I’m Kevin, your host here at Garmin’s training video series.
Today is all about archery.
Maybe you’ve purchased or you're thinking about purchasing one of our Garmin Xero Bow Sight.
And you think it’s just too difficult to set up.
Hey, we understand your concerns and want to reassure you that it’s not as hard as you may think. It’s just different.
So, stick around, because today I’m going to walk you through the setup process so you can take your shooting to the next level – with the Garmin Xero Bow Sight.
The process of setting up the Xero consists of 3 steps:
Mechanically zeroing in the primary pin.
Aligning the rangefinder, which you can see on the front of the sight.
And Shooting at various distances so the bow sight will learn the ballistics of your bow and arrows.
So, let’s jump right in get our hands dirty.
After you have the sight mounted on the bow, let’s start with turning the sight on.
When you turn the sight on for the first time, it will automatically guide you through the set-up process.
Now, if for some reason you’ve already been through the part of the process of sighting it in and gave up,
you can click on the link below to reset your Xero Bow Sight back to Factory Default Settings so you can start from scratch.
First, you will be prompted to select your language.
I’m going to select English and click the OK button on the top of the sight,
but you can select any language you prefer by using the left and right arrows on the top of the sight, then clicking the OK button.
Next, you will select the units of measurement for your distances.
The options will be yards or meters, so I’m going to select yards and click OK.
Then, you are asked if you want to start the pin calibration. That is exactly what we want to do here, so I’m going to select Yes and click OK.
If you’re working with an A1i, which is what we have here today, you have the option to select the ranged pin color, either Green or Red.
I prefer the ranged pin to be green so that’s what I’m going to select and click OK.
Now you get the option to adjust the pin brightness. This lets you customize the brightness to your liking.
I’m going to select Yes and click OK, then I’m going to increase my brightness a little and click OK.
Then it will ask if you want to adjust the reticle brightness.
The reticle refers to the green circle and arrows that you will see around the red dot when ranging your target.
I’m also going to increase the reticle brightness a little and click OK.
Now you’re instructed to stand at the desired range to zero in your first pin, also referred to as your primary pin.
The range needs to be at least 15 yards from the target, so I’m going to use 20 yards as the range for my primary pin.
We’re going to click OK and go to our 20-yard mark.
So, I’m already standing at my 20-yard line and I will press and hold the trigger.
The sight then uses the laser rangefinder to measure the distance to the target.
20 yards is confirmed, and I can release the trigger.
After releasing the trigger, you will be asked if you want to use the 20-yard range.
I confirm this by selecting Yes and clicking OK. Now let’s shoot a few arrows.
Now that we've shot a few arrows, I will zero in my first pin at 20 yards by adjusting the straight rails on the sight, both vertically and horizontally.
This is the mechanical part I was telling you about for step 1.
You will see that there are both straight rails and curved rails on the sight, but for zeroing in the primary pin, you will only use the straight rails.
Use a 7/64-inch hex key for this adjustment.
I’m sure you’ve noticed already how light this bow sight is. In fact, it weighs in at only 15 ounces.
That’s because we made the rails out of aluminum instead of steel. With that in mind, you don’t need much torque to tighten the screws down on the rails.
Just turn the screw until it makes contact, then turn it another ¼ turn. Move the sight in the direction that the arrows hit.
My arrows hit high and to the left of where I was aiming, so I’m going to move my sight up and to the left.
I will continue shooting and making adjustments until my arrows find the bullseye.
At this point, I have mechanically zeroed in my first pin at 20 yards using the straight rails only.
In the process, the display shows the message “set pin using vertical and horizontal rails.”
I’m going to click OK to confirm that I have finished setting up my first pin.
Now you are in the second step of the three-step process, which is to adjust the reticle for the laser rangefinder.
This is done by nocking an arrow, drawing the bow, and looking though the peep sight.
The reticle must be adjusted so the red dot fits exactly in the middle of the green circle.
This ensures that the laser rangefinder measure the distance to the exact spot where you aim the red dot.
This is where you will use the horizontal and vertical curved rails.
The curved rails are designed so that adjustments will only affect the laser range finder, not the primary pin.
So, you want to make sure not to adjust the straight rails for this step.
Now you’ve adjusted the reticle, so the red dot fits in the green circle when you draw the bow and look through my peep sight as you normally would while shooting.
Then you confirm the adjustment of the reticle by clicking OK.
Just to make sure that you didn’t change where the arrow hits,
the sight prompts you to shoot an arrow using the primary pin you already set up and confirm that it’s still accurate.
I will take another shot and confirm that it is still accurate by clicking OK.
Now you’re at step three and we’re instructed to back up 10 yards, so I’m going to move back to 30 yards from my target.
The sight now instructs you to hold the trigger to range the distance to the target.
The distance is measured and then you release the trigger.
Now we’re prompted to confirm that you want to use that yardage as your next distance.
I confirm my distance by clicking OK, and I’m ready to shoot at 30 yards.
So, I’ve shot 3 arrows at 30 yards, and the display now asks if the arrows hit the bullseye.
As you can see, they’re about 2 inches too high. Now what?
You just answer the question on the display. Since my arrows didn’t hit the bullseye, I’m going to select No and click OK.
The next question is if I missed high or low. I select high and click OK again.
Now I have to enter how much too high. I select 2 inches and click OK.
At this point, the sight adjusts that ranged pin accordingly, so I will shoot again to see if my arrows are now accurate.
I’ve shot 3 more arrows and this time, they hit the bullseye, so I confirm this on the sight by selecting Yes and clicking OK.
Next you will be prompted to back up another 10 yards and repeat the same process I did with the 30 yards.
I'll continue the process until I reach the maximum yardage that I want to shoot.
I have now completed the electronic calibration process for 30 yards, 40 yards and 50 yards.
50 yards is the maximum distance that I want to shoot.
So when asked, if I want to calibrate more distances, I'm going to select No and click OK.
Now you're asked if you want to set fixed pins.
If fixed pins are set, you can always fall back to a traditional fixed pins sight, if you choose to do so, instead of the single pin option.
So I'm going to select Yes and click OK.
Now you can begin setting your fixed pins.
I select the first pin at 20 yards and click OK.
It then asks to select the pin color for that pin.
Since the A1i allows you to choose between green or red for fixed pins.
For my first pin, I’m going to select green and click OK.
I want to set another pin, so this time I will select 30 yards for my second pin and click OK.
I want this pin to be red, so I will select red for the pin color and click OK.
Now I want a third pin at 40 yards, so I repeat the process and select green as my pin color.
The last pin that I want for my setup is at 50 yards, so I repeat the process and select red as my pin color.
Now that I’m done setting my fixed pins, when it asks if I want to set more pins, I select No and click OK.
The setup of my Garmin Xero is now complete and you’re ready to shoot.
Folks this sight is absolutely amazing. And we want you to enjoy shooting with it as much as we do.
Hopefully, you’re a little less intimidated by the setup process and you’ll have some great memories to share with your friends from using this sight.
Bring the outdoors into focus – with the Garmin Xero Bow Sight.
Hey, thanks for taking the time to learn more about the Garmin Xero Bow Sight.
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For now, that’s all I‘ve got.
This is Kevin from Garmin, wishing you the best wherever your adventure takes you.
And in all that you do, we want to help you beat yesterday.