It's one of the most common questions new bowhunters ask: how far apart should my sight pins be? You set your top pin at 20 yards, sight in your next pin at 30, and suddenly the gaps between pins look uneven. Did you do something wrong?
No — that's exactly how it's supposed to look. Pin spacing isn't a number you pick; it's a result of your arrow's flight. Understanding why the gaps land where they do makes sighting in far less frustrating, and it explains why a lot of hunters eventually switch to a single-pin slider and a sight tape. Let's break it down.
Why Aren't Bow Sight Pins Evenly Spaced?
The short answer: arrow drop isn't linear. Once the arrow leaves your bow, gravity pulls it down at an accelerating rate. Every additional yard of flight adds more drop than the yard before it. The arrow falls a little between 20 and 30 yards, more between 30 and 40, and a lot more between 50 and 60.
Your pins simply mark where the arrow lands at each distance. So the vertical gap between your 20 and 30 pins is small, and each gap below it gets progressively larger. If your pins were evenly spaced, it would mean your arrow was dropping the same amount every ten yards — which is physically impossible.
Key idea: you don't set pin gaps in inches. You sight each pin in at its true distance, and the correct spacing falls out of your arrow's trajectory automatically. Uneven, expanding gaps are proof it's working right.
How Pin Gaps Grow With Distance
Here's the pattern you'll see on nearly every multi-pin sight, using a typical ~300 fps hunting setup zeroed at 20 yards as an example. The exact numbers vary with your speed and sight radius, but the shape is universal.
| Pin Gap | Relative Spacing | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 20 → 30 yd | Smallest | Arrow still flying relatively flat; little added drop |
| 30 → 40 yd | Noticeably wider | Drop is accelerating; roughly 1.5× the first gap |
| 40 → 50 yd | Wider still | Trajectory steepening; gap keeps opening up |
| 50 → 60 yd | Widest | Drop is dropping hard; often ~2× the 20–30 gap |
Two things change this pattern. A faster arrow (more draw weight, lighter arrow, higher IBO) flattens the trajectory, so the gaps are tighter and more even-looking. A slower arrow drops faster and spreads the pins out more at distance. This is also why two hunters standing side by side can have completely different pin spacing on the same brand of sight — their setups produce different trajectories.
How to Set Your Own Pin Spacing
You never measure pin gaps directly. You sight each pin in and let the gaps happen. The process:
- Set your top pin at your closest distance — usually 20 yards. Shoot a group, then move the entire sight (not the pin) until you're dead center.
- Sight in each lower pin at its distance. Move to 30 yards, shoot, and adjust only that pin up or down until centered. Repeat for 40, 50, and beyond.
- Don't touch the top pin again once it's set — adjust the windage on the sight, not individual pins, if your left/right is off across the board.
- Confirm in the field. Shoot from realistic positions and angles before you trust the marks on an animal.
If you're setting up your first bow, our walkthrough on how to sight in a compound bow covers the full sequence step by step.
Multi-Pin vs. Single-Pin: Two Ways to Handle Spacing
The pin-spacing problem has two solutions, and they define the two main sight styles.
| Approach | How Spacing Works | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-pin (fixed) | Each pin is permanently sighted at one distance; gaps are baked in | Fast target acquisition, timber and treestand hunting, close shots |
| Single-pin slider | One pin you dial to any yardage using a sight tape; spacing is on the tape, not the pin face | Open country, precise long shots, uncluttered sight picture |
A multi-pin sight literally freezes the spacing into place — you're looking at three to five pins whose gaps match your trajectory. A single-pin slider takes those same gaps and prints them onto a sight tape on the side of the housing, so you dial the one pin to the exact yardage instead of picking between pins or holding "in the gap." Neither is objectively better; it depends on how and where you hunt. We compare them head to head in single-pin vs. multi-pin bow sights.
How a Sight Tape Removes the Guesswork
Whether you shoot fixed pins or a slider, the underlying math is the same — your arrow's trajectory dictates where every mark goes. The problem with doing it by hand is that you can only sight in at the distances you can physically shoot, then you're guessing at everything in between (the dreaded "hold a little high").
A sight tape solves that by calculating the mark for every yardage from your exact setup. You enter your sight radius, arrow speed, and zero distance, and the generator produces a printable tape with a mark for 20, 25, 30, 35 — all the way out — properly spaced for your trajectory. No guessing between pins, no gapping. If you want to understand why a tape can be more precise than a row of fixed pins, read sight tape vs. multi-pin bow sight.
Your arrow speed drives all of this, and speed is tied to your whole arrow build. If you're changing point weight or components, run the numbers through our FOC calculator first so your trajectory — and therefore your pin spacing — is built on an arrow that flies right.
The Bottom Line
Stop trying to make your pins evenly spaced — they're not supposed to be. Pin distance is set by arrow drop, which accelerates with range, so gaps start tight and grow wider the farther out you go. Sight each pin in at its true distance and let the spacing take care of itself. And if the between-pin guessing bothers you, that's exactly the itch a single-pin slider and a custom sight tape scratch: one pin, dialed to any yardage, spaced perfectly for your bow.