# Pins on a recurve



## 782gear (Dec 16, 2009)

I want to try adding a set of adjustable pins to my Bear Grisly. Can someone please point me to a resource that explains how they are used? Are there any changes needed in terms of bow positioning and the like? As I shoot now, I cant the bow some, but I am thinking that with the addition of pins I would need to hold her as vertical as possible. The pins set I have is very old and the pins are moved up and down a bracket by loosening screws. If there are up to date options to what I currently have, I would appreciate being vectored to them.


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## Huntinsker (Feb 9, 2012)

Don't do it. If you want a sight on your bow, get an ILF riser and limbs. There is a reason the Grizzly doesn't have any way to mount sights to it.


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## George D. Stout (May 11, 2005)

When I started bowhunting in 1965 most hunters around here used sights on their recurve bows. Get a side mount and you can use double sided sitcky tape to mount if you don't want holes. How bows are made today has nothing to do with how archery was in the 60's and 70's before compounds. There were tons of sights being sold and used and hunting sights were everywhere. Back then we didn't have a neotrad vision of the sport, folks used what made them better, and that included sights on many or even most hunting bows. You could use as many pins as you like, but the usual was 4...set for 10, 20, 20 and 40 yards. A vertical bow is necessary.


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## Arron (Nov 18, 2012)

http://www.3riversarchery.com/Single+Pin+Screw-OnTape-On+Bow+Sight_i5702_baseitem.html

Here's an option 3Rivers has. Sounds kind of like the one you have but maybe in better shape. Shoot with a sight if you want, I have never seen anything in the rule book saying different.


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## handirifle (Jun 9, 2005)

George D. Stout said:


> When I started bowhunting in 1965 most hunters around here used sights on their recurve bows. Get a side mount and you can use double sided sitcky tape to mount if you don't want holes. How bows are made today has nothing to do with how archery was in the 60's and 70's before compounds. There were tons of sights being sold and used and hunting sights were everywhere. Back then we didn't have a neotrad vision of the sport, folks used what made them better, and that included sights on many or even most hunting bows. You could use as many pins as you like, but the usual was 4...set for 10, 20, 20 and 40 yards. A vertical bow is necessary.


I agree. I think ole Fred would have used them if he wasn't such a natural. We used whatever made you hit more often. There were no "purists" screaming about using fiberglass or aluminum arrows, laminated wood bows vs all wood or self bows, you just shot what you shot best.


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## Roger Savor Sr (Feb 16, 2014)

Huntinsker said:


> Don't do it. If you want a sight on your bow, get an ILF riser and limbs. There is a reason the Grizzly doesn't have any way to mount sights to it.


Apparentlly, you haven't much in the way of archery history........As many Grizz' were shot with sights than without.


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## 782gear (Dec 16, 2009)

Thanks to all who responded. I mounted the bracket to the bow using the threaded insert that is, I guess, supposed to accommodate a quiver. I secured it with a nylon bolt and a stainless steel washer. I dropped the bottom pin down to as low as it would go and then with the aid of Kentucky windage I adjusted that bottom pin so it lined up with the arrow groove that I wore in the arrow rest through previous shooting. Then I built up a small shelf on the arrow rest with hot glue so that the arrow would not fall of during the draw. Now, sometimes we all get lucky, and the phrase "Even a blind pig finds an acorn now and then" comes to mind as the arrows, at 15 yards, plant right where the pin rest on the target. I have never shot so well with this bow. I need to find some sort of Yankee DIY fix for the 20 yard mark or just use the same sort of hold-over judgement I use when shooting woodchucks with the trusty .222. Thanks again folks.


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## reddogge (Jul 21, 2009)

Shooting one pin is pretty practical and easy on a hunting bow. Back off to 20 yards and shoot 3 arrows putting your pin on the mark. Measure where they hit (probably higher since the arrow is still rising at 20 yards) to where you aimed and that will be your gap under the aiming point for 20. Back off to 25 and do the same thing and so on to 30. You'll notice the arrow flies in an arc from 15 out to 30 yards and you will be aiming above, at, or below the target with the pin. It's the same thing we do for gap shooting using the point of our arrows.


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## Huntinsker (Feb 9, 2012)

Roger Savor Sr said:


> Apparentlly, you haven't much in the way of archery history........As many Grizz' were shot with sights than without.


