Best Single Bow Sight: Every Arrow Counts

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If you are a bowhunter, then you know that for a most successful hunt you’ll need the right gear.

So, if you already armed with the right bow, right hunting arrows, for perfect hit you will need a bow sight.

Bow hunting, target shooting, whatever it is you’re firing at, we’re willing to bet that there isn’t Katniss-like pinpoint accuracy. 

That’s okay; this is an art form. It’s not like shooting a rifle with a laser accurate sight, you know? 

You’re already putting in a ton of effort with draw power, positioning, personal strength and angling (to name a few attributes you’re providing), but a quality sight could help you out where you may be lacking.

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From simple sights to the best single pin bow sight, everything is here. 

There’s a lot of preference when you’re looking at bow sights, but it’s important to understand that regardless of those preferences, you need something that’s going to give results. 

Find the right way to blend what you deem aesthetically pleasing with what’s going to provide you with the right results, and you’ll be bagging more game in no time.

Our Reviews Of The Best Single Bow Sights

#1 HHA Optimizer Lite 3019

When you look at the best bow sights, HHA is one of the top results you’ll find. 

Their Optimizer Lite includes everything you need in a sight, including a distance drop predictor on the back, and a leveler right on the bottom of the single pin sight design. 

Multi-pin designs have their place, but they do tend to get cluttered from time to time. This keeps everything nice and orderly.

HHA offers a lifetime warranty with this sight, giving you total peace of mind during use. 

It’s not like this is going to make contact with anything, so the amount of stress it goes under is negligible. The metal construction and lightweight design are built to last.

There’s no tools required to get started. You just pop it onto your bow like nothing, and you’ll be able to enjoy five yard increment shooting, all the way up to 80. 

It’s the ultimate companion to your bow during hunting season.

Technical specifications

#2 TRUGLO Range-Rover PRO LED Bow Sight

TRUGLO Range-Rover PRO LED Bow Sight

TRUGLO really lives up to the brand name with this professional LED bow sight. 

This thing is a blast to use even before you actually get  to the hunting grounds, and all the bow sight reviews say the same thing—it’s like a toy for adults, but with actual purpose.

You can adjust the field of view very easily with this unit. 

You don’t get a pin, like with most sights. Instead, there’s an LED crosshair system on the lens that gives you extended visibility in low light conditions and early mornings.

2x magnification through the accessory lens kit comes in handy when you’re aiming for those long-range shots. 

It’s an ambidextrous design, so whichever side of the quiver you’re keeping it on, you’ll be good to go. 

Made of CNC-machined aluminum, it’s durable as can be, and won’t let you down.

Technical specifications

#3 HHA Sports KP Optimizer Lite King Pin

HHA Sports KP Optimizer Lite King Pin

HHA is back at it against with more bow hunting sights, but this time, it’s a little more precise than the previous model. 

You can get a longer range with this than the Optimizer Lite, but it does come with a few restrictive aspects as well.

Look up any single pin bow sight review, and you’ll see the adjustments cap off between 70 and 80 yards. 

Well, this one goes up to 90 for that extra bit of precision and magnification at long range. You drastically improve your chance of landing the target or prey, whatever you’re firing at.

The interchangeable wheel allows you to alter the distance measurements depending on the draw weight, which works excellently for compound bows with adjustable draw weights. 

If you’re scaling up from 40 lbs to 60 lbs, then this is going to make your life a whole lot easier.

Last but not least, you get a leveler just like with other HHA sights. The cost is a bit hard-hitting, but remember that HHA guarantees everything for life through their full lifetime warranty. 

The CNC-aluminum frame and durable lenses will hold up against anything.

Technical specifications

#4 Apex Gear Covert 1-Pin Sight

Apex Gear just might have made the best archery sight for that in-between shopper. 

Quality, but not costly like some HHA products end up being. 

This sight includes a glow in the dark ring around the pin hole, so you’ll be able to see in low light conditions without alerting local prey to your whereabouts; it’s just on your side.

The pin is shaped like a shark’s fin, providing a slight arch on the front-facing side so you’re not getting any splicing in visibility. 

The leveler helps you aim your shots and understand when you’re on solid ground versus when your shots are going to be slightly angled. 

If you have to take the Coriolis effect into account, this will work a treat. It’s lightweight, but still sturdy enough to withstand a lot of rough-and-tough wear. 

The windage and elevation adjustments add some extra oomph to this without boosting the cost. 

