Adjustable, moveable, sliders, single pin; call 'em what you will but these sights have made a big impact in target archery. And now it seems they are making a big impact on our hunting as well.
It wasn't long ago that you would be hard pressed to find an adjustable sight made for bow hunting; now just about every sight manufacturer has a model and some have abandoned all other accessories to build only sights!
Common questions we hear are, "How many have tried sliders but gone back to fixed pins?", or "Who has tried single pins sights and liked them?"
What we really want to know is, "Are they worth the money and do they work"?
Let's go back in time. Single pin, movable sights are an offshoot of target archery, where repeatability in a sight is paramount. Shot after shot the sight must be stable, repeatable and easy to adjust for variables during a competition.
Single pin, adjustable sights fit this bill very well. While they remained a mainstay in target archery they didn't quite fit the bill for the larger hunting crowd. The main reason being durability. The small pin was easily damaged, the small scope and housing was not much protection, the scope rod, or threaded connector, was small and easily damaged, extreme range adjustments required a lot of time to make or were noisy and a whole host of other things made them less than desirable for hunting.
Some of us used our target archery sights and made custom pin housings for hunting in an effort to get the accuracy in the field we enjoyed at competition. We made PVC scope housings, we cannibalized other sights to build a better adjustable hunting sight and on and on...
Thankfully, we no longer need to go to such extremes to have a quality adjustable sight that is tough enough for hunting.
With the question of accuracy and repeatability out of the way the real question is:
Are they tough enough?
The answer is yes, but with a caveat. Like any precision instrument, they can be damaged; and more easily than their fixed pin brothers in many cases. Of course some companies build a bomb proof product (Spot Hogg, MBG etc.) and some build one that needs a lighter hand. They are all built to do the job (within reason) but some are better built to handle abuse.
Also remember, they have moving parts; so regular maintenance is required, especially cleaning. Fixed pin sights do not need this but there is nothing worse than an adjustable sight that will not budge due to dirt build up in the mechanism.
Next topic: How do they work?
It wasn't long ago that you would be hard pressed to find an adjustable sight made for bow hunting; now just about every sight manufacturer has a model and some have abandoned all other accessories to build only sights!
Common questions we hear are, "How many have tried sliders but gone back to fixed pins?", or "Who has tried single pins sights and liked them?"
What we really want to know is, "Are they worth the money and do they work"?
Let's go back in time. Single pin, movable sights are an offshoot of target archery, where repeatability in a sight is paramount. Shot after shot the sight must be stable, repeatable and easy to adjust for variables during a competition.
Single pin, adjustable sights fit this bill very well. While they remained a mainstay in target archery they didn't quite fit the bill for the larger hunting crowd. The main reason being durability. The small pin was easily damaged, the small scope and housing was not much protection, the scope rod, or threaded connector, was small and easily damaged, extreme range adjustments required a lot of time to make or were noisy and a whole host of other things made them less than desirable for hunting.
Some of us used our target archery sights and made custom pin housings for hunting in an effort to get the accuracy in the field we enjoyed at competition. We made PVC scope housings, we cannibalized other sights to build a better adjustable hunting sight and on and on...
Thankfully, we no longer need to go to such extremes to have a quality adjustable sight that is tough enough for hunting.
With the question of accuracy and repeatability out of the way the real question is:
Are they tough enough?
The answer is yes, but with a caveat. Like any precision instrument, they can be damaged; and more easily than their fixed pin brothers in many cases. Of course some companies build a bomb proof product (Spot Hogg, MBG etc.) and some build one that needs a lighter hand. They are all built to do the job (within reason) but some are better built to handle abuse.
Also remember, they have moving parts; so regular maintenance is required, especially cleaning. Fixed pin sights do not need this but there is nothing worse than an adjustable sight that will not budge due to dirt build up in the mechanism.
Next topic: How do they work?
Comment