I'm experiencing a quandary. Question for the masses.

[Jim Thompson]

A little back story. I have bow hunted for more than 30 years. Except for the 1st couple of years I have always shot 1 pin and never moved it. Mainly because I never considered shooting past about 30 yards, even when in the backyard. For the last 5 or 6 years I have stretched that out during practice to 50-60 and 35 in the woods. I have been adjusting my sight as needed as deer are coming in and doing fine with it. Just like every hunt, I range everything around me and then as deer come in that I am considering killing, I adjust if needed. Of course most of the time I can leave it set at about 25 and shoot anything from 30 and under.

Now here's my quandary...and yall dont laugh too hard...PLEASE REMEMBER THAT I AM ALSO POSTING EVERYTHING LIVE AS IT HAPPENS ON THE LFTT THREAD. So yeah I have a lot going on !!!

For the last 3 years (aarp member) I catch myself having more confusion as a deer is coming in. Meaning I will see a deer at 50 yards heading to a 30 yard range and catch myself instinctively grabbing the sight wheel and spinning it. Then if the buck gets into 20 or under I grab it again and spin it down even further. Then if the buck gets past me and starts out again I catch myself spinning again. I have never had this issue before and all I can attribute it to is that my mind is not as sharp as it once was. Now even when I have deer inside 30 yards and need no adjustments, my mind keeps going back to the settings. Kinda like leaving the house knowing for a fact that you turned off the coffee pot, but for the life of you you cant get it out of your mind until you go back in and check. I have no doubt this is seriously affecting my shooting in the woods. My lifelong battle with target panic definitely doesnt help. Everything is jumbled up there even though I am shooting better in the backyard than ever before. For some reason I cant get my mind to focus and slow down. This has never been an issue in the woods before.

So I think I have decided to do something I swore I would never do again. I am considering going back to a fixed pin sight. Maybe a 5 pin. For some reason I think my mind will adjust to it because I take away the option of moving the sight.

Ok now that I have bled out my heart, without spending $300 on a sight (unless you can give me a really really good reason), what FIXED, MULTI pin sight are you using and what are the pros and cons?

Pic is for attention only

 

[Duff]

That weird jt. I was going to say, sounds like something along the lines of target panic. Your reach for your adjustment without thinking about it?

I know a single pin is for me. I would flip out if I looked thru my peep to see 5 pins

 

[Jim Thompson]

That weird jt. I was going to say, sounds like something along the lines of target panic. Your reach for your adjustment without thinking about it?

I know a single pin is for me. I would flip out if I looked thru my peep to see 5 pins

I've fought target panic or shot anticipation as long as I can remember, but it stays in check most of the time because of different practices I do all year.

Yeah I guess I am reaching for the adjustment without thinking about it. Almost subconsciously. I dont always move it, but it seems to stay in the back of my mind and is causing more clutter than it should.

When I swap over, I may only use a couple of pins until I get used to it. Heck the single pin I used up until about 2010 or so was just a fixed pin sight with only 1 pin in it and no adjustment.

 

[catch22]

Im no expert at all. I have a 4 pin sight. The bottom 2 are really for target practice only.

My top pin is set at 25 and I use it for everything inside 30 yards.
2nd pin is set at 35 and I use it out to 40. Thats my limit.

Not sure if that helps at all, but bows are so fast these days I dont see the need of having one set at 10 and 20 and 30 and 40 and so on.....

 

[Jim Thompson]

Im no expert at all. I have a 4 pin sight. The bottom 2 are really for target practice only.

My top pin is set at 25 and I use it for everything inside 30 yards.
2nd pin is set at 35 and I use it out to 40. Thats my limit.

Not sure if that helps at all, but bows are so fast these days I dont see the need of having one set at 10 and 20 and 30 and 40 and so on.....

Thx. My thoughts are that I would probably only use 2 or 3 pins to begin with. No doubt that one pin at 25 would do for 90% of my woods shots

 

[flatsmaster]

Your eyes must not be AARP bc I had to go to a single pin bc of all the pins star bursting and messing my easy bracket at 25-35-45 between my 20-30-40-50 yard pin ... but I'm older then you so with my short term memory loss I don't think about turning the wheel

 

[Lilly001]

Im no expert at all. I have a 4 pin sight. The bottom 2 are really for target practice only.

My top pin is set at 25 and I use it for everything inside 30 yards.
2nd pin is set at 35 and I use it out to 40. Thats my limit.

Not sure if that helps at all, but bows are so fast these days I dont see the need of having one set at 10 and 20 and 30 and 40 and so on.....

This is what I always did. But I remove all but two pins.
One was for 30 or less and the other 40 or more and I fudged 30-40.
I could always miss reliably with that set up.

 

[Jim Thompson]

Your eyes must not be AARP bc I had to go to a single pin bc of all the pins star bursting and messing my easy bracket at 25-35-45 between my 20-30-40-50 yard pin ... but I'm older then you so with my short term memory loss I don't think about turning the wheel

I was hoping you were gonna point out that you are older than me Chuck. If you didnt I was going too .