Lastly, we want to touch on the rear-facing sight hole, giving you enhanced visibility without it being so close to your face.

Technical specifications

#5 Trophy Ridge Pursuit Vertical Pin Bow Sight

Trophy Ridge Pursuit Vertical Pin Bow Sight

It’s the best archery hunting sight for a budgeter, and it rocks in every department. 

First of all, the glo indicator lets you see in low light conditions, so you aren’t guessing when you’re hunting down prey in the early morning. 

Admittedly, it also works if you’re practicing on private land and shooting targets.

There’s a wide range of vertical adjustments you can make, accounting for wind speed and direction variables that you’ll have to take into account. 

Thankfully, the angled pin makes it easy to keep your aim true while keeping as much visibility open as possible.

The no metal-on-metal design ensures that all working parts will remain just far apart from one another to prolong degradation or abrasions to the equipment. 

Everything ages and requires maintenance, but Trophy Ridge made this as easy to maintain as possible. 

For this low a price, it’s the best bow sight you’re going to get in this range.

Technical specifications

Single Bow Sight Buying Guide and FAQ

Single Bow Sight

Bow Sight Benefits

There are more benefits to bow sights than meets the eye. 

This quick list tells you all the reasons you should get a bow sight, even if you’re currently making do with your base vision at the moment.

Clarity

Your bow isn’t the biggest thing in the world, but it’s ironically in the way when you’re trying to line up a shot. 

You have a peep sight, but that’s just not the same as a quality bow sight. 

Through the lens, you’ll get a clear image from an LED crosshair or a single-pin design, so you can just line it up and let it go. 

You’ve got less in your way, so you can focus on aligning every single part of your shot.

Leveling

Almost all single-pin sights have a leveler on your end of the sight, so you can understand when you’re not standing on solid ground. 

Being on rigid ground is, well, nature and all, but it can also seriously mess with your shots. You can see them lean to the left when you mean to shoot straight ahead, and that’s a problem. 

If you’re on uneven ground, the leveler helps you right your position so you can hit your target without faltering.

Adjustable Vertical Ranges

Is your target over 70 yards away? 

Well, your ability to shoot them gets a bit fuzzy at that point. 

If you have to arch your shot or you’re aiming downhill, then it’s important to have a clear and concise vision of what you need to do in order to hit the target. 

Adjust the vertical range on a bow sight, and you’ll be able to account for arches in your shots.

Center of Gravity

Most bow manufacturers do a good job at keeping their bows physically balanced, but adding a 12 oz to 1 lb sight in the middle of your handle actually helps with your center of gravity while firing. 

It takes a little getting used to, but the weight of the bow feels better and allows for more precision when taking a shot.

Straighter Shots

Having trouble landing the bullseye every single time? 

You’re not the only one. It’s common to run into problems with aim, especially when you’re uncertain which of your eyes is the dominant one. 

The points on clarity carry over into straighter shots: there’s nothing physically blocking you from lining things up perfectly or misjudging where the target/drop point is because of visual obstructions.

What is the Difference Between Single and Multi Pin Sight?

The best compound bow sights usually have multi-pin setups, whereas recurves and some compound sights are single-in. What’s the difference? The number of pins, to start.

Each pin in a multi-pin sight is set to a different number, so you can quickly choose between five distances and just go for it. 

These are hard to adjust, because you have to go pin by pin, and one might affect the other. They’re best for compounds and hunting.

Single-pin sights are also good for hunting, because they offer better visibility with only one pin. 

The pin is usually also on the bottom of the sight, whereas multi-pins stick out from the side. 

Single pins still require adjustments, but you don’t have other pins getting in the way of that.

Bow sights don’t require a lot of maintenance, but multi-pin units have more parts to oil. 

You don’t have to do it often enough that it should be a major purchase decision, but it’s still something you need to know when deciding between each pin type.

How to Adjust Your Single Pin Sight?

The goal is max accuracy in every condition, so let’s get you there. To adjust your single pin sight, you first need to go over a little checklist of prerequisites.

  • Did the sight get installed correctly? Look back to the user manual and see if it lines up the way that it’s supposed to.
  • Are the pins inline with the bowstring or with your arrow? Your arrow rest may affect this, but usually, the bowstring should align with it perfectly.
  • Is the vertical adjustment set to zero? Before you can adjust your sight, you have to know where you’re adjusting it from.
  • Is the rest of your bow set properly? For recurves, inspect bowstring alignment and limb warping. For compounds, check cables, levers, pulleys and bowstring alignment. Make adjustments to these before you begin messing with your single pin sight.

