# A sight's distance from riser?



## inertia (Jul 26, 2009)

Hi,


Why would one set their sights closer while others set there's farther out? I've tried both close and further away and I think the further away it is, the sight seems to move more when on target. Is there any advantage or disadvantage either way or it is a matter of personal preference?

Thanks!


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## Neo888 (Feb 4, 2009)

I think it cools your mind down with closer setting as it moves less on the target, saying to your mind that you are more stable (yeah, it is only virtual, but it is a mind game for a big part....) At least this is what i think, but i am not an expert.


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## Huntmaster (Jan 30, 2003)

There are a multitude of different reasons.......ok, maybe a couple three.

The first you observed. Closer makes for less movement, but at the same time, it makes aiming much more accurate to be longer......kinda like the difference in aiming between a handgun and a rifle. The further apart your references are, the more accurately your aim will be.

Secondly is the ability to reach distance. If your bow doesn't have the ability to reach distance with the sight fully extended, you can bring it in in order to gain sight distance.

It's all peronal preference, but there are reasons for the different sight lengths.


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## Viper1 (Aug 21, 2003)

inertia -

The farther the sight is from your eye, the finer oscillations you can/will pickup. Unfortunately, most of us have those oscillations, so like neo said, closer lets you relax on the target a little easier and in effect, hold or work less. For most shooters, that turns in a higher score. Granted, if you can hold dead steady, then farther out might work.

I'll even go a little farther: most of the time you see a new/intermediate shooter with his sight full out, it tells me he or his coach are clueless. 

Sight extension can also work as a means of adjusting aperture size. The closer, the bigger. 

Also the closer the sight is to the eye, the more distance you can get out of your sight travel. In the old days, it wasn't that uncommon to see sights mounted on the face of the riser for that reason.

Viper1 out.


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

> Sight extension can also work as a means of adjusting aperture size. The closer, the bigger.


It's all relative. To me, there is no difference between using a large aperture and fully extended sight vs. a smaller aperture with a sight pulled in. Same visual perspective.

I've pulled in sights on many student's bows so they can reach their longest distance without interference between the aperture and the fletching. My wife's sight (she shoots a small scope on her compound) is pulled at least halfway in at the moment so she can reach 50M. She prefers the view she sees when her sight bar is fully extended however. 

Some of this is functional necessity, and some is preference.

John


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## mongoosesnipe (Apr 3, 2009)

Another benefit to having the sight out father is that it allows for finer sight adjustments as with the longer sight radios each click will be a finer adjustment to the impact of the arrow as it changes the angle of sighting less but this also has the disadvantage of reducing aiming range as the total angle of adjustment is reduced at the longer sight radious


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## inertia (Jul 26, 2009)

Wow guys, thanks for the insights!!!


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## b0w_bender (Apr 30, 2006)

Seemed like a simple question didn't it. All of the above are correct as I see it.


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## HikerDave (Jan 1, 2011)

Viper1 said:


> inertia -
> 
> The farther the sight is from your eye, the finer oscillations you can/will pickup. Unfortunately, most of us have those oscillations, so like neo said, closer lets you relax on the target a little easier and in effect, hold or work less. For most shooters, that turns in a higher score. Granted, if you can hold dead steady, then farther out might work.
> 
> ...


Inertia combined with the springiness of the bow and a lag in the archers perception is a perfect recipe for oscillation.

I bought lighter arrows and moved the sight out and found that moving the sight out caused the oscillations. I only had a long rod on my bow, which puts the balance point well forward of the grip. Then a sideways movement of the bow to aim causes a rotation of the bow around the grip, which is eventually be corrected by torque transmitted to the grip through the springiness of the string and the limbs.

The resulting lag between a change in the sight picture and my correction ends up causing a pilot induced oscillation which makes me shake like the dickens. (Picture Don Knotts holding a huge revolver.)

The fix for me was to add v-bars and weights to counterbalance the stabilizer so I end up with a bow that balances just in front of the grip. Otherwise, I have to hurry the shot before the oscillation increases too much.

I haven't really noticed any benefit to having the sight extended other than the fact that shooting with the sight turned the wrong way around just got me a lot of unwanted attention from other archers who thought that I should shoot with the sight extended.


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## jhinaz (Mar 1, 2003)

In Jim Parks "Mastering Compound Bows" publication he states that there is a relationship between bow-torque-nullification and sight bar length.

