Close range practice...

[Desert Drifter]

New Excalibur owner and newb on the forum.

I have plenty of wide open area on my undeveloped southeastern Colorado property to shoot but shooting where I live is pretty much restricted to shooting at 10 yards across my garage into a huge bag arrow target.

I'm shooting off hand with Excalibur open sights sighted in at 10 yards. I can hit a 1 inch dot all day long doing that.

I measured what that 1" dot looks like to my eye at where my front sight would be and it measured about 1/10".

My question is: If I could, shooting off hand, consistently hit a 1" target at 10 yards, would it but safe to assume I could hit a 5" target at 50 yards if my sights were sighted in for 50 yards?

Seems like I should, just curious and checking.

'Drif

[Masboy]

I would say yes if you can keep them inside the 1 inch dot but if your just cutting the outside edge at times would be around 6-1/4 inches at 50 yd JMO

[gendoc]

I know one thing for sure !!!
if anything even comes close to 20yrds from you....itsa done deal !!!
which is not an un-common distance if you strategically plan your area for the hunt.
research and time permits great plans............

[chicotrout]

What you are referring to is an MOA (Minute of Angle) measurement, and yes it is constant provided you account for arrow drop correctly. I bet you your setup is capable of shooting much better than 1 inch at 10 yds which would have you hitting much better than 5 inches at 50 yds. The limiting factor to your setup are the open sights and that is what will limit your accuracy. If you ever get a chance to shoot with a scope, I bet you will be able to hit a 1 inch spot on your target at 50 yds consistently.

[Desert Drifter]

Gents your comments are very much appreciated. I kind of thought that would the case, but wasn't sure. I know that angles looking through a scope could be figured out like that. But wasn't sure with open sights.

Measuring the sticky dot I placed on the target was easy, its an inch. But measuring its apparent width at about where your front open sight would be had me confused.

I used a digital micrometer and with it held out at arms length I took several measurements of the dot 10 yards away at several different times. But it always came in at around a 1/10th of an inch or so.



I didn't know if I should be trying to figure in the angle between my eye and the micrometer too in all of this thinking.

I've been shooting a Phoenix I got last week as if I was shooting a rifle in competition. I practiced the basics of off hand shooting, solid stance, sight picture, breathing and trigger control.

I have a confession to make. For years I've thought that crossbows were pretty much a novelty. But after taking a close look at the high quality of craftsmanship and materials going into the Excalibur and other makes made me change my mind in a hurry. Impressive.

Thanks for your responses.

'Drif

[awshucks]

I've some experience w/ the peep and pin sights. If you set the pin 1.437" [1 7/16"] above the bottom of the base, you should be good at 20 yds.

The top of the black post under the pin should be 'minute of deer' @ 30 yds.

Ooops, forgot to add: Welcome!