Hunting without compound bow sights is like riding a bike without using your hands. Sure, you could probably learn how to do it reliably with enough time, but there’s a much easier way to get to where you want to be.
If you’ve already been introduced to the sport of compound bow shooting, you may feel you’re ready to start assembling your first kit. With everything that goes into a full kit, it’s easy to forget that the devil is in the details.
Ready to determine which bow sight is right for you?
Types of Sights
While every aspect of the bow is important, it is argued that if there is a place to invest a little extra money, your bow sights are the right candidates. To that end, a brief rundown on the more common varieties of sights and their use would be valuable.
The sights on a bow consist of two parts. First, there are the compound bow sights themselves, which get mounted on the riser just above the grip. The bow sight works in conjunction with the peep sight, which served into the bowstring.
The archer looks through the peep sight and lines up its aperture with the bow sight. Seems simple enough, right?
Peep sights are simple. Most are just a basic circle used as a reference point used in conjunction with the bow sights.
In this primer, we’ll be looking more in depth at the bow sights. Specifically, the two most common variants on the market today.
Fixed Versus Adjustable: The Two Basic Compound Bow Sights
Fixed Pin
The fixed pin variant is the most common, with beginner and intermediate level archers.
The simplest of all the designs, the fixed pin variant consists of a ring with between three and seven pins representing different distances from the archer.
The biggest benefit here is ease of use. All the archer needs to do is gauge their approximate distance from the target and use the corresponding pin to find their mark.
Beginners can use a range finder to assist in estimating their distance. After some practice, most archers can learn to gauge their distance from a target with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
Moveable Pin
The second most common variant is the moveable pin sight. Rather than having a stack of pins, each relating to a different yardage, the movable pin sight only has a single pin. The pin of a moveable pin sight is affixed to a slider that allows the archer to adjust the sight on the fly.
Whether or not the moveable pin sight is worth mastering is a point of contention. Some archers swear by the movable pin sight, others say that whatever advantages it might hold are offset by its drawbacks.
Arguments in Favor of the Moveable Sight
Proponents of moveable pin compound bow sights point out that they provide a less cluttered view than that of a fixed pin sight. An archer using a fixed pin sight with five or even seven pins would find that up to 45% of their sight picture may be obstructed.
Even ignoring the sight obstruction, the added clutter can make it easier to make simple mistakes. When using a sight with more than three pins, it’s easy to accidentally use a 50-yard pin when you meant to use the 40-yard pin.
The high speeds that modern bows are able to reach make matters worse. Many launch arrows at speeds in the neighborhood of 350 feet per second. At these speeds, the yardage gaps between the pins on a fixed pin sight are rather small, and differentiating between them is more difficult.
The primary advantage of the movable pin sight over the fixed pin variant is that it allows for a higher degree of accuracy when determining your distance from a target.
If a hunter is sighting a buck at 50 yards, but their fixed pin sight only has pins for 40 and 60 yards, they would be forced to compensate by eyeballing the difference and hope for the best. With the aforementioned high speeds of modern bows, the margin of error allowed to them is slim.
A moveable pin sight remedies this by allowing the archer to make quick and precise adjustments down to the yard. If a hunter determines their quarry to be exactly 57 yards away, all it takes is the twist of a knob or slide of a lever to perfectly sight their target.
Even archers who admit their bias against moveable pin sights admit that virtually every archer is more accurate when they are able to hold their aiming pin dead on target rather than having to make estimates.
Arguments for the Fixed Sight
Criticism of moveable pin sights center on two main aspects: the high degree of precision required when sighting a target, and the amount of time it takes to do so.
The issue of sighting is not unique to single pin sights of course. In order to maximize the benefits of the adjustable sight, you need to be able to sight your target down to the exact yard. As fixed pin sights require an element of estimation as is, in a sense they are somewhat more forgiving to novices.
The bigger issue is the time it takes to adjust a moveable sight, and how this applies to trying to hit a moving target. A hunter cannot count on their quarry to hold still while they line up a perfect shot.
Often the only shot afforded to a hunter presents itself when their quarry is either approaching or moving away from their position. This can prove problematic if the target diverges from its path, comes to a stop, or makes any number of moves that the hunter was not counting on.
In this situation, the hunter would be forced to estimate the difference between where they expected the target to be and where it actually ended up, or make a hasty adjustment to their sight and risk missing their only opportunity for a clean shot.
If you have an outfitter or a more experienced friend helping you select your first bow set-up, they will more then likely recommend you a fixed-pin sight. While difficult to achieve the same level of precision with one, they are generally perceived as being easier to learn with, and therefore better suited to beginners.
No Right or Wrong Answer
Between the two, both have their positives and negatives. And of course, proper form and technique are required to get the most out of either.
What any aspiring archer needs to do it take their time when assembling their first kit. Only by experimenting with both variants on the range will you find the natural fit for you.
Naturally, the sight will only be as effective as the bow it is affixed to. Remember to check our guide to assembling the best bow for your price point before making your purchase.
