What Bow Accessories to Purchase

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Bow Accessories

If you plan on hunting with a quiver attached to your bow, practice with your quiver attached to your bow! This not only increases shooting familiarity, but a bow mounted quiver can alter accuracy if it has not been tuned to accurately shoot with a quiver mounted to it. Hunter shown wearing Lost Camo.

Bowhunting is a very personal sport. The reasons each hunter goes afield are purely subjective and so is the hunting equipment they use. This is clearly evident by the incredible amount of bow accessories made available to today’s archer. These accessories allow bowhunters to completely customize their bow to give it a unique look and feel while increasing performance and shooting accuracy.

In its most technical definition, an accessory is a complimentary or supplementary object, used for convenience, attractiveness or to enhance performance. This excludes any necessary piece of equipment on your bow like your string simply because you can’t shoot a bow without a string. All other gear attachments are considered bow accessories and we are going to take a look at many of them.

Bow accessories certainly have come a long way over the past several decades. Stabilizers that were once solid pieces of metal meant as a simple counter balance are now noise and vibration reduction devices. Metal sight pins painted with white-out have been replaced by wrapped fiber optics, and flipper-style rests have upgraded to micro adjustable drop away rests. With today’s bow accessories, your possibilities are endless in terms of customizing your setup to meet your needs.

Bow Sights

One of the first accessories you’ll want to purchase is a bow sight. The most obvious benefit of a bow sight is improved accuracy over instinctive shooting; especially at longer distances. Three major features to consider when looking for a bow sight are bright fiber optic pins, a bubble level and circular pin guard. Each of these features can be found on most of today’s sights from $50 economy models all the way to $200 high-end models.

Fiber optic pins provide increased visibility in low-light situations where aiming can become more difficult. Many bow sights now include wrapped fibers that can be several feet long. These fibers help to collect light and focus it at the end of your pin, making it easier to pick out in dim conditions. When using a sight with fiber optic pins, be careful not to break a fiber. In cold conditions the fibers can become brittle and easily broken if caught in a branch on your way to your treestand. A few sights, such as the Axcel Armortech, now feature fully protected pins to prevent this from happening. A circular pin guard works as an anchor reference when using in conjunction with peep sight. Many archers will align the circle of their peep with the circular pin guard in order to provide more consistency and accuracy.

Having a bubble level with ensure you maintain level form in all types of shooting conditions. Making sure your bow is level every time you shoot will also help to improve your consistency which will be most notable at longer distances.

The number of pins you choose to use on your sight is partially dictated by for far you plan on shooting. If you are hunting whitetails from a treestand in moderately thick timber, then 3 pins sighted in at 20, 30 and 40 yards may be sufficient. However, if you hunt the open plains or Big Sky Country out West and are comfortable and confident shooting long distances, 5 pins sighted in at 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 yards might best suit your needs. How many pins you use is entirely up to you, however, when sighting in your bow, be sure you keep your increments consistent.

Pin diameter is another factor to consider when looking at bow sights. Most sight manufacturers produce sight pins in three sizes, .010”, .019”, and .029”. Some deer hunters argue that a larger pin diameter that covers more of the target minimizes picture movement and increases accuracy. The argument for smaller pins is one of precision. The smaller the pin the more precise the aiming; aim small, miss small. Some sight manufacturers are now offering decreasing pin configurations, meaning pins used for closer distances are larger in diameter than those used at longer distances thus providing more accuracy at down range targets.

Peep Sights

An arrow rest is the most important accessory you can put on your bow when it comes to accuracy. Hunter shown wearing Lost Camo.

Peep sights, which are tied into your bow’s string, reinforce a consistent anchor point and thus greatly improve shooting accuracy which can translate into more confidence when hunting. There are many popular models on the market today and they come in several colors that allow you customize your bow. Peep sight manufacturers offer peep sights in some or all of these sizes: 1/32”, 3/64”, 1/16”, 3/32”, 1/8”, 3/16” and ¼”. Generally speaking, the larger the peep sight the better for hunting because it increases light availability during low light shooting conditions and the easier it will be to recognize your sight pins. Most hunters favor the 3/16” or ¼” models. Most target archers, however, prefer smaller diameter peep sights as they tend to be more accurate.

Arrow Rests

An arrow rest is the most important accessory you can put on your compound bow when it comes to accuracy. There are not only several different rest manufacturers to choose from, but there are several different types of rests as well. The most commonly used arrow rests are shoot-through rests, drop away rests, and full containment rests.

Shoot-through rests have been around for years and are still very popular with target archers, but have lost favor with many bowhunters. While these prong-style rests offer great accuracy when set up properly, they do not offer much in the way of securing your arrow on your bow during a hunting situation. Furthermore, they can present fletching clearance issues if not configured correctly.

Drop away rests have picked up quite the following in the last decade or so. These rests typically use a short rope tethered to the downward moving buss cable of your bow to pull them up when you draw your bow. As you release the rest falls away and allows your arrow to move forward with no fletching contact.

Drop away rests are becoming increasingly popular for hunting and target shooters alike because they are so forgiving. When properly set up and tuned, a drop away rest will virtually eliminate fletch to rest interference to ensure true arrow flight. Should a shooter torque the bow handle with their hand, a drop away rest will minimize this error because the arrow arm falls down and does not come in contact with the arrow. A drop away rest is also extremely beneficial for “reloading” another arrow. Since the shooter doesn’t have to gently place an arrow inside a split-prong launching arm, you can simply nock an arrow and place it on the arrow trough and you are ready to shoot again! These few seconds can make or break a second chance at a buck in the treestand.