Archery Sighting Tips

Mastering the archery sighting process is essential for accuracy while hunting wild animals, sport shooting or competing in archery competitions. Recurve, longbow and compound bows offer different shooting styles which require practice for consistency. With the proper equipment and fundamentals, even a beginner archer can efficiently and effectively sight in their bow.

  1. Bow Setup

    • Before sighting your bow, you must properly set it up to obtain optimum accuracy. Perform an inspection to ensure that all accessories are tight, including stabilizer, rest, sights and quiver. Visually inspect the string for fraying and the bow frame for signs of cracking, both of which can lead to bodily injury. Use a bow square to adjust your arrow rest and string nock so that your arrow will draw and launch flat. Only attach your sight once your bow is otherwise ready for action.

    Setting Your Sights

    • Archers have a variety of sight options depending on which kind of bow they are shooting. Sight pins are the most common archery sights, and they offer consistent accuracy and easy tuning. Most sights allow archers to reposition pins for different distances, and some of the more advanced models also take wind speed and curvature into consideration. Archers should utilize a few pins to mark different yardage which will allow them to quickly and accurately shoot at various distances. Adjust sight pins in small increments to prevent the sight from being over adjusted.

    Target Practice

    • The target is a critical part of the sighting process. Even just in practice, it is important to have a clear target -- this both helps improve your sighting as well as letting you know whether your sight needs adjusting. Bales of straw or hay make low-cost backstops for attaching targets. Foam block and life-like animal targets are also useful for fast-moving bows and precision shooters. Their dense foam construction withstands many shooting sessions and is easily transported and stored.

    Release Techniques

    • The release of the bow string is an essential part of proper shooting, and must be relentlessly practiced as a part of sight training. Archers have the choice of using their fingers or a mechanical release to pull the bow string. Finger shooters should pull the string back with their top finger resting next to the corner of their mouth. Practice with two, three and four fingers on the string to determine which feels best for you. Using a mechanical release take some of the human error out of the string release, and also allows the archer to use his wrist as a pulling point with a simple strap mechanism. Mechanical release users must slowly and gently squeeze the trigger to prevent the string from jerking upon release. Experiment with both release methods as you sight to find which gives you the best, most natural results.