Now it’s time to start firing. Yes, even though it’s not aligned yet, you need to fire. 

Get a close range target at about thirty or fifty feet, and focus on the pin sight. Shoot as if it’s going to land exactly what you need it to.

Check where the arrow landed. Did it land its mark? If so, you might have gotten the adjustments right on the first go. 

If not, then it’s time to tilt your pin. Readjust until it hits exactly where you wanted it to, and then stop.

Now step back to seventy feet. Can you still hit that bullseye? Set it to one-hundred feet. Can you still hit that bullseye? 

At this point, if you’re hitting the center of your target, the pin is aligned. Now it’s time to record your settings.

Whatever you just did to your pin, you’re probably going to have to do again in the future. 

Get a little piece of paper with these adjustments and settings and keep it in your hunting jacket in the event that you need to adjust your pin while you’re hunting.

Can You Use a Bow Sight for Competitive Archery?

In some instances the answer is yes, but most of the time you cannot. 

If a bow sight has up to five moveable pins, it may only be allowed in some freestyle bow accuracy classes, but certainly not in competitions. 

Non-movable single-pin designs are more likely to be accepted.

However, for competitive archery, you don’t really need to use a sight at all. Part of the thing with competitive archery is that, for one, you’re using a recurve bow. 

That means you’ve already got a fairly clear line of sight with relatively nothing blocking it. That being said, there are some that exist, and they’re very distinctly not for hunting. 

Where hunting sights have crosshairs and multiple pins, most competitive sights usually have an ocular sight instead. 

You can put your eye up to the cup, like you would with binoculars, and get a clearer visual of the target. 

For the most part, as long as a sight has a leveler or a wind speed/elevation gauge, it’s okay to use. 

If it has anything electronic, such as an LED light feature, you cannot use it. This is to prevent cheating from undetectable magnification devices.

How Precise Are Single Pin Sights?

Well, there’s a reason they made multi-pin sights. Single in sights are precise, but they can be a pain from time to time. 

They offer the most visibility, but they also require you to make alterations in the middle of bow hunting if you want to increase the yardage distance. That can be a problem.

Now, multi-pin sights give you about five pins on average, each of which is set to its own respective yardage distance. 

The point is that you can judge where the target is, and pick which pin you need to use. 

The problem with that is that it eats up about 30% of the sight with all those pins. They’re also more complicated to maintain and clean out.

Single-pin sights are preferred by bowhunters. 

They already have a decent idea on how far away the target is, so with a quality bow sight, like the ones we’ve discussed here today, you only need to make a hair trigger adjustment in order to change the yardage. 

It’s pretty simple even if you’re trying to shoot down prey. Single pin sights are as precise as you make them. 

If you follow the instructions and align them properly, then you will land your mark every time (taking variables into account, of course). 

A single-pin sight isn’t going to magically make your aim better, but it is going to help you take your good aim and extend your distance. 

Some of the precision on single-pin sights are attributed to slight magnification on the lenses.

How Should I Align my Peep Sight in Regards to the Pin or Sight Housing?

Bow Sight Setting Up

There’s a simple process to align your peep sight accordingly. This quick step-by-step instruction will tell you everything you need to know.

  • Grab a string spreader that you use during restringing, and get the bowstring divided in half. This needs to be precise and accurate. 
  • Line up your strings through the grooves of the peep sight and hold them taut.
  • Your peep isn’t aligned yet, and the process requires a bit of toying around with it. Tie some half hitch knots with an external material (like extra bowstring). You’re going to slide this up and down while you find the right resting point for your peep sight.
  • Pull the bow to full draw. From there, you’ll be able to see the knots you’ve made. Close your non-dominant eye so that you can see where the knots rest, and where the peep sight is. If you’re not looking directly through the peep sight, you need to adjust the knot. Do so until you can perfectly see through the peep sight from your natural line of sight.
  • Secure your peep sight into place.

Accuracy is but an Arrow Shot Away

Without your aim, you’re just going to alert your targets to your position and whereabouts. 

You’ll blow everything. These sights give you a competitive advantage over anything that you’re hunting, regardless of your position. 

You’ve seen the cream of the crop, so now it’s time to choose whichever one you believe is going to give you better handling and accuracy out there on the hunting grounds. 

Your aim is good, but it’s about to get a heck of a lot better.

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