No I know some archery history but my mind immediately went to a compound style site that he wanted to screw to the riser. Just made me nervous thinking about screwing something into the bow especially not knowing the age of it. It'd be a shame to put holes in a nice old grizzly. From what I've seen, the Grizzly never came with a sight from the factory so everything would have been modified for the bow.


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## GBUSA (Jun 6, 2013)

3Rivers Archery has a very inexpensive pin sight that runs up and down an aluminum track.
You can tape it, or screw it to the bow.
They also have the simplex pin sight that attaches to the standard sight holes in a riser set up for a sight.

In my youth we would put a piece of electrical tape on the front or back of the bow and just stick a couple metal clothing pins like you find in a dress shirt, under the tape and use the head to sight on the target.
Simple to move them around and not permanent.


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## Tracker12 (Sep 22, 2003)

George D. Stout said:


> When I started bowhunting in 1965 most hunters around here used sights on their recurve bows. Get a side mount and you can use double sided sitcky tape to mount if you don't want holes. How bows are made today has nothing to do with how archery was in the 60's and 70's before compounds. There were tons of sights being sold and used and hunting sights were everywhere. Back then we didn't have a neotrad vision of the sport, folks used what made them better, and that included sights on many or even most hunting bows. You could use as many pins as you like, but the usual was 4...set for 10, 20, 20 and 40 yards. A vertical bow is necessary.


Just what George said. My first recurve in 1965 was a Browning Nomad Stalker with a 3 pin sight on it. Very effective. I am actually looking for an old bow that has sights on it just for range work. I find using a sight with a recurve helps train me to hold until the picture is right.


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## Easykeeper (Jan 2, 2003)

My first adult size recurve was made in high school shop class using Bingham materials and plans. The first thing most of us did after we finished our bows was to put a pin sight on them. 

This was in the mid-seventies and there was no stigma attached to sights on stickbows back then, although we didn't know they were stickbows...:wink:


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## martha j (May 11, 2009)

in the late fifties it was fairly common to see a match stick taped to the front of a bow for a sight.


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## George D. Stout (May 11, 2005)

Huntinsker, In the late 50's and into the 60's many folks used the Merrill hunting sight. You could tape it on to your bow and most guys did just that. You could screw it to the back or belly of the sight window...many did that as well. That is why you see many old hunting bows with two very small holes there. The side drilling didn't happen until late 60's early 70's when the side mount sights started on the scene. You could use the same holes for a Kwickee Kwiver and sight so it was an AMO standard...and still is. We have a rich and very long history that should be researched by any serious archer/bowhunter.


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## reddogge (Jul 21, 2009)

Funny George, sights in the 60s may have been more of a regional thing. Around here we all shot field archery bare bow so we hunted bare bow. Most of us string walked for field archery but shot the usual methods for hunting, instinctive, gapping, gapstinctive, string walking, "Apache draw" like they used to call 3 under around here.

Are you going to Shade Mt. this weekend? If so hope to meet you.


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## benofthehood (May 18, 2011)

My first hunting bow had 4 pins, one of my current set ups , a Titan has 3 pins on it .
Even for practice it will be revealing ... As a hunting rig it is deadly.

I wish one if the org's would bring back a 5 pin division.


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## Huntinsker (Feb 9, 2012)

George D. Stout said:


> Huntinsker, In the late 50's and into the 60's many folks used the Merrill hunting sight. You could tape it on to your bow and most guys did just that. You could screw it to the back or belly of the sight window...many did that as well. That is why you see many old hunting bows with two very small holes there. The side drilling didn't happen until late 60's early 70's when the side mount sights started on the scene. You could use the same holes for a Kwickee Kwiver and sight so it was an AMO standard...and still is. We have a rich and very long history that should be researched by any serious archer/bowhunter.


Yep, I know all about that. I just made a string for an old Super Grizzly that had putty filled screw holes in it. I just thought it'd be a shame to put holes in an old recurve that may have otherwise been in good condition. My mind saw a mint condition 60's Grizzly and someone taking a drill to it and my knee jerk reaction was "NOOOOO". I've done a lot of research and reading on just about any topic you could think of in archery. Vintage bows is no exception.


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