GrayDawg

I received a request in another thread to do a write up regarding my targeting/sight set up on my new Mathews Switchback XT. This may get long, so I'll apologize ahead of time.

My new Mathews Switchback XT is set up- The AimPoint CompC3 Red-Dot Sight took a little more tweaking than I expected- but it is now shooting DEAD NUTS out to 25 yards. The HHA Optimizer Light Plus Adjustable Sight Mount is super easy to adjust from one yardage to another (I initially set my first yardage marker at 15 yards, then bumped up to 25 yards). I'm literally hitting spots the size of quarters at 15 yards and spots the size of Silver Dollars at 25 yards.

Here's the rig- complete with the 8", 11 ounce B-Stinger Sport Hunter Stabilizer in Lost Camo. I have a simple, APA Ultimate Arrow Rest (prong style) and finished it off with a Jager grip. The only thing not on this bow right now is the MeanV CSS which is on it's way. The bow is set up for a 28" draw length at 67 lbs. of pull.



I was torn between this bow & the DXT. I went to my bowsmith's shop 4-5 times over the course of a month and shot both bows multiple times. The DXT was lighter and had a shorter ATA, but what finally won me over on the SBXT was it's absolutely solid/stable shooting platform & smooth as butter draw cycle.

Even my wife, when she came down to the basementlast night to get something & saw the bow propped up in the holder on my workbench, said "Wow!". I save my "wows" for after I'm done shooting it every night.

I love the AimPoint CompC3 Red-Dot sight. Here's some of my reasons for me going with this specific Brand/model:

- Wide open field of view with no other pins (or pin stems) disrupting my Field of View.

- Unlimited eye relief.

- 9 brightness settings to accomodate for varying degrees of light during legal shooting hours.

- removes the need for a peep on the string- no more peep rotation when at full draw or even worse- in low light conditions (or when shooting at darker targets like black bear), no looking though the peep only to see nothing as your iris opens up to compensate for the low light- but you're contrasting that by attempting to look through a reduced FOV peep.

- "Parallex free" Red-Dot (not like 80% of the Red-Dots on the Market). This means that once sighted in, as soon as you see the dot as you are coming to anchor, wherever the red-dot is, is where the arrow will hit. This is a huge factor as this allows the user to zero in on the target simultaneously as they are coming to anchor- not after they have established anchor, saving critical time in small window of opportunity shooting situations. This dot is NOT a laser that projects onto the target.
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As far as being able to easily change between yardages- it's not an issue. On the back spine of the HHA sight, you run a piece of white tape (about 1/3 of an inch wide) across the entire width of the spine. You then pick a yardage you want to sight in at (I picked 15 yards) and loosen the very stable, durable sight adjustment knob to loosen the fulcrum lever and raise/lower the sight to the height needed in order to hit the target at 15 yards. Once you have done this, you mark a horizontal line on the tape that aligns with the gold pin that emerges from the center of the adjustment knob and runs along the back of the sight's spine.

You repeat this process for as manyyardage settings you want to have. I've sighted in for 15, 25 & 35yards so far. I plan to sight in for 45 yards and that will be it. When I'm done, I'll have four horizontal lines on the tape on thespine of my sight- one each for 15, 25, 35 & 45 yards. In the link below, the spine I'm referring to, is indicated by the blue arrow & the lines you would mark on the tape (along the spine) are indicated by the red lines.

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0WQCMGTwcnBOYmE66oafnSpWoyyWCYR1OmpXiMYGFdise0z*R* B!KYFqxbEmt*Xhr8ePYWx8dzUiRK8LmCHBVhGtYDsspR2FjBQ4 Chqh77rrJ8PYC7*aCLEGBySXrnxW59i8NVkhWB5E/P?dc=4675682755108263853

I've already practiced going from my 15 yard setting to the 25 yard setting. It took me 6 seconds to loosen, adjust & re-tighten the adjustment knob with my release hand while my bow hand is holding the bow. The adjustment knob is indicated by the red arrow in link below. As the knob moves up, the sight cantalevers down (for settings of further distances):

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0WABMG8cbGu2YmE66oafnSj43pC1C7PE0BzNdg3WshFXbVzMUT ttaqapgzurY4!7ub3uyLOqOyjs2tSgHeGSflh0eqip7gFfKpui RJwOqhgd0WL1*ejOQkSoY4qZ0ZlA3SAAAAP****8/P?dc=4675682753750199967

You could set this sight & sight mount up for shots as far away as you want- 60, 70, 80- even 90 yards if you want. It's all a matter of taking the time to sight in and make your markings given the distances you want. Everyone has a different anchor point- some high, some low. Everyone has bows with riser designs that require different clearances for the sight. Everyone has different physical dimensions that affect how they hold the bow & where their eye is in relation to the riser/string angle. This HHA OL Plus Adjustable Sight Mount will give the user the ability to account for all of the aforementioned variables. Here's a close up of the mount/sight from the scope side, notice the weaver base that allows the scope quite a broad rangefrom forward to aft orientation. I have it positioned fairly forward:

Now the obvious question would be, "What if your sight setting is at one yardage & your quarry all of a sudden appears at a different yardage?" To that, my answer is as follows:

- If my sight setting was at 25 yards & the target was at 35 yards

* I could take the time to adjust my sight setting knob to my 35 yard setting
* I could simply aim a tad high at my current 25 yard setting

Once I have my four pre-set sight adjustments marked, I will probably do a lot of experimenting at the "in between" distances:

* how high do I have to aim at 30 yards with my 25 yard setting?
* how low do I have to aim at 20 yards with my 25 yard setting?
* how high do I have to aim at 40 yards with my 35 yard setting?

