It is unrealistic to think you will get a fifteen-yard shot on a mule deer that you’re stalking across a high plains moonscape. Forget about trying to ease within 20 yards of a resting bighorn sheep or a grazing band of antelope. Veteran western hunters know they have to be good at 40 and 50 yards if they are to have any chance at using their knife for more than camp chores. In Michigan or Pennsylvania, you will get a room full of glares if you admit to shooting a deer at 40 yards. Out west, it is the rule, not the exception.

Western hunters also face a wide range of steep uphill and downhill shots. In order to avoid a high miss, they must quickly tally the true horizontal distance. Additionally, a problem often occurs when you attempt long shots uphill or downhill with a bubble level. If the level isn’t perfectly perpendicular to the path of the bowstring, the bubble will move to one side as you tip the bow to make steep shots, throwing off your aim. This will result in all kinds of right and left misses.

This column is about choosing a bow sight that helps you solve all of these challenges.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A BOWSIGHT

I’ve started using the Sure-Loc Lethal Weapon Max, and I feel like I have finally found the perfect sight for western big game hunting. There are certainly other sights on the market with some of the same set of features. Here is what I looked for. First, I wanted a sight with five fiber optic pins that I could set for each of my yardages. Second, I wanted the entire five-pin head mounted on a slider so I could adjust it to the exact range of the shot whenever I had the time. When game was moving or things were happening fast, I left the sight at its neutral setting and used the pins. However, if I was presented with a stationary animal at an off yardage, say 54 yards, I could move my slider and aim right on.

A recent Stone sheep hunt presents the perfect example of how this process works. A band of rams lined out along the mountain, and I could tell they would pass along a trail below me. My rangefinder said it was 45 yards line of sight, and my crude clinometer reported the angle at 35 degrees. A quick calculation told me I had to aim as if the shot were actually 36 yards. I was ready. Since the rams were moving sporadically, I didn’t adjust my moveable sight to 36 yards. Instead, I chose to aim slightly low with my 40-yard pin.

When the rams got below me, they shuffled and came by two abreast. I held my finger off the trigger, breathless as a lesser ram separated me from the one I wanted. As they got farther away, I continued to hold the string and estimate their distance until finally a shot opened up to the big ram. When he stopped for a moment, I planted the 50-yard pin just low of his vitals and pulled the trigger. The arrow hit where I was aiming.

The ram had actually been 55 yards away but the steep angle made it shoot as if it was 45 yards. I didn’t have to guess where to hold the pin because I never moved it. However, had the ram been standing in one place feeding I would have set the sight so my bottom pin registered 55 yards and aimed dead-on. Having both precision and flexibility is a great attribute of a bowsight. Whenever, I’m in doubt, I leave the sight at its neutral setting and use the five pins as if it were a fixed-pin sight.

A great western sight must also have a third axis adjustment. This adjustment allows you to turn the sight head toward you or away from you so it is perfectly square to the path of the bowstring. Let’s assume that the sight head points slightly back toward you. This means the bubble level also points back toward you. That’s fine when you are shooting on level ground, but if you aim sharply downward the end of the level is now higher than the base and the bubble moves even though you haven’t canted the bow. Obviously, the act of bringing the bubble back to the center will throw off your aim and you’ll miss to the left. It would be the opposite if the sight head is skewed slightly away from you.

I first learned about this problem as a member of the U S Archery Team at the FITA World Championships in Norway in 1990. We were shooting in the fjords and there was no such thing as a level shot. During the practice tournament, I was way off on my lefts and rights. After thinking things through for a day, I realized the problem, fixed it and went on to win the individual gold medal. The lesson has stuck with me ever since and now I would never hunt rugged terrain without a sight having this important third axis adjustment.

Choosing a sight for mountain hunting is not the same as choosing a sight for tree stand hunting. If you aspire to be a western game specialist, you need a sight that solves the challenges western hunters face. In your quest for something rugged, don’t overlook other important features such as flexibility and third axis adjustment.