Negatives of a long dovetail

[Broken Compass]

Three or so years ago I decided to switch from a fixed pin (spot Hogg 7dp) to a slider, at the time I noticed the top archers had long dovetail sights even hunting rigs, after a few minutes of research "more accurate" is all I needed to know to buy a CBE tek hunter on a dovetail. I immediately put it out there on its furthest setting and left it there. I never really noticed a difference in accuracy other than being able to dial exact yardages but as far as group sizes, no change. So I just shot that way until now and never really thought much about it.
Well I just bought a new bow and switched my sight over. I have been struggling with it but I blame improperly spined arrows and a peep that is too big to align with my housing (even after moving my sight all the way in). Anyway after putting my original spot Hogg back on my PSE I used the gang adjustment to get it on at 20 and then just moved back 10 yards and shot 3 arrows then back 10 more and repeated, so on and so on. I couldn't believe the groups I was shooting! All the way back to 70. It makes no sense to me because my spot Hogg pin covers the dot at 20 yards and my cbe pin fits inside the dot (on the target) at 20 yards.
The next day I called the pro shop to ask about what sight to buy for my wife's bow. Looking at the tommy Hogg but really like the dovetail on the black gold, and the cbe. In our conversation he mentioned that he had sold people dovetail sights who couldn't handle them and ended up returning them for a hard mount sight. I have been thinking about that for a few days and wondering if that is me.
I have never thought about the negatives of a long dovetail or even know what they are or understand why. Can somebody shed some light on this for me.
Thanks.

 

[OR Archer]

Sights like that need to be set up for the bow that they are going to be on. That includes using the proper size peep for the sight housing and leveling the sight to the particular bow its mounted to. If you have the dovetail extended and you are running to large of a peep you'll never be able to get proper sight alignment which will result in poor accuracy. Same goes for too small of a peep. And of course an improperly leveled sight is going to throw your accuracy off as well, especially on inclined shots.

So just slapping the sight from one bow to the other is not going to produce good results a lot of the time.

 

[Broken Compass]

I understand peep to housing alignment and have always made sure that is good when setting up a new sight, I spent a while getting the peep in the perfect spot in the string and must have overlooked the peep size when setting up my new bow but noticed it was not right as soon as I got home, I just have not had a chance to get a smaller peep for it yet.
Also it makes sense that the farther out there the sight is the more crucial it becomes that it is level.
What I am really wondering about I guess is when your sight is out there the movement of the pin is magnified, which I have looked at in the past as a good thing, because it forces you to try to minimize that movement, but now I am starting to wonder if somehow this doesn't hinder me more than it helps if I can't manage that much pin movement, where as with my other setup (close pins) they don't seem to move at all on the target, so I can relax and pull through a good shot.
The part that confuses me is that my close steady pin covers up half the target (at distance) where as I feel my pin on my dovetail sight bounces around, but still within the spot the other pin covers.
Maybe this makes no sense to anyone but that's the best I can explain it.

 

[OR Archer]

If you are having a hard time holding on target perhaps there are other things in your set up you need to be looking at or even at your form itself.

Draw length, draw weight, stabilizer weight, improper cam timing. All of these things can factor into how the bow holds on target.

As far as form goes it could be your front hand grip, anchor, or even your stance. Lots of variables here as well.

Yes you are correct that a sight on a dove tail will float more but it still should be controllable. If it's not there are other underlying issues that may need to be addressed to help you hold on target better.

 

[Thomas Hermann]

It is no different than in the target world some guys can shoot a 1.0 diopter lens and it is no big deal seeing all the movement. They can relax and make a good shot while the dot never settles. On the other side of the coin having a larger pin or having pins closer to your bow riser has the same effect, it will "appear" steadier. We all know that we still have the same float but you may be more comfortable with a smaller "perceived" float. Also the farther out your sight is the more torque can affect you poi (left and right issues). my 2 cents.

 

[JDZ]

OR Archer mentioned front hand grip. If you aren't holding the bow completely torque-free, the long dovetail will only magnify the problem.