Here is a design for an archery sight I have been working on. Traditionally there is an array of pins that project into the ring and are individually adjustable for set ranges (20, 30, and 40 yards). When a target enters your line of sight you need to be able to accurately gauge the distance to the target to know which pin to use. Most people are not that good at it and the problem is worse when you are also elevated, simple trigonometry but you don’t have time to scratch it out on paper. Many use a hand held range finder but the problem I have with this is that you cannot draw your bow and use the range finder at the same time.

I’ve miniaturized the range finder and bolted it onto the sight mount. The range data is then fed to a LCD screen that is mounted in the sight circle that is readable when the bow is drawn giving you the information you need to make a pin choice with the closest adjustment. Since this is basically a HUD you could stay at draw if the target continues to move towards an exact pin setting as long as you can hold your draw.

I’ve also removed the pins and used three lasers instead. Each would be adjusted to set ranges just as traditional pins are but they would display point of impact at range instead of a ballistic reference at the bow as pins provide. You would take the range data and then select which laser to use (20, 30, or 40) and turn on that laser with one of the three tactile switches which would mount on the bow grip. One push turns on the laser constantly, another makes it flash for aiding recognition and a third turns it off.

Model in MoI and render in Hypershot. I will be piecing this together eventually and will let everyone know how it works out.

TriClops------!!!!!

Great mate!

Brian

Nice work Grendel!
Archery has come along way since Robin Hood :) It seems these sports are kind of loosing the human skill set and being replaced by technology, sad really.

Cheers

Hi Grendel, that is a really cool idea, I'm very interested to know how it works out!

I still have a bow but it has been a really long time since I have used it...

Looking over your sight, one thing I'm not sure about is having a pressure switch for on/off? Just thinking about if you like to have a loose style grip with the bottom fingers.. Something else being in there might not be so comfortable?

What about maybe just an on/off toggle switch slightly above the grip?

EDIT: Ooops sorry I didn't read it all properly, I see now that you have more to it than just a rangefinder so what I was thinking was a pressure grip is actually those 3 laser switches, sorry!

- Michael

Thanks Brain and Danny - I know what you are saying about the technology, there is actually a big resurgence in using long bows and recurve bows just because of that.

Michael - Thanks, it turned out really well. I've only been shooting a bow for about a year and I still look at everything when I go to a Pro Shop and it just seemed like this was an option that was missing. The O & S company name is actually Orlan & Scott, Scott is my co-workers first name and I would bounce ideas off of him because he's been an archer for years. I'm going to make a faux ad page sheet and print it out at work. There are about six others there that hunt with a bow so I want to see there reaction to it as if it were an product already available. What kind of bow do you have? I use a BowTech Sniper, a couple others use BowTech, Martin, and Mathews.

Hi Grendel,

> What kind of bow do you have?

Nothing fancy, just a Browning compound bow that I've had since I was a teenager.

I would think that people may also be interested in just the rangefinder part without the lasers, it looks like that could be a pretty easy configuration to offer as well.

- Michael

Yeah, I'm working on a retrofit kit that would bolt on to existing normal pin sights. I think I can offer something like that for $200. One negative with using a laser for a sight is that it can perform poorly in fog/mist because of the water vapor in the air acting as dispersion agent. Also working on a 100% HUD sight but I'll post more on that when I've worked out a few details. From a marketing point of view it's usually better to have less expensive add-ons than just a single large purchase item. It's easier to hide the small costs form your wife ;)....