archeryvilla logo
adjust bow sights

How to Adjust Your Bow sights | 3 Easy Ways

Adjusting your bow sight is necessary to hit your target accurately and precisely. Few people think it’s hard to adjust bow sights, but if you do it by following simple steps, you will master this skill.

Moreover, accuracy and precision are two things that are very important while we are aiming. Whereas, accuracy is how you hit your main target spot, while precision is how often you hit the same spot. And accurately adjusted bow sights could lead you towards these two goals easily. 

Here in this guide we will cover up all the steps you need to take for this.

How to Adjust Bow Sights?

To achieve precision and accuracy, the dream of many archers, we must adjust our bow sight perfectly. When your bow sight is properly adjusted, the chance of error is reduced to zero. 

Before diving into the main course, you must know a few basic things to adjust your bow’s sight.

  • Depending on your Bow sight, you need Allen keys to lose or tighten the housing. 
  • Bow sight for beginners is usually a single pin, and they could be adjusted without any tool. 
  • Initially, we need to lose housing and sight to adjust it while aiming our target. Once we are done, and our sight is adjusted properly, we will tighten the screws of the housing using Allen keys.

So, bow sight can be adjusted in many ways, but three are the most common ways everyone needs to know. Here we will discuss them one by one.

The Best Bow Sight in the Market and Ultimate Buyer’s Guide can be found in this article.

Method no 1: Adjust Bow Sights Horizontally:

Horizontal adjustment is as easy as moving your sight to the left or right, also known as 1st-axis. Moreover, it’s a good practice to shoot at least three arrows (commonly known as group) before making horizontal adjustments. Only make adjustments if you are missing your target.

Suppose: your group is missing your target on the right, then you need to move your sight to the right. In this way, you can aim your target on the left. To move your sight to your desired direction, you need to lose your sight screw using an Allen key(or Allen wrenches). Once those screws are loosened, your sight can move in any direction.

Multi Pin Horizontal Adjustment:

In multi-pin bow sight, the top pin is used for closet distance, and the bottom pin is used for the farthest distance. After you are done with adjusting your housing, all you need to do is to adjust your sight by moving the sight pin. The closest distance pin needs a lot of adjustment compared to the farthest distance.

Keypoint for multiple-pin sight:Your top pin and other pins(below the top pin) should be inline in multi-pin sight. This could be done by making only one horizontal adjustment, and all pins will be in the same position.

Single Pin Horizontal Adjustments:

Single-pin sights usually have two types of adjustments. The first is “windage,” which allows the pin to move right or left. The second is “elevation,” which helps the pin move up or down.

Other steps are the same as in multi-pin sight. As we don’t have multi pins here so, to overcome this issue, we use sight tape, which is available in every archery shop. Place that tape on your sight, adjust your pin for the other distances, and confirm its accuracy.

Method no 2: Adjust Bow Sights Vertically: 

Moving the sight top pin or other pins up and down illustrates vertical sight adjustment. Vertical sight adjustment is also known as 2nd-axis.

Suppose: you are aiming your target, and when you shoot arrows at it, they hit the upper part of your target. Now in this scenario, you need to move your sight up to aim at your target below; and here’s the vertical adjustment takes place.

Multi Pin Sight vertical Adjustment:

In Multi-pin sights, you need to manually adjust every pin after your top pin is tuned accurately. These pins are used for different yardage, so they must be adjusted to achieve accuracy.

Single Pin Sight vertical Adjustment:

Here it would be best if you played wisely with the pin as you have only one. Moving the pin up or down will raise your bow higher on the next shot. Make sure to lose your sight, adjust it to meet the requirement, and tighten it when you are done.

Now let’s talk about our next and last type of sight adjustment. Which is somehow different from the above two.

Method no 3: Adjustment of Sight 3rd-Axis:

Third-Axis works through the center of the sight. Many experts didn’t consider 3rd-Axis adjustment important while shooting on a ground level. In case you are shooting at extreme angles, then adjustment of the 3rd-Axis comes into play.

Generally, the adjustments for 3rd-Axis will be made in the extension bar near the head of your sight. Moreover, if you want to adjust it, you need to adjust the set-screws by bringing your sight to a new position. 

Suppose: you are now shooting to the left on an uphill, then turn its level closer to you.  On the contrary, if you are shooting to the left steep uphill, then turn its level away from you.

The easiest way of adjusting the third axis is to shoot a group of arrows at extreme angles. In case you think the group missed the mark, start losing the set-screws and adjust it – the procedure goes the same for both the single or multiple sights.

Common Bow Sight Adjustment Issues

Adjusting a bow is sometimes challenging, especially if you are new to it. Some issues are easy to solve, while others take some time. Following are the issues every archer sometimes  faces while adjusting bow sight:

  • Pin and Housing Adjustment issue: First of all, most archers forget to adjust the pins properly. Sometimes, they even forgot that they could adjust pins and housing too. They only adjust pins, not housing, so they missed the trick. Try to move the whole housing until all the pins inside the housing are centered.
  • Shortage of Adjustment: You might sometimes run out of adjustments. You might sometimes run out of adjustments and you will be totally unable to sight in your bow properly. Most archers buy a new sight when facing this issue, while others try to re-adjust the same sight with the help of a riser and little increments, forward or backward adjustments in their old sight. Adjusting the riser closer to the sight will provide more adjustments. Last thing you can do to overcome this issue is by increasing poundage.
  • Clearance issue in sight: clearance in sight is usually referred to as how much space is available between our bow sight and arrow. As an archer, sometimes we have shrunken this gap, and our arrows vane hit our sight. This may happen when your anchor point is too high, or in other cases, our peep sight might be tuned too low.

Many archers may face other issues regardless of the mentioned above issue. Every problem has a solution, the good news is many archery shops are always ready to help you to resolve any issue.

Common clearance Issue Solution:

Whenever you want to shoot farther but reach the bottom of your sight, try lowering your housing. Keep in mind that it will cause clearance issues. Hold your arrow in your target direction and check whether any of its parts touch the sight. Now take your shot and check if your arrows are hitting the same spot or missing the target. In case they are missing the target, double-check whether all the screws of your bow sight are tight.

Quick Summary – How to adjust bow sights?

To wrap up the whole discussion, all we can say is;

You always keep in mind that your aim is to hit your target without error. To achieve this, you must have your sight adjusted properly. Which can only be achieved if you follow the steps mentioned above. Let us summarize the above steps quickly for you.

  • Make horizontal adjustments, if you are missing your target on the left or right.
  • In case you are missing your target point either up or down, all you need to do is make a vertical adjustment.
  • 3rd-Axis is only required when hitting at higher angles, you can adjust it using an extension bar. Another way is by adjusting the set-screws.
  • In case you are facing a Clearance issue, try to lower your sight to overcome this issue.
  • Always keep in your mind to tighten up all the screws after every adjustment.

Hopefully, this guide has created some value in yours. If you have any unanswered questions, do write in the comment section, we would love to be there. 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *