# Peep Sights and Lighting



## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

I bought a aperature kit and it is a 5 piece one, I am finding that it doesn't matter which aperature you use it will hit the same so you can switch them anytime you want. For me the smaller the aperature I use the cleaner the view of the target and my pin or dot but the less light comes through. So the larger the aperature my pin starts to blurr first and then the target but I still hit the same. 

Right now my local shot has pizz poor lighting so I am using a 1/8 inch aperature which is huge for indoor and when I go somewhere else I put in the smaller one. I would suggest you to get a aperature kit and just swap them out on your good practice range and prove for your self that it hits the same and that you can switch anytime. Then when you show up to a sucky lane or venue you have a plan.


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## ThunderEagle (May 11, 2011)

I have the aperture kit for my specialty peep, I have not had a situation where I couldn't see through it like you describe. I do not currently run a lens in it for target, I just use a smaller one.

As for centering the peep, I use one of the Spot Hogg Spark scopes with the multiple alignment rings, so when I see more or less of my scope, I can still align my peep with it, or if I decide to change sizes, or move my sight in or out on the dovetail, I still have peep alignment. Contrast on my hunting bow, where I just got a huge peep because I wanted to move my scope in some, but I'm using a normal single pin scope on that bow.


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## Archer43 (Feb 23, 2014)

Hello A-Max,

I also shoot a PSE Supra ME, at 28" draw. I have a Speciality Archery 5 piece aperture kit.
Indoors I use the smallest aperture 1/32" which frames the outside of my scope housing (1 5/8" diameter).
Outdoors generally I use the 3/32" aperture, unless it is heading towards dusk and then I go down one size to 1/16".

All those different sizes give me the same sight picture.

Incidentally the range I shoot at indoors, the fluorescent tubes on the left half of the range emit a much whiter light than those on the right hand side which are more yellow, I get a much better sight picture when I shoot in a lane on the left.


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## A-Max (Sep 20, 2011)

I have a couple different size apertures just didn't have them with me. When changing between peep apertures have you found yourself having issues with lense clarity?


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

I use a 3/64" almost always, inside and out. Clarity is rarely a issue, but lighting is. If a problem it's having a enough light to make my pin visible and I sold my Specialty light kit and wish I hadn't.


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## montigre (Oct 13, 2008)

I also use a Specialty 3/64" aperture (without clarifier) for just about everything with a 29mm .55 or .62 diopter lens. If I am shooting on a very bright FITA field, I may swap it out for the 1/32" to cut down on some of the light.


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## snowshovler (Oct 15, 2011)

If the sight fades half-way through the shot progression stop holding your breath. Your eyes are the first to go when oxygen saturation begins to fall. Under bright light this isn't as apparent but in marginally lit situations it shows up.


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## baller (Oct 4, 2006)

I see this a lot. I shoot a specialty peep in all my bows and have several aperture kits. In my Wednesday night league it's pretty dark so I have to use a 1/16, aperture. On Fridays it's a well lit range so I drop back down to 3/64, which is also what I use for field and 3d outside when not in direct sunlight. On super bright days in direct sun or when I have a glare on target I'll use a 1/32 to maintain a comfortable sight picture. 

Think of the peep like the pupil of your eye. Darker it gets larger, brighter it gets smaller.


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## ken Johnson (Apr 5, 2007)

Watch this video, What you experienced was the changing of the light intensity in your peep and the resulting changing of the light diffraction.

This video explains how it happens. 

I watched a friend shoot 130 xs in a roll. But he was shooting on a well lit range. When we went to the Sate Indoors he shot 282. The reason was the state tournament was in a gym with so so lighting. The light diffraction caused by the change in the light screwed him up. It happen all the time and will continue to happen to you until you learn how to get rid of it. Changing the size of your peep will not help.


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## grantmac (May 31, 2007)

Ken,

Can you actually point to any archers using your peep to win at the national level?

-Grant


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

Holy crap, i have a worthless 1/64 aperature in my kit that I could totally convert into a peep like the one he is describing and at least try it out. I am on my way to my truck right now and then over to the shop teachers room to see if he has something for me to cut the little groves with.


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## ILOVE3D (Feb 4, 2009)

Padgett said:


> Holy crap, i have a worthless 1/64 aperature in my kit that I could totally convert into a peep like the one he is describing and at least try it out. I am on my way to my truck right now and then over to the shop teachers room to see if he has something for me to cut the little groves with.


 Perhaps a dremel tool will work, try cutting a triangle in it, 3 corners, even less diffraction?


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## rohpenguins (Dec 2, 2012)

The issue you experienced was diffraction basically as light passes through the peep the size of the hole has to be greater than wavelength of the light to keep things from being blurry, darker or lighter. When you go from natural light out doors to indoors the amount of white and blue light will change and thus changing the wave length and the size of the peep needed to keep the image clear, even different types of light bulbs produce not only different lumin's but also different colors of visible light and can be an issue. What ken is doing with his peeps is called grating I am not sure how he gets it to work with all kinds of different lighting and changing wave lengths. Additionally light does not travel in a straight line so the light would need to be collimated for the principle to work.


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## ron w (Jan 5, 2013)

long before specialty came out with their super peep, when I shot in the first tournament I ever competed in. I came from a shop that had good lighting to the arena in down town Milwaukee, where the tournament was taking place. the first thing I noticed, was that the lighting was considerably dimmer than at the shop. I immediately took a small drill bit and bored the orifice in my peep to a bigger size. I don't remember what size I had , or what size I drilled it to, but remember doing it, right there, where every body set their bow cases.


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## Mahly (Dec 18, 2002)

rohpenguins said:


> The issue you experienced was diffraction basically as light passes through the peep the size of the hole has to be greater than wavelength of the light to keep things from being blurry, darker or lighter.


So why is it that when I look through my smallest peep, I get the clearest picture?


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## ILOVE3D (Feb 4, 2009)

After my torn and detached retina and the surgeries that followed the doctor had me not only try and read the smallest line on the eye chart, they also have you look through a very small hole in a dark object as close to the eye as say a pair of glasses would be. The result is you can read usually the next smaller line looking though the small hole. I think it is because it cuts out some of the extra light and puts the focus on a small area.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

My dad has explained to me many times how a small peep hole clears up what you are looking at and I can't freaking remember.


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## Mahly (Dec 18, 2002)

I was under the impression that it eliminates light coming in from angles. 
No idea if that is correct, but it is something I was told once.

At the eye doctor, I once asked how he was able to get the "right" lens on the first try. He said it wasn't a lens, it was a pin hole.


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## redman (Feb 22, 2003)

great info


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## Michigan Dave (Dec 28, 2005)

Just like with camera lenses, small apertures give greatest depth of field. Objects far and near are in focus together. Small peeps give clearest pictures for this reason - greatest depth of field. 

Larger apertures, larger peeps, allow relatively narrow depths of field, or regions of in-focus. With a larger peep, you often need to choose whether to keep the pin or dot in focus, or keep the target in focus, but not usually both. This problem is exacerbated as we age and our eyes change.


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## grantmac (May 31, 2007)

Anyone care to comment how peep to eye and peep to scope distances affect things?

It seems to me that having the peep closer to the eye will allow a smaller aperture to be used for a given scope size and extension, but what benefit does it offer?

Also having the scope extended further: does that make the lens easier or harder to clear-up using just an aperture vice a clarifier?

-Grant


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## bseltzer (Nov 20, 2014)

Mahly said:


> So why is it that when I look through my smallest peep, I get the clearest picture?


for the same reason a camera lens with a smaller aperture will give you a sharper image. By reduceing the amount of light allowed to strike the outer edges of your lens (no matter if it's in your eye or an a camera) you are 1) reducing the amount of off-axis aberration (coma) induced by light coming in at an angle to the optical axis of the lens, and 2) reducing the amount of light striking the outer portions of the lens where spherical and astigmatic abberations are most prominent in any optical system.

Unfortunately there comes a point of diminishing returns. As the aperture gets smaller, blurring due to diffraction becomes greater. As some point increasing diffraction will catch up to and over take decreased off-axis, spherical and non-spherical defects.


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## bseltzer (Nov 20, 2014)

grantmac said:


> Anyone care to comment how peep to eye and peep to scope distances affect things?
> 
> It seems to me that having the peep closer to the eye will allow a smaller aperture to be used for a given scope size and extension, but what benefit does it offer?
> 
> ...


Again, it's a trade off. By moving the peep closer to your eye, you can indeed use a smaller aperture without as much light loss or loss of field of view. But, going below a certain threshold (which I frankly am not optician enout to know) and diffraction again makes the peep unusable.


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## rohpenguins (Dec 2, 2012)

bseltzer said:


> for the same reason a camera lens with a smaller aperture will give you a sharper image. By reduceing the amount of light allowed to strike the outer edges of your lens (no matter if it's in your eye or an a camera) you are 1) reducing the amount of off-axis aberration (coma) induced by light coming in at an angle to the optical axis of the lens, and 2) reducing the amount of light striking the outer portions of the lens where spherical and astigmatic abberations are most prominent in any optical system.
> 
> Unfortunately there comes a point of diminishing returns. As the aperture gets smaller, blurring due to diffraction becomes greater. As some point increasing diffraction will catch up to and over take decreased off-axis, spherical and non-spherical defects.


very nice explaination


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## ron w (Jan 5, 2013)

there is certain amount of telescopic, perspective involved, as peep orifices get smaller. the closer the peep is to your eye, the clearer and easier it is to focus through the peep. an abundance good lighting will affect that ability immensely. it's the reason we see mostly large peeps of around 1/4 inch on todays shorter ATA bows. the acute string angles at full draw, move the peep considerably far away from the eye, requiring a large orifice to focus through.
the reason the smaller peep, clear up the picture, is because the concentration of light coming through the peep, is more organized .
consider the difference between "full choke' and "cylinder" on a shot gun, with the shot being light rays. the tighter the choke, the longer the shot stays in the arrangement it was traveling down the barrel in. light rays through a peep, act essentially the same way. the smaller the peep's orifice, the longer and more concentrated the light rays remain as the leave the peep. thus keep the picture they carry, more organized.


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## ken Johnson (Apr 5, 2007)

Ken,

Can you actually point to any archers using your peep to win at the national level?

-Grant 

Answer, Yes many times over. here are a couple of examples:

In South Africa I teach hunting and manage a game farm.
I recommend your peeps to all my students.
Frank Stiennagal, Germany (Two time World Field Champion)








Amanda Spear the daughter of Mark Spear One of the few Master Coaches in the world. 

"In one year Amanda won all four National Indoor Tournaments, setting two national recorded. She set a total of 17 new records that same year. All using a #2 Nite Hawk Peep"








I Know the difference the Nite Hawk peep make because I won our state 3D championship. with a #3peep. 









Frank Carr who makes more money shooting the peep then I can make selling them. Some week ends he has earned $6 to $10 thousand dollars Shooting a #3 peep. 

No one can beat the laws of physic.


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## grantmac (May 31, 2007)

Ken,

I had a search, none of those people are making money shooting bows competitively (at least not in the last 10 years).

So I ask again: Do any PROFESSIONAL archers use your peep? Not saying it's a poor design, but if it works why aren't ALL the pros using it?

-Grant


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## ken Johnson (Apr 5, 2007)

They are using the peep. Amanda Spear may still be shooting amateur but I am sure I saw a picture of her in Archery Magazine.

I do not visit the tournaments any more so I do not know who's name you searched but we do not sponsor any pros. and they do not publicly indorse our products. They use them because they want every advantage they can get.


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## ken Johnson (Apr 5, 2007)

The lose of light is caused by light diffraction and as long as you use a peep with a edge all the way around the peep hole you will never get rid of the diffraction. Watch this video. It explains how diffraction occurs.


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