I like to start with humor or some kind of story line in a hunting or equipment article.
We all remember the Wild West movies of the past, with rifles & Six Shooters blazing away with very few Homo sapiens hitting the hard deck. Maybe the rifles or six shooters weren’t very accurate or maybe the shooters weren’t focusing on the target at hand! As we know though, most were accurate up the distance warranted. Take a minute to think about the sights on most of those rifles and Six Shooters, even going into the 21st Century! Rear V and Front Post!
There are very few bow hunters or archers that don’t have a firearm in their arsenal of hunting or target shooting equipment. In all shooting, it is about hitting the target or game with the utmost accuracy and being able to do that we have to be focus in depth on the target. This is not always about the amount of time to do so, but the accuracy of having all coming together in the moment.
Just think about any other sport that may include a single ball and getting the ball into the hoop, a hole in the ground or into the hands of a wide receiver. The shooter has to focus mentally or have the natural talent to target the target…
My mind comes to two instances! I saw this happen, years ago with Brian Henninger hitting balls during a golf tournament practice session. He was deliberately hitting a tent within inches of the same spot every time at about 260 yards. One fellow said, “man” he is missing the pin”, little did he know that Brian was having fun. Brain was quite focused on hitting the spot on the top of the meeting tent.
What about this year (2014) with the Portland Trailblazer player with .6 tenths of a second to get an inbound shot off and doing so and making the 3 point throw and winning the game for the Trailerblazers. There was nothing about luck, but a man that was in the zone of focus!
Over the years as I have said before I have had the privilege to shoot with many different bow sights and optics on rifles. (What the heck, I have the privilege to use lots of hunting and shooting items over the last 40 years)
To this day I still have Duplex Crosshairs on all my rifles, forcing me to focus to the center. Knowing your weapon of choice and how it shoots is most likely the most important thing. With the speed of the modern day compound bow we have a greater advantage to make shots at greater distances with less drop of the arrow in flight.
As I write about optics – sights that attach to the rifle, guns, crossbow (legal states) and bows, there are so many that have multiple pins in the archery side and in the rifle or gun side we have tactical reticles and BDC Turrets (bullet drop compensator) which are all great. I find the BDC and multiple dot reticles in the firearm side to be great when you have time to dial in the yardage out to great distances or a bench shooter working on fractions. Otherwise most will have a favorite yardage to go by when setting up. As for bow sights I personally feel in the days of slower bows the multiple pins were my choice, yet I would have my 40 yard pin, the one pin that was different in color, it was my go to pin to get the job done when I was in the combat field mode of hunting for big game without the rangefinder. I guess it is good thing I have played some golf in my life.
Those that have shot target bows at the 20 yards with 3 spot & 5 spot targets indoor normally always had a long adjustable bar (extension) with a head and globe sight with a single dot or pin. We could fine tune the sight to make the X’s!
In my days of shooting small bore indoor rifles (22LR Caliber) at 50 feet competitively, it was all about the International or Olympic globe sights that usually had a circle aperture on the front sight you would have the bull (target bull) centered. You learn to breath, focus and make sure before squeezing the trigger that the bull was perfectly centered so you could make an X.
In 2013 I was introduced to the HHA Sports Optimizer Bow Sights and was I able to shoot the 5519 model after an old hunting buddy told me about the sights. What is great about the sight, as I chose this particular model as it is a pendulum style adjustment, though HHA Sports has a dial style also, is that it is a single pin on a moveable pendulum and I can shoot accurately from 10 yards to 80 yards. If I know the yardage I do not have to anything other than move the lever up or down to the marked yardage on the sight with my thumb, yet not lose my grip on the bow. Otherwise I leave it at 40 yards in the field and 30 yards in a treestand.
The RDS TECHNOLOGY to setup the sight is made easy:
“R.D.S. is a patented sight in tape system that eliminates the need for multiple pins or crosshairs to shoot various distances with vertical bow, crossbow or firearm. It allows you to focus on a single dot or reticule, dial to the distance of the target and shoot. The clutter and confusion of 3, 5 and 7 pins on a bow or 5 or 6 lines in a scope are removed and replaced with one aiming point. This results in increased accuracy and higher confidence in the field and on the range!”
If I haven’t said it before it is always about the optics on any weapon or shooting device. If the weapon or shooting device is sound, the only reasons not to be able to a hit a “shootable target” is the shooter or the sight for the most part in shootable conditions.
Take the movie “The Greatest Game Ever Played”, you’ll see in the movie how the golf gallery disappears and the golfer sees only the ball in flight to the hole! As one of my work buddies says “See it before it happens”.
Try one of the HHA Sports sight system on your bow, rifle, gun or crossbow and you won’t be sorry, you might even be able to make that shot you passed up the year before, if the occasion arises! It will take the complexity of out of the picture and allowing you to focus to the target and accomplish your Mission!
