This invention relates generally to archery bow sights and, more specifically, to an archery bow sight which includes one or more sight pins securable thereto, the archery bow sight being mountable to an archery bow in a manner that allows gang movement of one or more sight pins relative to the bow.
Archery bow sights utilizing a plurality of sight pins have been known in the art for many years. Typically, these sights utilize a bracket or other mounting structure for mounting the sight to a bow. The sight is commonly comprised of a pin plate, a pin guard, and a plurality of sight pins securable to the pin plate. The sight is mounted to a bow in a manner so that when the bow is drawn, the archer can look through a peep sight provided in the bow cable and align the tip of a pin attached to the sight with a target. For sights utilizing a plurality of sight pins having their tips vertically aligned, each individual sight pin is typically provided for aiming the bow at a target at a particular distance from the archer. For example, one pin may be positioned in the sight for aiming the bow at a target 50 yards from the archer while another pin may be positioned for a target that is at 100 yards.
In addition to providing individual pin adjustment relative to the sight, many prior art archery sights are mounted to the bow in a manner that allows group or what is commonly termed "gang" adjustment of the pins. Such adjustment is useful when the individual pins are properly positioned for a particular type or weight of arrow and shooting of a another type or weight of arrow effects the flight path. For example, for an arrow having a different quill arrangement or configuration, the pin sights may be properly positioned to account for targets at the various distances, but the flight path may be affected to the left or to the right (commonly referred to as "windage"). In such a situation, it may be desirable to move the entire sight to the left or the right without repositioning the individual sight pins. There are two common types of sight windage adjustment mechanisms for archery bow sights, two point and single point. For two point adjustment, the sight is typically secured to its mounting bracket at two points and may be adjusted to the left or right by loosening fasteners at these two points. With a single point adjustment sight, the sight is typically secured to a mounting bracket by a single fastener arrangement and thus can be adjusted relative to the mounting bracket by loosening of the single fastener arrangement. Similar adjustment mechanisms have been provided in the art for providing gang adjustability of the entire sight in a vertical direction.
While the basic concept of securing a plurality of pins to a pin plate is known in the art, various techniques to accomplish this have been employed. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,874 to Busch the sight pins are provided with external threads and are inserted through a longitudinally extending slot in the pin plate. An internally threaded fastener is threaded onto the sight pin in order to secure it to the pin plate. The tips of the sight pins thus extend into the sight window defined by the pin plate and the guard. By properly aligning the sight pins relative to the pin plate and the sight relative to the bow, the archer may utilize each sight pin for a target at a particular distance.
Such an arrangement of sight pins, however, necessarily limits the distance between adjacent tips of sight pins by the smallest transverse dimension of the structure securing the sight pin to the pin plate. For example, in the Busch patent previously discussed, the tips of the sight pins can be positioned no closer than that allowed when adjacent internally threaded fasteners are abutted against one another. For some higher power bows, it may be necessary, in order to properly sight the bow, to position the tips of adjacent sight pins closer than is physically possible if the sight pins are maintained in a parallel relationship. One approach known in the art to allow closer arrangement of the sight pins is to provide two slots in the pin plate and two different lengths of sight pins. Longer pins are secured to a back slot and shorter pins are secured to a front slot so that the tips of the longer and shorter pins extend from the front edge of the pin plate an equal distance. Accordingly, a narrow portion of the longer, back sight pins can be fitted between the wider portion of the shorter, front sight pins utilized for attaching the front sight pins to the pin plate. With such an arrangement, the distance between tips of adjacent sight pins is thus significantly decreased.
It is also common in the art, as shown by the sight disclosed in Busch, that a sight be comprised of several individual components including a guard, a pin plate, and various adjustment mechanisms. While each of these features provide vital features to the sight, employing separate components necessarily increases the overall weight of the sight and thus the bow to which the sight is attached. In addition, an increased number of components also increases the potential for vibration of components relative to one another which can affect the accuracy of the bow and can startle game being hunted.
Sight pins are commonly comprised of an externally threaded brass pin having a small ball formed on the tip thereof. The ball is often painted to provide for better visibility of the ball. Typically, when several sight pins are employed, each ball tip is painted with a different color indicating a different yardage for the archer. Sight pins are also known in the art which include fiber optic elements for illuminating the tip of the sight pin to make the tip more visible to the archer. The fiber optic type sight pins are commonly comprised of an elongated pin providing two transversely extending bores substantially parallel to one another, with one of the bores positioned proximate the tip of the pin. A fiber optic member having ends of a greater diameter than the bores extends from the tip of the pin, through the bore at the tip, to the second bore, and through the second bore effectively forming a partial loop on one side of the pin. The ends of the fiber optic member appear illuminated when exposed to light. With both brass and fiber optic sight pins, it is often advantageous to provide pins of different widths depending on the accuracy desired or needed.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an archery bow sight formed from a single piece of material, integrally forming a pin guard, pin plate, and a windage or vertical adjustment mechanism. It would also be advantageous to provide a pin plate that maintains the sight pins in a substantially parallel arrangement. In addition, it would be advantageous to provide an archery bow sight that allows the sight pins to be pivoted relative to the pin plate in order to allow the tips of adjacent sight pins to be positioned relatively closely to one another. It would also be advantageous to provide a two headed sight pin that provides two sight pins of different widths.