I HATE PEEP SIGHTS

CHARLES E PHELPS

I hate peepsights. Hence, I have attempted to test every alternative on the market that avoids the use of a peep. In brief summary, as is true (alas) in most situations in life, you get what you pay for. And further, the best product I have found has gone off the market (to concentrate their efforts on military sight supply). But good options remain. The theory of a peep sight is pretty simple: You need two points to define a straight line. One such line is defined by the direction the arrow points (determined by the location of your bowhand and your anchor the direction your arrow will actually fly. I call this the string-to-rest line, the line drawn from the center of the string to the center of the arrow rest. The second line is defined by your eye and the sighting point you use (typically crosshairs or a pin with a small round ball at the end). The trick for accurate shooting (in the left to right plane) is to get these two lines perfectly aligned, so they point in exactly the same direction. A peep sight does this by putting a small sighting hole in the bowstring, thus placing the eye-to-sight line and the knock-to-point line together. Even this can fail, however, with other flaws in the archers form, most notably when the grip on the bow is too tight, twisting the bow out of alignment with the desired direction. With this error (which a peep sight will not reveal), everything looks aligned, but upon release of the string, the hands torque forces the bow out of alignment, and the arrow strays to the left or the right. The string-to-rest line shifts upon release of the arrow. Let me return to the essential problem: The margin for error is very small. Most FITA competition, for example, has targets where the 10 ring covers a very narrow angle of view. At 20 yards (18 meters), for example, the target spans 40 cm width (about 16") and at 30 yards, it spans 60 cm width (about 24"). But the problem is essentially the same (for FITA and similar target shooting) at any distance, since were dealing with angles, so lets use the 60 cm target as an example: Since the target has10 rings, each spans 6 cm, or about 2.4" That 6 cm width amounts to an angle of 0.125 degrees -- 7.5 arc minutes (one eighth of one degree). To put that in perspective, a typical pin head on a bow sight is about 5 arc minutes across, obscuring about 2/3rds of the width of a standard FITA target ring. Taking that back to the archer (the line formed by the sight pin and the eye), we can see how small errors in the anchor point spread to larger errors at the target. As Table A shows, very small alignment (anchor) errors produce significant errors at the target face. An error of only 1/16th inch horizontally shifts the arrow by almost the width of one

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entire ring of a standard FITA target.1 At 50 yards, the error is about 4" easily enough to change a hunters shot from a clean kill to a passthrough wound on a deer, and even a miss on a smaller animal. Errors as small as 1/8" in the anchor alignment produce errors easily large enough to induce a complete miss for a hunter at reasonable ranges, and cost two rings worth of error at a FITA target. Errors of 1/4" horizontal displacement of the anchor point are catastrophic at both the target range and when hunting. Table A: Effect of Errors in Form on Arrow Accuracy Error at anchor 1/64" 1/32" 1/16" 1/8" 1/4" Degrees (arc min.).03 (1.8).06 (3.6).12 (7.2) 3" 6" Error at Target (Distance in yards) 70 100.38".75" 1.5" 3" 6".56".75".94" 1.31" 1.88"

