A primitive sight pin

[Black Moshannon]

Has anyone tried making a sight pin for a selfbow? Tonight I came up with a design which involves tying a small piece of wood to the side of the bow with a piece of leather, several inches above where the arrow sits. This piece of wood is the same diameter and sits off the side of the bow the same size as my arrows do. My idea is I will set this wood “pin” at the right height up the bow to be able to put it point on at my maximum gap range (halfway to the point on of my arrow). So I’ll have two sight pins, my arrow which I will use for my point on back to my maximum gap, and then the wood “pin”, which I will use to gap from my maximum gap to the closest range. I’ll post of picture of my little rig I came up with. This should help me since I have to anchor really low to get proper back tension and my gaps would be pretty large. If I can make it out of scraps of leather and wood the Native archers might have done it too, who knows?

[Black Moshannon]

Here's my creation. I can see it being a problem in that its only tied on with the leather lace and with repeated shooting it could move, which would mess up the aim point. The arrow on the knuckle is never going to change location. I could re-adjust and tighten it back up but that could be a problem if it moves while i'm say hunting or at the 3-D. Just something to play with

[Pappy]

Guess that will work, but it won't be allowed at any 3 d shoot I have ever been to in the traditional or primitive class, no reason you can't use it for hunting though.
 Pappy

[Black Moshannon]

Guess that will work, but it won't be allowed at any 3 d shoot I have ever been to in the traditional or primitive class, no reason you can't use it for hunting though.
 Pappy

I think i'll just scrap this little idea. For one, my bows all bend in or very near the handle section so this area is for sure going to move. And thats the main problem because then the sight is going to move which can't happen if this is going to work at all.  And i'm for sure not going to be attempting to drill into the side of the bow. The local 3-D here are all compound (the odd trad guy showed up and was a real curiosity) so they're not going to understand my rig anyways. But I do need to have a setup which I can take to a traditional or primitive shoot if the need arises so there's another reason not to have an aiming setup which depends on a sight pin.

[Black Moshannon]

I can't help myself, I like to tinker and the sight pin idea has so much potential for tinkering. I have an idea for a strip of leather with marks burned on it, marks on the side of the bow just above the arrow, and this idea here, which is an advanced and adjustable sight pin. I understand that i will not be allowed into many trad competitions but the fact is that I will not likely stray outside my county where there are no trad competitions that I know of. Furthermore, I was considering messing with a fixed crawl but it has occurred to me that a fixed crawl is just a way to compensate for the distance between the eye and the back of the arrow to allow the arrow to be accurately used as a sight pin at a given distance; which is no different that a single sight pin, because all a sight pin is used for is to make up for that difference. And the sight pin allows a set area for hooking the string which does not vary, which seems better overall for the bow tune and tiller and arrow flight. Why would you want to vary that when you could just use a sight system on the bow? I will set the pin to a given distance (probably going to be twenty yards) and then I will gap with the pin between twenty yards and where I stand, and then for further distances beyond gap over.

This pin idea here is just a branch with a side branch at 90 degrees. It will be able to be adjusted up and down and then I will adjust windage by cutting or filing back the pin until it's where it needs to be.