Spot-Hogg's Attitude on Aiming

Does your pin sight have a round pin guard?

As many of you already know, we at SPOT-HOGG are very technically inclined. That’s because we’ve been disappointed so many times by the "just let it happen" subconscious control. We try not to rely it, unless it’s absolutely necessary. That’s not to say we don't appreciate the awesome power that exists there. But, it doesn’t matter how capable the subconscious is, ours seems easily confused.

While straightening out the confusion, we found that anytime we can minimize the responsibilities of the subconscious control, the results were more dependable. An example of this is in the aiming of the arrow.

We found a long time ago that using sights on a bow yielded better results than not using sights. Using a peep sight in the string also helped, and centering the pin in the peep sight provided the last bit of aiming control.

We were led to believe, from many different sources, that the eye would naturally center the pin in the peep sight. Our eyes must be defective, because it seemed that lining up the pin on the spot took precedence over being centered in the peep sight. The only solution (as many have found) was to use a smaller peep sight. This seemed to work pretty well.

Unfortunately, the problem with a smaller peep sight hole is the target is much harder to see. It’s also difficult to make sure we were using the right pin. For hunting, this was unacceptable. So as many have done in the past, we used a large peephole for hunting and a smaller one for target shooting. However, because of the centering problem, our effective hunting distance was less than it could be.

A while back, while working with our shooting machine, the problem was solved. The shooting machine is able to shoot an arrow just as accurately as it is aimed. We discovered this using a freestyle sight. But, the same bow with a pin sight on it did not perform as well. We knew the bow was good, but for some reason it was difficult to get the same accuracy using the pin sight.

Time after time, we would line everything up, shoot the arrow, and not hit where we were aiming. When we drew the bow back for another shot, we found that the pin would be off center in the peep sight. This was very frustrating. We wanted to use the machine to tune and troubleshoot our hunting equipment. Unfortunately, without being able to aim accurately, the machine results were unreliable.

Eventually it was discovered that if we aligned the side of the pin guard with the side of the peep sight and aligned the bottom of the pin guard with the bottom of the peep sight, we could get consistent results. Even though the pin was not centered, we now had the same aiming accuracy that we had experienced with the freestyle sight.

It wasn't long before we figured out the connection. When using the freestyle sight, we were centering the scope housing in the peep sight without really thinking about it. Centering the large scope housing did not present the same level of difficulty as centering a pin. The scope housing fit very nicely in the peep sight and aligning the two concentric circles could be easily and accurately accomplished, on a consistent basis.

So we made up some round pin guards for our hunting bows. By centering the round pin guard, instead of each individual pin, our accuracy increased dramatically. First, the shooting machine showed us that there really was no difference in the aiming accuracy between the freestyle scope and a pin guard with just a pin. So we checked it out by hand.

In the beginning, it was hard to get used to centering the pin guard instead of the individual pin. After so many years of centering the pin, it took probably a half a dozen practice sessions before the awkwardness was gone. Our groups got tighter and our scores got better. There was no doubt we were on to something.

What we were after was a better hunting sight. The added accuracy would help us achieve better hits. The combination of a round pin guard and a peep sight hole that is big enough to center the pin guard, works AWESOME! The large peep sight hole gives you more light to see where you are aiming, and all the pins are visible all the time. The chances of using the wrong pin are greatly reduced. And, your anchor point is now the same no matter what pin you are using.

Once you adjust to centering the pin guard you will never go back to centering the individual pins. Try it. You will like it, GUARANTEED!

Good Shooting!