1.13" 1.5" 2.25" 3" 4.5" 9" 6: 12"
1.88" 2.63" 3.75" 3.75" 5.25" 7.5" 7.5: 15" 10.5: 15" 21" 30"
How do such errors occur? In numerous ways, but the most common would include: head position (head tilts slightly); anchor point relative to the head; and bow torque in the hand. Every archer confronts these problems (in addition to the ability to see the target clearly, hold the sight on the bullseye at the time of release, and avoid any motion during release (punching the shot). But I will concentrate here on the horizontal alignment problem. I should comment that torque in the bow hand produces similar errors to lateral displacement of the anchor. Think of it this way: when you torque the bow, you cause it to want to rotate out of perfect alignment with the target. You force it back into an apparent alignment when you pull the string back to your anchor point, but when you release, the bow wants to return to the torqued position. The extent to which it moves has the same effect as having mis-located your anchor point laterally. I. Peep Sights. Peep sights solve the problem by allowing the archer to align the bowstring with the pin in a manner wholly repeatable on each shot. The aim takes place only through a peep sight, hence the eye, the string, the pin and the target have perfect alignment, (at least as far as sighting), lateral
At most distances, each ring of a FITA target spans 7.6 arc seconds. This takes 1/15" error of the anchor, slightly less than the 1/16" shown in Table A. Page 2 of 8
(left-right) sighting errors are eliminated. Or so it says in the instruction manual! Of course, this wont solve the problem of gripping the bow too tightly and applying torque to the grip, and peep sights do nothing to help you detect that human flaw. Peep sight, like humans, have other inherent flaws. They are installed in the string so that when the bow is pulled to full draw, they open fully so that a perfect circle ( O ) is presented to the archer. As the string stretches, or with imperfect installation, the circle becomes an oval, so the view through the peep becomes a () rather than a O. Many peep sights come with a rubber tube attached to the string and riser that pulls the peep into proper position, a solution less than satisfactory to many archers, particularly those hunting in brushy terrain, since the additional attachment (sitting perpendicular to the string) offers yet one more opportunity for twigs and branches to grab the bow during stalking or raising the bow to shoot. This highlights a second issue: how big should one make the peep? Smaller peeps actually offer a distinct advantage: just like the old pinhole eyeglasses of yore, they clarify vision! The optics of this problem are somewhat complex, but suffice it to say that a pinhole of 1.0 to 1.5 mm diameter will clarify the vision of even a person with moderate to poor eyesight. Alas, small peep sights have another intrinsic characteristic: they allow less light to pass through than larger portals of light, and thus become more and more of an obstacle in dim light. Indoor shooting and hunting at dusk or dawn highlight the defects of a small peep sight. And of course, overly large peep sights defeat the basic purpose of aligning the eye with the sight pin. If the peep is too large, it creates too much latitude for horizontal movement, and hence the opportunity for sighting errors. To understand this, we need to explore the variety of peep sights available. Commercial peep sights typically come in five sizes (Micro = 1/32"; Small = 3/64"; Large = 1/16"; Hunter = 1/8"; Super = 3/16").2 Hunters typically pick sights from this choice set to allow for better vision at dawn and dusk, while target archers select from the smaller sizes. The small end of these falls in the same size range as the holes in pinhole glasses (1.5 mm = 1/16" approximately), and hence can help clarify vision. But at the larger end of this choice set, an archer could easily see the target through the peep but still be off axis to a significant amount, since the peeps are larger across than all but the smaller of the alignment errors shown in Table A. (Recall that an offset of 1/16" causes an error of one FITA target ring. Particularly with a super peep sight (3/16" diameter), one could have the sight pin well within the peep circle and still be off by 1/8" or more. Also, depending on the construction, peep sights can slow your arrow down by adding mass to the string. Estimates range as high as 5 - 9 feet per second loss of arrow velocity from the peep sight. Thus eliminating the peep sight gives you a flatter shot (better for 3D shooting) and more

Metrically, these are approximately 0.8, 1.2, 1.6, 3.2 and 4.8 mm respectively. Page 3 of 8
kinetic energy in your arrow (better for hunting). Finally, peep sights force the use of a single eye in sighting, thus defeating the incredibly valuable binocular vision that evolution has bestowed upon us. With eyes set about 3 inches apart, humans can judge distances to a target with amazing accuracy. Closing one eye to shoot through a peep cripples that ability, often crucially in hunting or certain field archery settings. I. Timberline No Peep The Timberline No Peep is a separate optical device that mounts on the bow, presenting two concentric circles in the archers view (but not part of the sighting system itself). The archer goes through a fairly complex process to align the no peep so that the circles are concentric at the normal anchor point, and then the sight itself is adjusted left-right to produce the proper aim. When shooting thereafter, the archer simply checks to be sure that the circles are concentric, and then proceeds to aim the bow. I actually found it fairly easy to keep the No Peep in my peripheral vision, thus alerting me if my form deviated in any way. In concept, the No Peep is a great idea. I know tournament recurve bow archers who have used it to perfect their form. However, it has (in my hands, at least), two flaws. First, it is quite difficult to set up accurately, with numerous small adjustments necessary to bring it into alignment. Far more problematic, however, is that it walks during use, despite the vigorous protestations in the information supplied with the device. It has several hex-bolt adjustments to make both vertical and horizontal adjustments, but one of them (the horizontal) involves a small spring providing back pressure from the mount to the device. Im not sure if this is the source of the problem, but whatever it is, I found that my No Peep could come out adjustment quite suddenly and frustratingly. My identical twin brother had the same experience on his bow. We have both abandoned the No Peep. Perhaps if one got it aligned perfectly and then locked it down with LocTite, one could solve the problem, but the problem is that the fine adjustments have to take place over a repeated series of tries for alignment, running the risk that the LocTite would set up before alignment had been achieved. This device might work under a lower speed bow, but it seemed to come off-alignment too readily on my Oneida Pro Eagle to make it of any significant value.3

