Trick Pin & Welcome Darin Cooper - Check out his best archery tech article!

[Mckinnon]

Darin,

With rifles it is similar to sighting in for maximum point blank range (MPBR), and ballistic calculators (like JBM) have a function that calculates the optimum sight in range for your specific load and intended target size.

Yup, I always sight in my rifles for MPBR. That being said, makes perfect sense for a bow too! Thanks for the article Darin, I hope to try it out this weekend.

 

[MJ from Oregon]

That was shared with me last year from a friend that heard it from a guy at Hoyt. Interesting

Thanks

MJ

 

[Travis Bertrand]

That was shared with me last year from a friend that heard it from a guy at Hoyt. Interesting

Thanks

MJ

Interesting. Lol

 

[realunlucky]

That's awesome I've never thought of it like that great article

 

[vcb]

Thanks DC. When I "was" a rifle hunter I used the same type of concept. I'm a bowhunter only now and never thought to use the concept with my bow....Thanks for the article.

 

[Rent Outdoor Gear]

That was shared with me last year from a friend that heard it from a guy at Hoyt. Interesting

Thanks

MJ

Hmmm... Wonder who that could have been??? ;D

 

[Bearcat]

Awesome article! Excited to try it out. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and your time and effort for writing the article.

 

[Rent Outdoor Gear]

Darin,

With rifles it is similar to sighting in for maximum point blank range (MPBR), and ballistic calculators (like JBM) have a function that calculates the optimum sight in range for your specific load and intended target size.

I agree that it's a similar concept, but still different in that MPBR is the max range you can hold on-target and still keep it in the vital from zero to (X) Yards. You could in effect extend MPBR by aiming low with a higher zero range with your rifle but you would sacrifice being able to hit short range tagets. Obviously MPBR stands for point blank so the term would not apply any more since we are sacrificing point blank range for long-range.

With a bow the short range part is mostly irrelevant because at 10 yards all your pins are on a bull elk. I don't have a good ballistic calculator with graphical output to experiement with the rifle example here at the moment, but I'm sure somebody does... Here's an example graph of a 223 sighted in at various distances I found.

This 223 sighted in at 300 yards (purple) has 10.5" of trajectory. If we used the same principle as the trick pin and assume you have a miss tolerance of 6" (10.5" high to 4.5" high), then your effective range window is between ranges of about 60 and 270 yards (aiming 7.5" low while sighted in at 300). Using the same +/- 3" tolerance and the MPBR method you would have an effective window of about 0 - 225 yards (that's an estimate since there is no bullet path shown with a max of 3" of trajectory between the black and yellow lines).

A .223 is ballistically anemic, but it helps to illustrate the difference between MPBR and this concept. There is definitely a bigger trade-off with a rifle, but who knows... for the right application or the right person it might be the right answer.

Coop

 

[MJ from Oregon]

Hmmm... Wonder who that could have been??? ;D

Kevin Wilkey

 

[MJ from Oregon]

Been playing with it..............AMAZING!!!!

 

[Matt Cashell]

Thanks Darin,

I got ya. Same concept but further out. Cool.

 

[Rent Outdoor Gear]

Kevin Wilkey

So much for KDub keeping a secret!

 

[Ross]

That is an impressive article Darin! Nice job...........

 

[Evan Williams]

Darin,

AWESOME!! Heard something about this a few months back after Bill got back from a Dealer School ( I think you know where ). Great to have it in writing to see things

 

[les welch]

Thanks Darin, very interesting. 2 questions.

1) Do you suppose this will influence target panic, but not actually holding "on target"?
2) I wonder heat of moment will this cause issues of "aiming low/or not aiming low"?

Will be fun to play with. Thanks.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

I shoot a longbow so it is a moot point for me with a bow. However,
my rifle is sighted dead on at 300 yards and I am not more than 5
inches high inside of 300... Similar concept, (I think).

 

[justin davis]

Great addition. Cooper is probably the most knowledgable guy out there wheb it comes to archery technical info!

Great article too. Couple guys I know use a single pin similar to this. Use one pin out to 40 yards and dial for shots further.

To me if your gonna use this system a single pin makes the most sense over a multi pin. Darin- ever thought or tried hunting with just a single pin?

 

[Jared Bloomgren]

Congrats Darin!

 

[Rent Outdoor Gear]

Actually, no I always use 5 - 7 pins. However, I do sight in and know where my trick pin distance is. 90% of the time when I set up on elk with a caller, I'm in trick pin mode and I laser to find the edges of that range. Anything inside that circle is definitely going to take a ride in my backpack.

I like to minimize having to mess with stuff when I'm hunting. That's why I have sight pins out to 80 yards. If I can get a range on a critter at 70 and I need to hurry, I can shoot without adjusting the site. If I laser a shooting hole that a buck is about to walk throuh at 65 yards, I want to be able to jerk the bow back and shoot. That's my personal reason for not using a single pin slider. I can shoot one more accurately than a multi-pin sight, but I guarantee that a single pin sight will eventually cost you a shot if you hunt in the wide open spaces of the west. There are too many situations when you don't have time to adjust. Same reasoning I perfected the trick pin. Sometimes there's no time to think about range either - if it's close, kill it. I like to simplify things because there's too much to go wrong when you're bowhunting. Try to eliminate as many variables (or steps in the process) as possible with everything... especially my gear, my shooting, and my bow.

Coop

 

[justin davis]

Yea I am a 7 pin guy. Have always shot 7 pin 20-80 yard pin configuration. Have considered hunting with just a single pin moveable, but kinda scared too.

So with your 7 pin config. Your 1st pin is your trick pin...and set at approx 50 yards? Then remainder of the pins from there?