Advantages of a dovetail sight.

I'm looking into ordering a new sight. Think I'm going to go with a MBG Ascent with 2 pins .19 for top and .10 for the second floating pin. What I'm trying to decide on is what base to get. You can get them with a 4 or 6" dovetail or the standard base. Besides quicker detachment and being able to move your sight out a touch more are there any other advantages. Also would the 4" really even have any advantage of moving the sight further out at all anyway?

 

An adjustable bar lets you pull the sight in closer to the bow so you can get more yardage out of the setup if you want to shoot longer distances.

 

I'm glad you said that. In my head this was the other way around.

 

You will be more accurate with the sight farther from the bow, that is the purpose of a dovetail. Not really to bring it in closer... It'd be more beneficial to have the increased accuracy as you won't get much extra range from having it in closer

 

Respectfully, this really isn't the case. I thought that at one time as well though.

When I started competing in FITA and Field archery I had a tough time making 90 meters based on my peep height with my setup. I was working with a professional archery coach at the time and he recommended to pull the sight in on the sight bar. I got another several yards by doing this. When I shot the state championship in 2005 we had several hundred shooters show up and I realized that this is VERY common and most people shooting extreme long distance were all doing the same and that it didn't effect accuracy at all. I shot quite a bit of field archery as well and you will see the same thing on a lot of those setups so that guys can get 80 yards without compromising peep height. Most of these guys will set their peep height to be snug for either 40-50 yards so that doesn't help with getting the max yardage.

If you get a chance take a look at some of the Pro's setups at any type of competitive archery venue and you will see it's very rare for anyone shooting at that level to max out the sight bar on these sights. It just doesn't matter for accuracy, instead they use the adjustment to get precise sizing of the scope house inside the peep and to accomplish the max distance they need for a longer distance setup.

 

ditto on the further way sight not being necessary. In fact i am finding it to be just the opposite.

I been doing a lot experimenting torque turning my hunting set ups to gain the absolute most forgiving set up I can. Bringing the sight closer to riser has been HUGE part of that process. In fact it has made me rethink the need for at dovetail, as the standard fixed base distances are almost always more in line with positive results via torque tuning.

 

Thanks guys. Main reason I am looking at a dove tail is purpose of adjustability for my peep. I shoot a long draw length and would like to move to a 1/4" peep for light gathering. With the long draw and a bigger peep it makes it harder to get that peep lining up with the housing correctly.

 

What is torque tuning?

 

Wow! I was thinking it would be completely the opposite. Now that I've read yours and trials replies, it makes sense. Thanks to both of you guys for the clarification. My day is complete now that I learned something new. Work will have to do without me today, I can go back to bed and try again tomorrow LOL

 

Go with a bigger sight housing. 2"?

 

I guess i should have mentioned, that on MY setup, i do not gain much from having the sight in close as far as increased range. I shoot a 31" draw bow at 66lbs pushing 280fps so it's pretty flat shooting. Off my 6-pin MBG sight on a dovetail extended all the way out, i had a pin all the way out to 80yds. Now its not a concern because i shoot a Tommy Hogg which gets me out to 100. I do however believe very strongly that i personally benefit from having the sight farther out because my pins appear much more crisp and focused to me, allowing me to be more accurate especially at those long distances.

 

I certainly believe that and have experienced it myself. When I was still shooting competitively I could see .010 pins very well at any distance but now not so much.

FYI - I'm sure your current setup is working for you but if you ever need to find a different way to clear the pins up a Verifier Peep from Specialty Archery will help with that significantly. The last couple years I was shooting a lot I had to use these with various lens inserts to clear up my different setups.

 

Already have a 2" housing and that's what I'm planning on ordering as well. It fits well with the 3/16 peep. I don't know yet how much difference a 1/4" peep will make. Going to play with all that when I put my new strings on.

 

The distance between the front sight and peep (rear) sight is like the sight radius in dealing with the front and rear sights on firearms. the greater the sight radius the less affect sight alignment error will have on arrow impact but also the less range adjustment the sights will have. The shorter the sight radius will increase the impact of sight alignment error however it will increase the range of adjustment the sights have. you can prove this using a 12 inch ruler and a 36 inch ruler. if you move the end of each of them by 1/8 inch the change in where they point is far greater on the 12 inch ruler than on the 36 inch ruler. Unless you shoot at longer ranges and need the added adjustment in your sight, you will benefit from moving your front sight out to increase sight radius PROVIDED YOUR FOCUS ON PINS AND THE SIGHT HOUSING FIT IN THE PEEP ARE NOT A PROBLEM.

 

I just ordered my sight. I went ahead with the dovetail mount so I have plenty of adjustability in my setup, and I just like the way they look. Thanks for all the input. I had some stuff turned around in my head.