The telltale sign comes when the arrows start walking across the target face at the same height. In the course of six shots, Id find my arrows walking up to six inches at 30 yards, and then realizing that to get the No Peep into its desired concentric circle status, Id have to have my anchor point a goodly distance from my normal form. Table A tells me that the anchor had moved over 1/8" distance, which means that the No Peep had rotated over a fill one-quarter of a degree (15 arc seconds or more). Page 4 of 8
II. HindSight The HindSight solves the problem in a different way. It creates, if you will, a peep sight alignment device mounted to the riser (not the string!), about 9" behind the actual bow sight. The rear hind sight gives an X shaped pair of cross hairs (rotated 45 degrees off vertical), with a small hole in the center of the X of diameter approximately 0.085" (2.2mm) across that forms the logical equivalent of the peep sight. (This falls between a large and a hunter peepsight.) Thus you have a the equivalent of a peep sight of about 1/12" diameter mounted 9" behind the bow sight itself, but mounted on the riser rather than built into the string. I found the HindSight easier to align than the No Peep, and not difficult to clamp down into place in the most recent versions (which use large wing nuts instead of smaller knurled nuts as the fasteners). I did find that unless you tighten all the nuts down firmly, the HindSight could also walk out of alignment, but I also had confidence that I could set the crucial vertical alignment properly and then apply some LocTite since two bolts are involved, each of which can be removed and glued into place with LocTite without disturbing the positioning of the device. (This step is impossible in the No Peep alignment process.) I like the HindSight. I think it could be engineered to perform even better. The intrinsic problem it creates comes from the limitations of a riser-mounted peep sight. The distance between the rear (hind) sight and the front sight is only about a quarter of the distance between a regular peep sight (in the string) and the sight, which exacerbates sighting errors since you dont have as much visual leverage on the system. The same geometry problem underlying the calculations in Table A says that any horizontal alignment errors will get magnified by about a factor of four when comparing the HindSight to a regular peep sight. The basic problem I had when shooting the HindSight was that Id sight so that the rear X and the front pin were in alignment but I could achieve that while still not having the pin in the true center of the open circle in the center of the X. This is my fault more than that of the HindSight, but Im looking for devices that save me from my sins, and this one, while good, is not the Perfect Guardian Angel that Id been looking for.4 III. Laser Red Dot and Holographic Sights Laser and holographic sights have an intrinsic strength: like the Timberline No Peep attempts to do, they provide an instant feedback if you are out of alignment in any way in your anchor point, including bow torque. Thus they give you error correction on every shot thats not available on any other type of sight. I believe that this advantage is why they are outlawed in FITA and related competitions: they remove a source of error that otherwise haunts every archer. These sights do this

Ive thought about engineering an optical crosshair into the HindSight mount and seeing if that would solve this problem. If it would, I think the HindSight would be a terrific device. Page 5 of 8
by having an internally projected image that (in various ways) immediately reveals if you have anchored off line either horizontally or vertically, or have torqued the bow in your grip. How they accomplish this differs from sight to sight, but they all do the job very well. This, in my mind, makes these the dominant choice for the archer not constrained by tournament rules against using battery powered sights. Before further discussing various holographic sights, I have two observations that I must make. First, devises that use batteries are illegal in various forms of competition, including all those using FITA rules. They are generally legal in open field archery tournaments, and are generally legal in hunting (unless they project a laser dot onto the target itself, as some red dot sights do). The second issue concerns the way the vertical (altitude) adjustment works on these sights. They all have an intrinsic system that does the same thing the No Peep tries to do, namely to give you a visual reference when your form is off in any significant way (anchor point, bow torque, etc.). However, in so doing, they require one of two things: Either you must adjust your anchor point vertically as you change distance (which I consider an invitation to messing up my form) or the mounting device must move the sighting device in an arc, rather than simply raising it up and down. I have tried two mounts with Red Dot and related sights, the 3D FieldMaster (left image) and the HHA Optimizer Lite (right image). The 3D Fieldmaster comes with either of two red dot sights from Inventive Technology the better (and pricier) Starlight IIE (featuring a 3 MOA dot) and the (lower cost) Lumadot (featuring a 5 MOA dot). The HHA optimizer comes with a BSA Red Dot sight. They also have a new version of their red dot with four different reticles. Both of these mounts have their virtues and weaknesses. The HHA has a high degree of adjustability in all relevant directions, but I find that it has a bit of flex in it, particularly with the sight mounted in the forward position (as one needs to do, typically, to keep the controls exposed see below). Also, the gross adjustment for both lateral and vertical directions is difficult to set up initially, because it basically requires a trial and error process of adjusting the mount, aiming and taking a few trial shots, etc. Once the gross adjustment is complete, its a terrific mount. It would be improved with threaded adjusters that could then be locked down when the desired location is found. The 3D Fieldmaster seems beefier to me, in part because it doesnt have a long arm (as the HHA does) that allows a mild flexing. The dovetail rail is mounted vertically, so a red dot can be mounted easily, but it cannot accept the EOTech except rotated 90 degrees, which eliminates the ability to use theirwindage adjustment. A. Fixed angle mounts. Some Red Dot sights come with a fixed mount, which one can aim in for one specific distance only. The Pollington Red Dot is such a sight. When mounted, it is wholly immobile, and Page 6 of 8

