Sight calibration: marks for every distance
A bow sight places a pin or aperture in front of the archer's eye so that, when the pin sits on the gold, the arrow is launched at exactly the angle needed to fall onto it. Because the required angle changes with distance, archers record a sight mark — a vertical setting on the sight bar — for every distance they shoot. The Teamstoviewticker engine calculates its own mark with a bisection solver: it simulates a full-draw arrow in still air, checks whether it lands above or below the gold, halves the search interval and repeats 36 times, converging to well under a thousandth of a degree.
| Distance | Vacuum solution | With drag (approx.) | Face | Face angular size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 m | 1.32° | ≈ 1.35° | 40 cm | 1.27° |
| 30 m | 2.20° | ≈ 2.28° | 80 cm | 1.53° |
| 50 m | 3.67° | ≈ 3.89° | 80 cm | 0.92° |
| 70 m | 5.15° | ≈ 5.60° | 122 cm | 1.00° |
| 90 m | 6.64° | ≈ 7.40° | 122 cm | 0.78° |
The vacuum angles come from sin 2θ = g·D / v₀². The drag-corrected figures use the fact that total drop equals ½·g·t² with the real, longer flight time. Notice how the drag correction grows with distance: at 18 m it is negligible, at 90 m it adds nearly 0.8°. Your HUD's Sight mark readout shows the exact engine value for the selected distance.
The angular error budget
Once the sight is set, every remaining vertical error is angular. A small angle δ at the bow becomes a linear miss at the target equal to distance times the tangent of the angle:
e = D · tan δ → δ_ring = atan(ring width / D)On a 122 cm face each ring is 6.1 cm wide. At 70 m, 70 × tan(0.05°) ≈ 6.1 cm — so 0.05° of elevation error is exactly one ring. At 90 m the same ring is only 0.039° wide. On the 40 cm indoor face at 18 m, each 2 cm ring spans 0.064°, which is why short-distance scoring feels forgiving even though the face is smaller: the angles are proportionally larger.
Adjusting the sight versus aiming off
When a group settles consistently away from centre, there are two responses. Aiming off means holding the pin away from the gold by the size of the error; it is fast but adds a second reference point to track under pressure. Moving the sight keeps the pin on the gold and corrects the angle mechanically. The relationship depends on sight radius rs, the distance from eye to pin:
impact shift ≈ D · Δpin / r_sWith a sight radius around 0.85 m, moving the pin 1 mm shifts the 70 m impact by roughly 8 cm — a little more than one ring. Remember the rule of sight adjustment: follow the arrow. If arrows land low, move the pin down; the archer raises the bow to bring the pin back to the gold, lifting the launch angle.
Long-distance calculation and sloped ground
Field and forest ranges rarely sit perfectly level. When shooting uphill or downhill, gravity only acts on the horizontal component of the flight, so the sight mark you need corresponds to the horizontal distance, not the slant distance you see. A standard approximation is:
D_horizontal = D_slant · cos(α)A 60 m slant shot at a 20° incline has a horizontal equivalent of about 56.4 m, so the correct mark lies between your 50 m and 60 m settings. Archers who set for the full slant distance tend to shoot high on both uphill and downhill targets. Interpolating between known marks works well because the required angle rises smoothly with distance; plot three or four known marks and read intermediate values from the curve rather than guessing.
Strategy on the simulator
- Start every match with a centred reticle. The sight mark already solves gravity — only correct elevation for draw errors, head or tail winds and sway.
- Use the Launch Elevation readout, not the picture. A 0.05° change at 70 m is one ring; train yourself to feel those increments with fine keyboard aim (Shift plus arrow keys).
- After three arrows, check the flight profile. If impacts sit consistently below the dashed sight line, your draw is short — fix the draw, not the aim.