What kinds of sights are used on traditional bows?
A. Although purists eschew any kind of sighting altogether, my gut feeling is that, in the days when a person’s life would have depended on how accurately he could shoot, an archer would have made use of whatever sighting aids were available, if it were necessary. A `sight’ may be as simple as a set of marks scratched into the bow riser to aid with elevation adjustment. Alternatively, with a longbow or flatbow you could tie a thin leather lace around the upper limb and slide it up or down to adjust. Many longbow shooters use a rubber O-ring (such as a tap washer). The problem with these sighting aids is that they are useful all if you know the distance to the target. For target archery, of course, you will know the distance. For field archery you probably won’t. Consequently, most field archers favour shooting without sights of any kind.