I dont know for sure I will be able to adjust to multiple pins, especially considering how long I've been looking at one pic. But I gotta fix whatever is happening for sure

 

[Meriwether Mike]

JT I have experienced what you are talking about with multi line reticles or dials on scopes. It is easy to get on the wrong line in the action of getting on a deer in the woods or a field. I have changed all my rifles to a duplex reticle with a 200 yard zero and a ballistic chart inside the scope covers for the drop at 300 yards. One set of cross hairs has made it much simpler. A deer does not stand around and let your range it and adjust your scope. The last two bucks I killed were at 162 and 216 yards with a dead on hold. Much simpler for me. The buck at 162 yards was about to duck into the wood line when I shot so time was definately an issue.

 

[Meriwether Mike]

I vote for one pin with a written chart on your hold over if needed.

 

[Kris87]

I know I love my setup, and no way in the world I could ever shoot a one pin in the woods. I shoot a moveable MBG Ascent, and I set my pins as 20, 30, 40 and a 60 that is my floater. I shot it as a 3 pin for years, but I like shooting 60 in the yard, and sometimes I'd forget to move the sight back, and that scared me, so I added the 4th pin.

I think about all the scenarios that I've encountered where bucks have changed distance, and that alone would mess my mind up too. I can see how your mind would be scrambled, almost worried, when that happens.

I have a routine that I do 100% of the time on EVERY animal I shoot. I mentally say the yardage I'm shooting over and over in my head. I actually started this when I shot unknown 3-D and it works great in hunting situations. By doing this scenario, I have literally never ever shot the wrong pin at an animal, and I've killed a boatload. I also practice the same thing over and over in my yard shooting odd distances. I do think too many people simply shoot 20, 30, 40 or whatever, and not 28, 33, or 38...or whatever it may be. Those distances are much likelier in the woods.

Sorry to hear about your struggles. I don't think it's something a solid routine can't fix. Good luck.

 

[Kris87]

One thing that is also helpful if you want to keep your multi-pin setup simple. Set your 20 green, 30 red, and 40 green. This is super helpful for quick acquisition.

 

[lonewolf247]

Jim it’s been 30 years since I’ve bow hunted, so absolutely take my comment with a grain of salt, ?. Back in the day we used a Keller pendulum sight, and it would cover 0-25 yards or so.
Going by what you are saying, you can use 1 pin to cover 0-30 yards. It sounds like going to a 5-pin sight, at this point in the game doesn’t seem like the thing to do, with today’s fast bows. It seems it would be way more variables than needed, and only make a bad situation worse, trying to figure out which to use.
Maybe use 1 pin from 0-30 yards, and have a second pin to shoot out to 40 yards or so, and call that the limit ?
Kinda like the BDC reticles on riflescopes . My first scope I ever bought had one, and it just became a clutter to me in my sight when I went to take a shot at deer.
I went to the duplex reticle and sighted in for MPBR, and called that my limit .
Anyhow rookie advice, I know, but it just seems to be too much to range deer, as they are moving, and having 5 pins to deal with to take the shot.
Anyhow it’s tough getting older. ?

 

[Jim Thompson]

One thing that is also helpful if you want to keep your multi-pin setup simple. Set your 20 green, 30 red, and 40 green. This is super helpful for quick acquisition.

This is about what I've envisioned.

Thanks for all the info people. Now what brand and models????

 

[Kris87]

I'm partial to Montana Black Gold sights. Then my next choice would be a CBE. Pick your poison on models. I would suggest a moveable option so you can also practice longer distances.

 

[Sixes]

Wish you the best, but I cannot imagine going back to multiple pins, I always found it confusing trying to remember 2nd pin, 4th pin, etc.

I'm like the above guy that mentioned the Keller, that was the single best thing that I ever found bowhunting and taught me how to aim and be able to consistently kill deer. I then moved on to a single slider.

I have to assume with todays bows that there is very little gap between pins and I would think that would make it tougher. Of course, everyone is different, I hated horizontal pins cause they seemed to cover deer.

 

[flatsmaster]

I was hoping you were gonna point out that you are older than me Chuck. If you didnt I was going too .

I dont know for sure I will be able to adjust to multiple pins, especially considering how long I've been looking at one pic. But I gotta fix whatever is happening for sure

 

[flatsmaster]

You were nice and didn't say MUCH older so thanks ... But still climbing at 64 so I'm not complaining ... well at least not complaining about that part ?

 

[Jim Thompson]

You were nice and didn't say MUCH older so thanks ... But still climbing at 64 so I'm not complaining ... well at least not complaining about that part ?

Lotta complaining there

 

[Jim Thompson]

Wish you the best, but I cannot imagine going back to multiple pins, I always found it confusing trying to remember 2nd pin, 4th pin, etc.

I'm like the above guy that mentioned the Keller, that was the single best thing that I ever found bowhunting and taught me how to aim and be able to consistently kill deer. I then moved on to a single slider.

I have to assume with todays bows that there is very little gap between pins and I would think that would make it tougher. Of course, everyone is different, I hated horizontal pins cause they seemed to cover deer.

It could definitely be a challenge. Worst case I end up keeping my 1 pin and lock it down at 28 and take my sight tape off and roll with it