hence cannot be adjusted for distance. I talked to Charles Pollington, the inventor, and he said that the way to shoot at different distances it to learn to estimate gaps, e.g., shooting at the red or blue ring (etc.) above the bullseye for shots more distant than that for which the sight is set, and conversely for shots closer than the reference distance. This socalled gapping can also be done (with some visual practice) for hunting, learning to locate the aim point above or below the actual target spot according to the estimated distance. Ive not shot a Pollington Red Dot, but the idea of gapping as the way to adjust distance strikes me as an inherent defect when other mechanisms are available. The Pollington Red Dot sight mounts with standard barrel rings (see image above) and could probably be adapted to an HHA Optimizer. B. Adjustable Distance Red Dots The state of the art in this area is either the Inventive Techologies Starmaster IIE sight or the BSA Red Dot, both featuring a red dot reflex (internal, not projecting on target) red dot with physical (non-illuminated) crosshairs. The newer models have a red dot of 3 minutes of arc (MOA), and older models have a 5 MOA dot. Otherwise, they are quite similar. For comparison, most pin sights have a pinhead of about 5 MOA. Although I have not tested the BSA that comes with the HHA Optimizer mount, they look virtually identical in photographs, and I suspect they have a common manufacturing origin. The internal red dot gives you the frame of reference that eliminates the peep sight. Obviously, you put the red dot on the target to aim, but you must also center it in the crosshairs. If you make an error in anchor point or have torqued the bow, the red dot moves out of the centering crosshairs, in a direction opposite to the error in your form. Thus, for example, if you have torqued the bow to aim it left, the red dot appears to the right of the crosshair center. IV. EOTech Holographic Let me begin with an important fact: as of November, 2004, EOTech has stopped making their archery version of their holographic sight. Thus, sales are currently limited to those on stock in such sellers as Cabelas and others who carrried the EOTech line, plus anything that appears (e.g) used on eBay. Since the sights primary market is military rifle use, they have decided to concentrate their production on the military and homeland security markets. I view this as good for homeland security, but bad for archery: I rate the EOTech Holographic sight as the finest Ive ever used. It dramatically improved my scores when I started using it. The EOTech comes on an HHA mount that is really quite nice. Its solid, easy to adjust, doesnt walk during shooting, and has an arc-adjustment mechanism for changing shooting distance (see above). You may have to mount it in the forward of possible positions to allow clearance for the arc travel mechanism and also to get a flat blade screwdriver into the right side for the windage adjustment. Once you get a rough adjustment on the left-right axis, the EOTech has Page 7 of 8

a very precise fine-adjustment screw (a dime works fine, or any flat bladed screwdriver) with precise adjustment of one inch per click (eight clicks per quarter turn) at 25 yards distance. This makes it not only very easy to get the adjustment locked in, but also allows for easy adjustment if you do confront a steady side-wind. The only (and very mild) concern Ive found with the EOTech is that they had the direction backwards when describing how to adjust the fine windage screw. Distance adjustment is also very easy to do and calibrate. The sight has a gently curved bar facing the archer that sets the distance adjustment. To calibrate it, I got it set for 20 yards and marked the location of a calibration pin on the white tape that Id fixed onto the bar. (This is the way any of these sights are set. I used a carefully trimmed strip of masking tape on my sight.) I could make a reasonably intelligent guess for 30 yards and marked that location on the tape after only a few trial shots, and other distances become even easier as you get several distance marks nailed down. There is no other way to calibrate this type of sight, since the markings will be specific to your bow speed, arrow weight, shooting position, etc. In bright light, you need to crank up the intensity of the holographic red rings and dot, but it performs very well even in extremely bright sunlight (above, behind or ahead) when you set it correctly. Once this sight is calibrated, the only thing you need to do to take full advantage of its capabilities, you need to make sure that the two rings appearing in the sight window are fully concentric, the inner one exactly centered in the outer one. When you do this, youve eliminated a good handful of possible mistakes you can make in your shot. This task is made easier by the unique holographic design of the sight. The inner circle visually seems as if it is on the plane of the target, providing the sensation that you have 20 or 30 yards of distance between the two rings. This makes it very obvious when you are off center in a way that surpasses any other sight Ive seen. The image you see in the sight window tells you exactly whats wrong with your form (if anything), as the image below details. If you have an anchor too high or too low, the inner ring is off center low or high (opposite to the direction of your error). The same holds true if you have torqued the bow in any way (left and right shifts of the inner circle). Comparing Red Dot vs. EOTech This is almost a moot comparison, since EOTech has removed their archery model from the market, but I have a slight preference for the EOTech if you can find it. The difference is mostly psychological, I think, and others may have different preferences, but I find it easier to adjust the sight mechanism when Im centering two circles (the EOTech mechanism) rather than placing a single dot within crosshairs (the Starlight and Optimizer mechanism). If you can get an EOTech, Id recommend it, but a Starlight IIE or BSA Red Dot provide a very close second place.

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