Pin Spacing
 

I've been bow hunting for a few years now. I have a Mathews Icon and a sight with three pins. I notice the first pin is good from 0-25, the third pin is high at 30 and low at 35. The pins are very close the way I have it sighted in. I would like to change it but don't know what the intervals should be. Should I be spacing them differently? Any help is appreciated.

most people go 10-20-30-40 and so on. If i go back to a fixed sight i'll start at 20 and go in ten yard incriments.

Warning: From a 1 year novice.

I have 5 pins and I plan to use 4 this year. I have one from 25 yards in, then one at 30, 35 and 40. I am accurate out to 40 yards, and I found that with my bow the arrow drop over 10 yards was enough (4-5 inches) that it made sense to have them at 5 yard increments, that way I will be able to aim dead center at any yardage out to 40.

I would recommend setting the top pin for 20 yards, then 30 for the second, and 40 yards for the 3rd (bottom). You'll find this the most common setting.

You don't need a 10 yard pin for hunting as the point of impact with the 20 yard pin is only about an inch high at 10 yards.

You don't need pins at 5 yard increments. Doing so only clutters the sight picture, blocking out more of the intended target/animal. All you need to do in such cases, such as a shot at 25 yards, is gap between the 20 and 30 yard pins. At 35 yards just gap between the 30 and 40 yard pins.

Depending on where you live and hunt you might find that almost all your shots tend to be less than 30 yards. If this is the case then I've found that any bow shooting an arrow at about 260 fps and above can be sighted in for 25 yards and effectively used from 0 to 30 yards with just a mid-body hold on deer sized game. The high point of the arrows arc will be about 1 3/4" high at 18 yards and the drop at 30 yards should be just about 3". Using this criteria means that with a mid-body hold on most deer, if the shot is 30 yards you'll take out the top of the heart.---------No guessing yardage , holding high or low. To accomplish this you can use a single pin or an adjustable sight set for 25 yards.

I like to use just 3 pins..15-25-35. I have one set at 15 for the simple reason that is the distance that I can pratice with at home.

Sights in general are extremely subjective. There is no definitive answer to your question other than you need to simply find what works best for you. As long as you can see your pins and know where they are set respectively.... that will guide you to your mark. They are just a reference point.

Personally, I am a one pin guy. If you have a top pin set at 25 yards.... and most of your shots are going to be 15-25 yards... I think you pretty well have it down. Most shots are closer than that even anyway.

I normally start at 20 and set them 10 yards apart using my five pin Spott Hogg, however this year because I'm shooting real heavy, 543 GN total arrow weight, I set them starting at 20 and five yard increments out to 40 yards ( first time ever I limited myself to 40 yards). So far seems to be working real good.

I started last year with 23,30,35,40,45.

This leaves my top pin in the kill untill about 27 but if it gets beyond 25,I use both my 23 and 30.

With the smaller pins,it isn't as cluttered as 1 might think but might be more cluttered than a newby might need.

Thanks for the help everyone