Tune Your Own Bow: How To Install a Peep Sight

Learing how to intall a peep sight isn't difficult. It can be done in just a few steps.

The first step in the process is to relax bowstring tension and a bow press is the safest way to do it. This is a necesary step to install a peep, string silencers or eliminator button.

Begin by knotting a scrap of serving material around string and drawing to check alignment. Adjust until serving knot centers the sight aperture when locked into your natural anchor. Mark that point with silver ink.

Insert peep square to sight, placing equal string bundles to each side of peep aperture. With string tension removed, also insert string silencers or install eliminator buttons (leave extras at speed buttons) if needed.

Put tension back on the string and and confirm alignment, drawing several times to double-check. (Note: Leave peep cocked slightly left for a right-hand bow as serving will pull it straight). If you find peep is off axis, relax bowstring tension again and move a single bowstring strand from each side of peep to the other, according to needs, and reapply tension. This requires some amount of trial-and-error tweaking, so patience is important. Nothing's more annoying than peeps which don't turn flush to the sight in the heat of battle.  Slightly off-axis peeps can be "trained" to sit straight by turning well past center repeatedly under tension.

After peep height and attitude are firmly established, cut a 2-foot-long piece of thin serving material. Starting below the peep, tie an overhand know 1/2-inch below peep and begin wrapping upward, neatly and tightly, over bowstring and serving tag. After five or six wraps, pull tag away from string and continue serving around bowstring only, pulling bottom V created by wedged peep tight at bottom point. When the wedged string strands can no longer be pulled together, make three to four turns inside one half of V wedge until reaching peep.

Take two tight turns around peep aperture, and thread serving around opposite half of strand bundle, creating three to four turns before serving around entire bowstring once more. After you have created the same number of wraps above the peep as below, lay a loop of scrap serving material along string, leaving long tags exposed at bottom, serving over the loop six to seven turns tight to existing wraps, insert serving end through loop and remove slack. Pull scrap loop and contained serving end beneath final wraps and pull tight. Grasp top and bottom tags in turn, pulling firmly toward peep with smooth-jawed pliers, cinching knots and pulling completed serving groups toward V split above and below peep. Trim, carefully melt tag ends, and rub super glue into each serving end. Your peep's secure. Reconirm alignment.