while placing mounting plate in opposite direction of the side level

• Hold the sight flat and bring the sight arm in horizontal or level

Step 4: Adjusting 3^rd Axis 

The 3^rd axis of the bow sight plays an ultimate role to sight in a bow. If an archer finds the 3^rd axis is not properly adjusted, the shooting will be inaccurate; the sight’s level will not provide user’s a true reading and shooting will be off the mark. So, you need to adjust the 3^rd axis of your bow perfectly.

• Place sighting alongside the level of the bow and tilt the sight up and down

• Take the reading in sights built-in-level at both of the positions, if it is off the position, third axis will get adjusted

• Adjust the sight in and out while it reads the level at up and down position

• After all the settlement, if the reading is precise, the 3^rd axis is all ready to shoot

Step 5: Recording Settings

• If all of the pins are correctly ‘dialed in’, take a note or record of their positions with pencil and a piece of paper

• You need to keep the record as a reference, so you can use it in new sight in the near future

Bow Tips and Safety 

1. When drawing the bow string, you must not pint your bow and arrow up the horizon

2. Wear wrist wrap to avert the bow after firing and it is highly recommended

3. Keep your finger behind the bow while releasing the trigger

4. Also, keep fingers underneath the arrow when gripping the bow

5. Keep Allen wrenches all the time for quick maintenance

To wrap up, the best way you can come across to shoot the target with accuracy is to take much time. Whether it is hunting or shooting competition, you need to have patience while you run through the process of adjusting the bow to have proper sight. You can follow the above recommendation on how to sight in a bow to improve your accuracy.