Bow sight

[bezzola]

Does anyone have a range finding bow sight there running. I know garmin has one and so does burris. Would like to hear real pros and cons.

[jcrayford]

I have a Garmin Xero A1i that I purchased 2nd hand from a fellow AO'er.

I've run several different types of sights / peeps on my bows over the years.

Couldn't get used to horizontal pins as I felt they covered up too much of the overall sight picture. Got a single pin slider sight with a string peep, but never did feel comfortable with the setup in case the pin wasn't adjusted to the range needed on animals moving closer/farther to me.

Then ran a vertical multi-pin setup (Trophy Ridge) that was good. Ran it in combination with a Timberline No-peep and had good success with those. Got bored and purchased an IQ sight (back to horizontal pins, but had the No-peep technology built into the sight itself) and had good luck with that too.

Had the IQ until January 2023. Was recovering from a shoulder injury and decided that I was going to shoot more to see if I would either break the shoulder or heal it. And if I was going to shoot more, might as well change it up again and go back to a string peep and the new-to-me Garmin.

All I can say is wow. Not only does it eliminate the need for my handheld rangefinder (still carry it though), the Garmin has a very similar technology to the Timberline No-peep system built in while you're activating the ranging system. This technology (like the NP) will indicate if you're torquing the bow or are slightly off your anchor point (strings stretching). Plus, once you've got the Garmin dialed in to your maximum practice range (mine is set at 80 yards) you have an absolutely clean sight picture with a single aiming point at the distance you ranged. No horizontal pin arms, no vertical pin arms, no chance of the pin not being slid up or down to the correct yardage.

The only thing I could possibly argue with is the ranging abilities in heavy fog, but your handheld rangefinder won't work then either. On the flip side of that statement, your preset pins are a fast single click away to have those displayed.

I'm running on about 15 months of the same set of batteries and the battery indicator hasn't even moved. But will be changing them out prior to hunting season.

I like the idea of being able to range a moving animal with confidence that the single aiming point will be right.

All that being said, I have always liked my Garmin products. I have owned several Garmin GPS units as well as watches and currently have 5 GPS by Garmin (some are almost 30 years old) - none of them have ever let me down and I don't expect the Garmin Xero to deviate from that level of perfection that my other Garmin products have.

J.

[jcrayford]

Was going to edit and add:

The A1i series has the ability to have different preset pin colors (red/green) that you choose when setting said pins. And it also has the ability to track practice sessions (impact points) for overall accuracy analysis.

As well, you can setup multiple arrow profiles. I have heavy hunting arrows and light practice / 3D arrows. Both needed to be setup and calibrated into the Garmin, but switching between the two is a matter of about 20 seconds and a few button pushes. The pin stack will automatically adjust based on the arrow profile selected and in use.

Lots of Youtube videos on the Garmin. The newest version (A1i Pro I think) has even more stuff built into it (long range ability)

J.

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by jcrayford

I have a Garmin Xero A1i that I purchased 2nd hand from a fellow AO'er.J.

Thanks for the review. I wasn’t even aware this was on the market but now I’ll have to buy one.

I’ve been shooting spot hogg for ~20 years and a leupold vendetta for about ~12 years. I wasn’t even paying attention to sight tech as my Hogg sights have been so reliable for me but this Garmin looks like one of those toys I can’t live without.

[Lefty-Canuck]

Originally Posted by Coiloil37

Thanks for the review. I wasn’t even aware this was on the market but now I’ll have to buy one.

I’ve been shooting spot hogg for ~20 years and a leupold vendetta for about ~12 years. I wasn’t even paying attention to sight tech as my Hogg sights have been so reliable for me but this Garmin looks like one of those toys I can’t live without.

Not sure if you care or not but these sights make B&C and P&Y entries ineligible.

LC

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

Not sure if you care or not but these sights make B&C and P&Y entries ineligible.

LC

I’m aware and even when I hunted Alberta and shot p&y eligible animals I didn’t care. I’m not the type of person who would ever enter an animal into a “record book”.

It may be a concern for someone else though.

[Lefty-Canuck]

Originally Posted by Coiloil37

I’m aware and even when I hunted Alberta and shot p&y eligible animals I didn’t care. I’m not the type of person who would ever enter an animal into a “record book”.

It may be a concern for someone else though.

I have never entered one of mine either but just sharing the info to those who might want to.

Just an FYI, the ABA does allow for the use of these sights for animals entered in the game awards program. It was changed a couple of years ago from following P&Y guidance to just following the legal hunting regulations, so if it is legal in the regs, it’s eligible.

LC

[jcrayford]

Lefty brought up a great point about ineligibility. Not only for submitting animals for record books, but sometimes 3D events will not allow rangefinders.

I'm going to continue to use the sight - don't care about scores when I shoot a 3D, more looking for accuracy for hunting conditions and lots of times the scoring rings are not where I want to place an arrow on a live animal under a hunting scenario. And if people do get a little testy about having a rangefinder sight, well I guess I can't either skip the shoot or run tape over the range part of the sight and use the preset fixed pins that come along with it.

J.

[Lunch_box]

I just picked up the A1i Pro and interested to see how it performs. Seems to be either you love it and wish you started using it sooner, you live in an area where hunting with it is illegal and you wish you could use it but cant, or you just hate it. I think if you can justify the cost its a great piece of gear.

[bezzola]

I had the chance to buy a used garmin sight but played phone tag while i was out camping so i missed that opportunity.

[jcrayford]

Originally Posted by bezzola

I had the chance to buy a used garmin sight but played phone tag while i was out camping so i missed that opportunity.

I would say if you're the least bit interested and can afford it, pull the trigger if you find a used one. Be sure to test it out before purchase, would work the same as a rangefinder, but just displays an aiming point (if the previous owner hasn't cleared the arrow profiles yet).

Even if it doesn't appeal to you once purchased, you should be able to re-sell for the purchase price or close to it.

I looked at purchasing new, but couldn't justify the price tag. Waited patiently until I found a used one.

J.