How To Adjust Your Bow Sight

One of the most crucial aspects of ensuring accurate shots is properly adjusting your bow sight. Whether you're a novice archer looking to improve your skills or an experienced shooter fine-tuning your setup, understanding how to adjust your bow sight can significantly enhance your performance.

In this comprehensive guide, I'll walk you through the step-by-step process of adjusting your bow sight, helping you achieve better accuracy and enjoy a more rewarding archery experience.

Step-by-Step Guide To Adjust A Bow Sight

1. Before you start anything, make sure your nock is properly installed in the right location on the string, and your bow rest is holding your arrow perfectly perpendicular to the string.

2. Either by sight or with tools, make sure your bow sight is inline with your arrow. This will help in preventing your shots from being left or right of the target.

3. For most hunters, you're going to want to sight in your first pin (top pin) at 20 yards. By having your top pin at your shortest distance, you're giving yourself room to use your lower points for further distances as you'll need to raise the bow to accurately shoot the further you back up.

If you're using an adjustable sight, remember to sight in your first pin with your sight adjustable as far up as it can go. You'll want as much room as possible downward to sight in your longer distance pins.

4. To get your bow sighted in at 20 yards, remember one rule: Shoot Left, Move Left. Shoot Right, Move Right.

Of course, this is assuming your bow is shooting perfectly center of the target on a horizontal plane.

5. Once you're accurately shooting at 20 yards, I recommend stepping back at increments of 10 yards if you have enough pins averrable for what you think your further shot is going to be.

6. Lastly, I would recommend watching the following video if you're trying to sight your adjustable bow sight in using sight tape.

Common Bow Sight Adjustment Questions

Of course, keep in mind the first step is having a properly installed, and level bow rest and nock / loop.

1. What Do I Do If I'm Shooting To Up Or Down Of The Target?

If you're shooting high, move your pin up. This will cause you to lower your bow, getting you closer to the target.

If you're shooting low, move your pin down. This will cause you to raise your bow, getting you closer to the target.

2. What Do I Do If I'm Shooting To Left Or Right Of The Target?

If you're shooting to the left of the target, move your pin to the left. This will cause you to move your bow to the right, getting you closer to the target.

If you're shooting to the right of the target, move your pin to the right. This will cause you to move your bow to the left, getting you closer to the target.

What Are The Different Types Of Bow Sights?

In case you're curious, these are the different types of compound bow sights available. 

While the suggestions above apply to all of these, there might be some slight differences between the different types.

Of course, nowadays you have laser range finding bow sights, but they are not quite as popular as the ones mentioned below.