Archery sight marks: the right mark for every distance
Most archers treat a sight mark as one number. It isn't. Once you see it as a range, getting centred at a new distance becomes fast and predictable.
Your sight mark is a band, not a number
"Rather than your sight mark is 107 for 70, your sight mark will vary between 105 and 112, say. It might average 107… Because if you're shooting a slightly uphill with a headwind when it's quite cold, your sight mark is going to be significantly different than shooting on a flat field with a tailwind when it's hot."Patrick Huston, coaching session
The reason this matters: if you think your mark is exactly 107, every arrow that lands high feels like a bad shot. If you know it lives between 105 and 112, you read the conditions, pick the right end of the band, and get centred straight away.
Record your mark every time you shoot
The band only exists if you build it. Every session, every distance, write the mark down — along with what the conditions were doing.
The app asks you to record your sight mark halfway through and at the end of a session, and logs the weather alongside each mark. Once you have three or more, its predictions adjust for temperature and for headwind or tailwind.
Predict marks for distances you haven't shot
Arrow flight follows physics. With a handful of recorded marks, the curve between them is predictable — so a new distance doesn't have to mean a guessing game on the first end.
Sight marks are fitted to a ballistic curve that predicts the mark for any distance, including from metres to yards. There's also an angle tool that corrects your flat-ground mark for uphill and downhill shots.
Know your clicks per ring
When the first arrow lands, you need to know exactly how far to move. That's clicks per ring:
"If you come into 70 meters and you shoot your first one and it's a high eight and you know, okay, it's 13 clicks a ring, that's one ring to the middle of the nine, one ring to the middle of the ten, half a ring there, okay, two by 13, 26, and half, seven, okay, 33 clicks."Patrick Huston
A guided clicks-per-ring wizard: shoot a group, move the sight a known amount, shoot another. It works out your clicks per ring for each distance.
Distance changes are where points are won
Every time you change distance, most of the field spends ends getting centred again.
"The number of people you will see still trying to get their sight centered after a significant period of a distance, there'll be people still not centered in the last dozen."Patrick Huston
Know your band, know your clicks per ring, and you're centred in the first end while they're still searching. That's the whole game — keeping your group centred.
Questions archers ask
Why does my sight mark keep changing?
Because conditions change it. Slope, wind direction and temperature all move where your arrows land, so your mark for a distance is really a band — say 105 to 112 rather than exactly 107.
How do I find my sight mark for a new distance?
Record marks at the distances you do shoot. With enough of them, a ballistic curve predicts the marks in between and beyond.
How many clicks should I move?
Work out your clicks per ring first. At 13 clicks a ring, an arrow two and a half rings high needs roughly 33 clicks.
Uphill or downhill — do I need a different mark?
Yes. Angled shots need a corrected mark compared with the same distance on flat ground.