......... and so on. This way, if time is of the essence and for some crazy reason I don't have 6 seconds to loosen, re-set & tighten the sight adjustment knob on the HHA, I'll be prepared for a "tweener"!

Well that's it for now- told you it wold be long! Any questions?

Rob

kwilson16

Thanks Graydawg,
A while ago, you mentioned some difficulties with the intial set-up. Obviously, you overcame those?
Thanks for the excellent write-up,
Kevin

GrayDawg

Kevin,
Yes- you are correct. I did have an initial elevation adjustment issue when first picking up the bow from my bowsmith (who had never before put an AimPoint CompC3 Red-Dot sight on a bow using an HHA Optimizer Lite Plus Adjustable sight mount- so we were both learning as we went). However, my elevationissue wasrectifiedby looseningthe two screws that attach the HHA mount to the bow. I canted the front of the scope slightly downward so as to accomodate my high anchor point & all my problems went away. Some fine tuning with the windage adjustment got me dead nuts up the middle.

In the picture below, you can see the 2 screws that had to be loosened in order to cant the front end of the scope ever so slightly downward/forward. The top screw (highlighted with red circle/red arrow) is in a slotted hole. The bottom screw (highlighted with yellow circle/yellow arrow) is in a standard hole. Simply slightly loosening these two screws and tilting/canting the front end of the scope forward solved all my problems.

Rob

kwilson16

I guess I'm just wondering why more people haven't tried this...

Anyone?

GrayDawg

Kevin,
This isn't an inexpensive sight/targeting solution. The AimPoint goes for around $379, the HHA mount goes for around $95. I think it's a little too rich for the typical bowhunter's blood.

I justified this expense in the following manner:

- The next few bows I buy will be for my two young sons who are growing at a rate where I'll be needing to upgrade them quite often to accomodate growing draw length & increase lbs. of pull. I'll be spending the money on my oldest son- and his "outgrown" bows will be passed down to his little brother. The sunny side to this story is that both boys & myself are all lefties. Once my oldest can pull 60 lbs., he'll inherit my Outback.

- I hadn't purchased a new bow since '04 when I bought my Outback, so I've been "good".

- I used an AimPoint MPS3 Red-Dot Sight on my Barrett M82A .50Cal when I was in The Navy during my "Goverment funded vacation at the beach". I did two tours in Iraq and I humped my Barrett & that AimPoint sight through the most hostile environmental conditions anyone could ever imagine- salt water, sand, seering heat........ and the AimPoint Sight never faltered. Now, the MPS3 was a VERY expensive, military-grade sighting system (that I didn't have to pay for), but the quality was there. So it formed a lasting impression on me regarding the ruggedness, accuracy,reliability & durability of the AimPoint products. The CompC3 sight shows the same quality of worksmanship, finish, accuracy& durability of it's military counterpart-however, ata "civilian" pricepoint.

So given these three driving factors, I 'fessed up the geeders and set myself up with a sweet drawing bow that has an unparalleled target acquisition/sighting system. My sight picture is COMPLETELY unobstructed (not even ONE pin stem blocking my FOV). The only object "blocking" my view is the Red-Dot, which can be dialed to 9 different brightness settings. On the lower 4 settings, the dot is so small, it's like a pinhole- I can literally pickthe hairbehind a whitetail's shoulder where I want my arrow to go.

If someone really wants to spoil themself, has the money, doesn't want to deal with peep rotation, wants to take weight off their string & open up their sight picture- thissolution a viable alternative to consider.

Rob

Fieldmouse

I've been shooting a pollington red dot scope for about 8 years. No offense graydawg but I have no idea why yours was so difficult to set up. All you need to do it stand aprox 10 to 15' away from your target. Shoot at the center and manual move the sight to within 2" of dead center. Then use the screw adjustments to get it centered. This is the perfect placement for aprox. 25 yrds.Just practice and aim a little higher for 35 yrd and 45 yrd shots.

your bennifit however I'm in total agreement with.

GrayDawg

Fieldmouse,
I never said it was "so difficult" to set up, I only stated that I had an initial sight elevation issue.
This was due to the fact that I have a higher than average anchor point which put the scope
below my straighline FOV. Once I put the fix in (day after I picked it at from my 'smith), all was
good. The next day, I was hitting targets the size of Silver Dollars from 25 yards.

Peace,

Rob

Fieldmouse

That's cool. Try next time doing it at 10'. That's the distance I've done mine. It takes all of 5 mins most and your good to go. Just use one arrow and a good target. Be careful to not shoot through your target. I sank my arrow into my brick siding a 1/2 of inch.[:@]

GrayDawg

Fieldmouse,
Please don't take this the wrong way- but we don't shoot the same bows, or the same arrows. Nor do I even know if we have the same draw length or if we're pulling the same poundage. Therefore, I feel pretty confident in saying that my arrows are traveling at a different FPS than yours.

If I want to know where my arrows will hit at 25 yards, I don't sight in from 10 feet away- I sight in from 25 yards away. When I hit the black dots on my Block target 3 times- then I know I've found my setting for that yardage. This does wonders for my confidence level when the moment of truth arrives as I'm not guessing about aiming 2 inches high or 2 inches low.

Thanks for the advice, but I'm going to stick to doing it the old fashioned way- the hard way....... the tried & true way.

Have a great upcoming season.

Rob

Rob/PA Bowyer

Personally I see no reason to try it plus in PA, I don't believe it's a legal sight.

Plus, I'm already doing this with pin sights so why would I want that thing on my bow?

I also hate the thought of adjusting my sight depending on what the deer do. I'll take fixed pins over that sight anyday.

No offense. I'm glad you love it but it's not for me.