He also describes it on the Archery Forum website. - John

http://www.archery-forum.com/showthr...uested-by-Noel


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## TheAncientOne (Feb 14, 2007)

Viper1 said:


> I'll even go a little farther: most of the time you see a new/intermediate shooter with his sight full out, it tells me he or his coach are clueless. Viper1 out.


Some of us old guys need to have the sight further out to see the blasted thing. Since I shoot with my distance only glasses the sight is a blury mess closer in for me. It also allow for a finer tune on the longer shots. As far as beginners, I have them try it both ways and stay with whatever makes them more comfortable.

Sorry Viper1, this is one of the few things that we disagree on. (Feel free to harass me about it anytime).

TAO


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## Viper1 (Aug 21, 2003)

Chris -

Except in in very specific instances, the aperture is supposed to be a blur 

Also, the way most distance Rxs are made, the extra few inches shouldn't matter. Reading glasses can be a different story, but with my reading glasses, I couldn't even see that target!

See you Saturday!!!

Viper1 out.


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## TheAncientOne (Feb 14, 2007)

Viper1 said:


> Chris -
> 
> Except in in very specific instances, the aperture is supposed to be a blur
> 
> ...


Tony, 

I realise that when focusing on the target that the aperture (and the string for that matter) should be a blur. Perhaps I've been shooting with an extended sight for so long that anything else is uncomfortable. (With my progressive lenses I can't see my feet, never mind the target). My son was using a short extension all of last year and realized a few weeks ago that he prefers the longer extension. It seemed to help his shooting so we went with it.

By the way, one of your students "counseled" me on the merits of a short extension and large aperture a few months ago. I thanked him for his advise. LOL

TAO


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## Vittorio (Jul 17, 2003)

Not really a simple question. But of course, if you can handle it (steady), aperture should be as far as possible from aiming eye. To the xtreme, a 70mt long extension bar will allow you to put your aperture in the middle of the target face .at 70 mt ... exctly.
But, in the real world, the limits are basically two:

- What is the maximum extension of the your sight bar
- If you can use it to shoot to the distance you want to reach 

Additional related limits are : 
The stiffness of the sight bar (week bars make bow and arrow moving during the travel of the string... with horrible results)
Your capaibility to focus properly the sight, the target and the arrow point under the clicker with minimum effort.

Have you never counted how many time your aiming eye has to change focus during an aiming sequence? More the depth difference between the objects to focus at various instants of the sequence, mor problems you will have to get a proper aiming sequence depending from different light conditions....

So, summarizing, the ideal is to have the sight aperture as close as possible to the target (as far as possible from you) to be able in good light to get a similar focus for both sight anf target and avoid to your eyes to be stressed in alternating unconsciously focus between the two. But, again, as the focusing process will also quite often involve clicker, that is close to window, sight bar can't really be too far away from it. 

Test your capability to focus the various objects in your plane of vision at full draw, and you will be in a condition to find the proper compromise (extension) for you. Of course, considering the aperture to be a fixed elemnt.


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## Seattlepop (Dec 8, 2003)

jhinaz said:


> In Jim Parks "Mastering Compound Bows" publication he states that there is a relationship between bow-torque-nullification and sight bar length.
> 
> He also describes it on the Archery Forum website. - John
> 
> http://www.archery-forum.com/showthr...uested-by-Noel


Link not working...?


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## jhinaz (Mar 1, 2003)

Seattlepop said:


> Link not working...?


Perhaps this will work....
http://www.archery-forum.com/showthread.php?548-Eliminating-bow-torque-as-requested-by-Noel
If not then go to Archery-Forum and search for "sight bar length". - John


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## styks n stryngs (Jan 6, 2015)

Dusan333 said:


> clearly u have no idea what ur talking about since the farther the sight is the bigger the target is


This is a joke right


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## Seattlepop (Dec 8, 2003)

Dusan333 said:


> u should learn some physics you moron, the farther it is the more magnification u get


I hope you enjoyed your visit, albeit a brief one.


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## "TheBlindArcher" (Jan 27, 2015)

Dang, what did I miss?!? 

Sometimes I read back the last few posts of a thread that has been resurrected from the long ago; sometimes it's just a case of "wasn't paying attention to the dates" and sometimes it's a post count thing, but guessing there was a little more spice to this one... Little name calling and the flinging of "moo pooh"


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