There are a large number and variety of bow sights available on the market, all designed with the primary purpose of enabling a user to more accurately deliver an arrow to a target. Many of these do not consider the use of the equipment as hunting equipment that can be used in both day and night. And conventional hunting equipment mimics equipment used for personal combat; for example, sighting devices were developed to prevent the emission of light from the source so that the target cannot identify the user in a combat situation. However, in a hunting situation, the game does not generally hunt back, and there is no need to shield the game from light source emissions. Although hunting and archery technologies have progressed over time, modern archery bow and arrow systems typically do not use any equipment that jeopardizes the illumination of the archer, or shooter. The modern day hunter may track a target from daylight to the evening. At dusk, the hunter is left with only limited resources to track the target. The conventional considerations regarding illumination, pointing devices, and displays must be thrown out when developing hunting equipment for use in dusk or night.
An arrow is typically shot using the arms to pull back the bow string, and to aim and sight by holding the bow and arrow next to the archer's eye. Typically, a bow sight comprises a plurality of pins that may be adjusted by the archer for aiming at targets at different distances. Some bow sights have a single adjustable pin that is moved to the match the distance to the target. Normal multi-pin sights simply have several brass aiming pins which stick out horizontally from a vertical frame mounted in front of the hand grip on the bow. Each pin corresponds to a particular target distance. The archer visually estimates the appropriate range and then sights to the target using the appropriate aiming pin corresponding to that range. A recent innovation involves the use of light gathering fiber optic filaments which provide a self powered illuminated dot that the archer sees at the end of each aiming pin. These fiber optic multiple pin sights have greatly improved the utility of such sights in low light or low contrast lighting situations.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art archery equipment having an archer 100 with a conventional compound bow 110 and a bow sight 120. The bow sight 120 contains pin settings adjusted for 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 yards, respectively. There is an LCD display that is connected to a laser 130, typically a range measuring conventional laser. The sight may contain a pin sight system wherein LED light is transmitted to the sighting pins via fiber optic cables. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,352, titled “Laser bow sight apparatus,” invented by Dunne et al. In this figure, the pin sight system contains pins and the user will want to calibrate the laser and adjust the pin settings to set as pre-set values using the laser calibration to measure distance before firing the arrow 140. In this prior art, the pin settings and the optical fibers and LEDs are taught to be utilized with multi-pin sights.
Aiming devices are commonly referred to as “sights” and allow archers to, after sighting in the bow, align an end of a pin with an intended arrow striking position on a target. For purposes of this application, “sights” will also include cameras or videos able to aim at a particular target. These sights are not limited to archers; they can apply to variety of shooting equipment, such as rifles, pistols, and crossbows. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,546A) Pin-based sights typically include multiple sight pins that are vertically spaced from each other and positioned such that different pins are used for shots of different yardages. Accurate use of a multiple pin sight requires accurate range or target estimation by the archer. Laser and other light beam sights for firearms are well known, but they have been little used with bows because their mounting arrangements and range adjustment capabilities are ill suited to the needs of the bow user. U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,050 titled “Range adjustable laser sight for bows” is directed to an adjustable laser beam sight that comprises a sight adapted to mount to a wide variety of modern bows and which provides quick and easy adjustment for ranges and trajectory drops of magnitudes characteristic of a bow and arrow. A trajectory from a bow will drop much more than a bullet fired from most firearms. The '050 Patent compensates for large drops in the arrow trajectory is needed in connection with a bow mounted laser sight. Accordingly, there is a continuing need for an improved light beam sight suitable for use with bows.
There are set difficulties for a hunter that hunts from daylight to dusk. For example, from a free-standing distance, the settings that are established for the laser sight and the pin settings may be lost with the loss of daylight. This is compounded by the fact that the game does not stay still long enough for the archer to draw and release an arrow after finding the range to the animal, whereby the shot opportunity is lost due to the time required for shot preparation.
The use of night vision goggles to spot targets at dusk is well known in the industry. The night vision goggles conventionally work with IR illumination devices. The problem with the use of night vision goggles with hunting bow equipment is the need for the archer to remain steady during a shot.
As shown in FIG. 2, the prior art archer 200 uses a conventional bow 210 with a pin setting system 240. In this figure, the pin settings are calibrated at 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 yards respectively with pin settings 241, 242, 243, 244, and 245. These pin settings are calibrated during the daylight when the archer 200 has plenty of light to make necessary modifications to distances with known targets. While hunting at night, archery bow hunters are required to perform numerous acts simultaneously to ensure accuracy of a shot. An archer must hold the bow one-handed at a full arm extension while drawing the bowstring with the opposing arm to the full extension of the bowstring. The archer must then attempt to hold the bowstring at full extension while aligning the sighting device eyepiece 247 with the target animal. At night, the archer may use night vision goggles 260 to see the target while taking aim. Unfortunately, the night vision goggles 260 interferes with the archer 200 and the necessary steadiness that is needed to take a shot at an animal. Generally, components 261 of the night vision goggles can even interfere with the rest of an archer's natural position on the bow string 220. This is further complicated by the given the amount of accessories available for archery bows, which may weigh upwards of ten to fifteen pounds and may be unequally weighted. Thus, any equipment attached to the head or arm of the archer during the execution of the bow fire will potentially interfere with the aim. Night vision goggles are often even bulky and heavy, which will further interfere with an archer to remain steady. Thus, there is a need for use of sophisticated night vision capabilities without the conventional night vision equipment. As shown in FIG. 2, the use of prior art night vision goggles 260 is rather awkward when used with the sophisticated bow sight system 210. As shown, archer 200 is pulling back on bow string 220 aiming his arrow 230 in his bow 210. In this system, the archer's face is so close to the bow string 220 that it is either touching the string or very close to touching the string. The archer uses a peep sight that is located in the bow string 220. Thus the archer must look through the peep sight and see the sight pins to aim the bow. Night vision googles will preclude the archer from viewing through the peep sight making it impossible to sight the bow using the current sight pins. The night vision goggles 260 is awkwardly located that prevents the archer from comfortably getting close to the bow 210 and using the sight pin system 240.
What is needed is a sight system used for a bow, or a rifle, pistol, or crossbow, wherein the user can calibrate settings during one time period or environment to be used in a completely different setting and time period, or different environment. More specifically, what is needed is s system that allows a user to calibrate a visible laser system during the day to match certain targets with certain distances, and to allow the use of those settings for a different night time laser. More specifically, the user may calibrate another sight, such as a video, so that they all are calibrated together. To enable this, separate sights must be coordinated so that adjustments made in one sight are transferable to another. What is further needed is a system that displays to the user to calibrate different pin settings with one sight system that allows those pin settings to be used with a different sight. What is needed is a sight that will allow the hunter to quickly gauge the magnification and zoom of the lens to show an impact point of the projectile. What is needed is a laser targeting system that can switch from visible to evening dusk light without the hunter needing to recalibrate. What is needed is an integrated camera system for instant and future playbacks. These components must all include the capability to include these features in a standard sight adapted for a bow. In light of the foregoing, a bow sight is desired that improves the state of the art by overcoming the aforesaid problems of the prior art.