How To Sight in Your Bow
Follow along step-by-step to sight in your bow.
Preparing Your Bow
Before you get to sighting in your bow, consider three preparation aspects.
Tune and Level Your Bow
Make sure your bow is tuned and level. Your arrows need to nock in perfect alignment to leave the arrow rest straight when released. Additionally, a tuned bow will have the sight attached to the bow as level as possible. If the sight is at an angle, your higher-yardage pins will send arrows left or right of your centerline, even if you have your 20-yard pin dialed. Work with your local archery shop to guarantee your bow and bow sight are ready to fling arrows.
Find a Practice Area
You’ll need to be able to stand at distances of 20, 30, and 40 yards from an archery target(s) to sight a bow. If you can’t accommodate this in your yard (or a friend’s yard), you’ll need to find access to an indoor or outdoor archery range. Most local archery shops have one, so start there. You can also scout for public land where shooting arrows is allowed (check with your local Fish, Wildlife, and Parks office for recommendations).
Set Aside Time
Getting in at least three different sessions shooting arrows will allow you to average your groups for each pin you’re sighting in. Ideally, none of your days shooting—at least for the sighting-in process—should be windy or rainy. You want perfect conditions so you know you’re sighting in as accurately as possible.
Sight in Your Bow
Only sight in a bow with field-tipped arrows. Do not use broadheads. Field tips are made to reduce wear on your target, be easier to remove from your target, and give your arrow its truest flight.
Start with the top pin.
If you’re working with a multi-pin sight, your top pin (the one furthest away from the ground at full draw) will be your 20-yard pin. Today’s high-speed bows don’t need to be sighted in for less than 20 yards as a general rule, but be sure to practice these close shots after you are sighted in.
(You’ll sight the pins under the top pin at 30, 40, and 50 yards. Because those pins are below the top pin, bringing those pins to your target will cause you to aim your bow up in accordance with the arrow’s flight path. Since gravity is always working against you, if you want to shoot further you must aim higher so your arrow has a longer travel distance.)
Align the sight housing.
Starting at 20 yards with your top pin, loosen the screw that locks your horizontal adjustment of the sight housing (unless your archery technician did this alignment for you already). Knock an arrow, but do not draw. Slide the housing so the pins directly line up with both the string and the arrow. Now tighten the screw to lock in place.
Shoot at least three arrows.
Aim and take your first shot. Unless you’re way off the mark (i.e. missed the target completely), take three or four more shots. If you are missing the target, move closer and shoot at 10 yards. Looking at the grouping of your arrows, were they high, low, left, or right of the bullseye? Whatever direction the arrows trended will tell you how to adjust the sight.
If you are off by eight or more inches, you’ll want to make your first adjustment to the housing, not the pins. This is the only time you’ll make adjustments to the housing. If you missed left, slide the housing left. If you missed right, move the housing right. If you were hitting too high, move the housing up. If you hit low, move the housing down. To adjust your sight, you always move the housing in the direction you missed.
Sight the 30-yard pin.
Now tighten the housing screws and take more shots. If you’re hitting within six or so inches of where you’re aiming, you’ll start adjusting the individual top pin, not the housing. After a few more groups, making pin adjustments as needed, you can now move back to 30 yards and start aiming with the second pin from the top. (If you have a fixed single-pin sight, you’ll keep the pin sighted to 20 yards only and practice adjusting your aim for closer or further shots. If you have a slider single-pin sight, you’ll mark your 20-yard pin location on your yardage tape).
If you had to move your 20-yard pin much to the left or the right while you were sighting it in, go ahead and adjust your 30-yard pin to be in line with the top pin. That should get your arrows at least in vertical alignment. Take several shots at 30 yards. If you’re missing, only adjust the pin to compensate. Do not move your housing anymore.
Take a break. Then sight your long-distance pins.
After you’re comfortable with your shots at 20 and 30 yards, it’s recommended you take a break at least for a day before setting your remaining pins for 40 or 50+ yards. When you come back the next day, shoot at 20 yards, then at 30 yards, to make sure your form is still good and your aim is true. Make tweaks to your pins if needed, and then follow all the steps above to shoot at the distances for however many pins you have left on your sight.
Shoot three-arrow groups at all distances.
On the third day of shooting, shoot three arrows at each distance, but shoot at all distances before making any adjustments. If all your arrows, for instance, were shooting low and left, maybe something was off in your form, or your sight got knocked.
