Shooting one pin

[jerseyhunter]

Who shoots one pin and what range is it sited for? Getting to old and helpless to be shooting long anymore. Might have to crank down a few pounds, or lose some.

[Cousin Brown]

I shoot an HHA single pin.  I leave it at 20 yds & with MY bow its good to about 25 dead on.  Any further I can either compensate or adjust the dial.

[Hatchet]

I use a VitalGear Profix single pin that I bought in 04 set at 20 yards . 10, 20 n 25 yrd is dead on with my 06 Hoyt Trkon ! Cause my vision is getting bad will not attempt a shot on any deer past 20 yrds

[BHC]

HHA for me. It's a slider type but I keep set in place 0-40 yds. Always shot max weight at 70# now maxed out at 60#

Edited September 13, 2013 by BHC

[Matty]

I used to hunt with one pin. But I found it actually over-complicated things.

 

Yes, shooting is easier with just one pin to focus on, I definitely shoot a little better like that because my mind loves the simple, uncluttered sight picture.

 

 

Here's where everything can go bad though. I don't have a long draw length, and the most I ever used to hunt with was about 67#.  Now I only use 50#. And arrows were heavier, so I didn't get a real flat trajectory.

 

I mean I could use one pin out to about 24ish or so if it was set at like 21yards. But after that I'd start to hit too low.

 

Now you can compensate, which is fine up to about 30ish...But compensating past that would be difficult.

 

The next thing you could do, is range the average shot in your spot and move the pin to that. However, if you get a shot further, (or maybe even closer)...You have to remember to compensate and know what kind of compensation is needed.

 

You can also accidentally forget that you dialed the sight into 60 last night for some long range practice and never moved it back to 20 for the hunt. At first you'll wonder how you could miss so high, but it will come back to you pretty quickly. Trust me.

 

 

If you're going to shoot one pin for hunting, I'd suggest just fixing it at a certain distance. You could still use it on a slider so you can practice longer ranges, or dial in on rare occasion for a longer shot, but just make one mark on that sight that is specifically for HUNTING. And sight it in at a distance that gives you the best accuracy at several yardages with the least amount of compensation.

 

You'll have to play with that because each setup is different, but an example might be...sighting in at 23 yards dead on, could allow you to be very accurate from 0-28 or so....And just hold a little high past that.

 

Or maybe sight in at 27 and be good to about 35. Again, every setup is different and some people can get a lot of yardage out of one pin. I'm not one of those people, so I went to 5 pins. Even then, I don't sight them dead in at 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60. I actually sight them in a little off to give me the best margin of error. I still call them my 20, 30, 40, etc....but they are actually something like 22, 34, 39, 47 and 60. (I have it written down somewhere because it did take a while of trial and error to figure out the best sight in distances).

 

I almost never use a rangefinder while bowhunting whitetails because of my "room for error" system. I really don't shoot deer past 30ish anymore anyway. So it's basically just a two pin system for hunting. Close pin and far pin. The others are all just for practice and now elk hunting. Now the two pin system that I use (minus the clutter of all my extra pins at the moment.....is one I would highly recommend for bowhunting whitetails.

 

I literally think of them as "close pin and far pin"  And I know what "close and far" look like to me. Anything out past 25ish is "far" Everything else is "close". Really simplifies things after you figure out exactly what distances you need to sight in for.

 

Think about trying that before you go just one pin. Unless that works for you....Everyones different.

[Ms Grit]

Kjell, I just put a HHA Single Pin Site on my Matthews and will be hunting with it this year for the first time. It's alot easier on the eyes only looking through the site with 1 pin. I have it set at 20 yards and have also set it up for 25. Let's hope if I do decide to take a 25 yard shot that I actually remember to slide it to the 25 yard position. I'll let you know more after I actually shoot something using it.

[Blend No 27]

I like your style of thinking Matty. i do the whole close pin(0-25)/far pin(23-35) for hunting purposes. i have a 3 pin sight i call the 3 pins 20, 30, and 40 yard pins. if i have to use the 3rd pin, that animal gets a pass

[Palawman30]

I use 1 pin on my Bowtech Assassin. I have it set at 29" at 65 lbs nd 20 yards shooting carbon express maxima blue streaks.

At 10yards its an inch high. Im comfortable shooting out to 35 with no problem. I tried 3 pins but the pins were to close together. As soon as I sit I range EVERYTHING around me so I know before a deer comes in

[jerseyhunter]

Thanks for all the good info. and yes Matty happened once, it only took minutes to get the picture. And it was a bruiser.