Do you sight in your bow in Meters or Yards, and Why?

SOMDSHOOT · Nov 16, 2013

trickg said:
Ultimately, does it really matter if you use meters or yards to sight it in? If this is a bow that will be used for hunting, at the end of the day it's going to boil down to your ability to correctly estimate your distance in relation to how you sighted in, and then in your ability to adjust accordingly depending on where the deer is - it isn't like you are going to say, "hey Mr. Deer - wait a second until I move to my accurate sight in point that corresponds with my aiming pins so that I have a correct distance when I shoot you."

LOL that's like saying, "Hey Big buck monster guy can you come a little bit closer... I'm shooting my meter bow today"

I have to say, you need to walk off the distance that you are comfortable shooting at, when a live animal is involved anyway. What you do to a paper target is of no consequence.

Just because your bow can theoretically "shoot that far" doesn't mean you should.

Know the distance you are comfortable and measure it out. It doesn't matter if it's feet, yards, meters, inches, penis lengths ( some guys can get there faster than others way

), or whatever you want to judge distances by. What matters is how far can you shoot comfortably and not screw it all up.

JBinDC · Nov 16, 2013

Well,I'm new to archery, and I have a 3 pin sight and access to a range with markers of unmarked(worn away numbers) distances. I'd like to eventually hunt, and based on all the hunters sighting in bows at the range using those markers, I figured there was some kind of standard way to go about it, hence why I asked what others do. Do you yourself typically take a couple shots at your corn pile to see if you're "on" or not? Thanks in advance.

frdfandc · Nov 16, 2013

I used to have 3 pins, 10 yards, 20 yards and 30 yards.

Now I just shoot 2 pins. 15 yards and 30 yards. Makes the sight picture a little cleaner since I can just adjust for the distance changes.

Also, when in the woods, I make small range marks on the tree's where my shooting lanes are. Something like a small ribbon.

Anubis · Nov 16, 2013

Like others have said, whatever in your mind is 20. That's 20. If you walk 20 paces and that "looks like" 20. Then it is.

The guy that showed me told me to play a game every day. When you have to walk somewhere. Into a store or Starbucks or whatever. Look at it. Judge it. Then count your steps. You'll be within a couple yards in no time.

trickg · Nov 17, 2013

Anubis said:
Like others have said, whatever in your mind is 20. That's 20. If you walk 20 paces and that "looks like" 20. Then it is.

The guy that showed me told me to play a game every day. When you have to walk somewhere. Into a store or Starbucks or whatever. Look at it. Judge it. Then count your steps. You'll be within a couple yards in no time.

My hometown in SW Nebraska is laid out on a true N/S/E/W grid, and the blocks are 100 yards long, give or take a couple of yards. Growing up there I was able to develop a pretty decent ability to estimate distances, as well as really knowing what direction was what, but your method would quickly get someone who didn't have what I grew up with the ability to get good at judging distances. I actually still do that from time to time, just to double check that I haven't lost it.

Twanger · Nov 18, 2013

Funny you should ask this question...
I sight in for yards, but somehow my range-finder defaults got set to meters and I pushed all sorts of combinations of buttons and could not figure out how to get it back to yards. So I lived with it. I usually don't shoot past 30 yards with the bow, so the difference between yards and meters doesn't matter all that much.

Then I decided I wanted to take a 50 yard shot, and now we're talking 5-yards difference between meters and feet, and THAT matters with a bow. A lot. I wound up doing the conversion on the fly in my head, not where I really want to be. I killed the deer, but didn't need that little extra bit of uncertainty.

Later I started pushing random button-press combinations and hit on the right combination to get the thing back into yards. Whew.

Kimerazor · Nov 18, 2013

If you're using the bow for hunting, I recommend a pendulum sight. I use a Predator IV on my Mathews.

At 70# I'm good from 0-38 yards with no adjustments, no ranging every shot. I range 38 yards at the start of the season and go.

They're easy to set up & fabulous to use. It needs to be set up at 15' AGL, but then it's good at reasonable hunting heights. I've had no issues at 25'. I was tired of the three pins & guess The hold over / under & friend recommended this to me. Wouldn't ever go back.

NRA & SAF Life Member

Anubis · Nov 19, 2013

trickg said:
My hometown in SW Nebraska is laid out on a true N/S/E/W grid, and the blocks are 100 yards long, give or take a couple of yards. Growing up there I was able to develop a pretty decent ability to estimate distances, as well as really knowing what direction was what, but your method would quickly get someone who didn't have what I grew up with the ability to get good at judging distances. I actually still do that from time to time, just to double check that I haven't lost it.

People trip me out with ranging things. "That's 37 and a half yards 1 foot and 3-1/2 inches!!!!!", I mean, really? We trying out for the marine corp sniper test?

And people that have a decent 3 foot stride and can "accurately" range things think they have this special effing gift that their eyes are like a $500 leupold range finder. No dipsh!t. Your 6' tall and have 3' strides. You're not special. And it's really not that critical.

Clark W. Griswold · Nov 19, 2013

Fishguy said:
Yards for American deer. Meters if you hunt Canadian deer.

I think it may be metres for Canadian deer eh?

yotaboy24 · Nov 19, 2013

When I first started bowhunting I did 15yds 20 and 30. Now I'm up to 40 and 50 but it took afew years.lol

trickg · Nov 20, 2013

Anubis said:
People trip me out with ranging things. "That's 37 and a half yards 1 foot and 3-1/2 inches!!!!!", I mean, really? We trying out for the marine corp sniper test?

And people that have a decent 3 foot stride and can "accurately" range things think they have this special effing gift that their eyes are like a $500 leupold range finder. No dipsh!t. Your 6' tall and have 3' strides. You're not special. And it's really not that critical.

LOL! I was NEVER that good - I was happy if I estimated distances inside of 100 yards within 5 yards or so, and happy if I estimated distances greater than 100 yards within 10 or so. Then again, I was never hunting with a bow - for me it was all about ranging prairie dogs so that I could better estimate my hold based on distance, rise/drop, and any cross-breeze I might have, and with that, 10 yards or so was close enough.

Do you sight in your bow in Meters or Yards, and Why?

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