Tournaments are a fun way to test your archery skills while getting more involved in the sport’s community. If you’re new to competitive archery, explore the different types of competitions, find a nearby tournament, and enter it with the bow you’re now shooting.

As you get more involved in competitive archery, you’ll want to upgrade your gear. Let’s look at competition-specific accessories you’ll consider for your compound bow.

Sight

Target-style sights have toolless micro-adjustments, which lets the archer make small adjustments on the fly. They’re sold in two parts: the sight and scope. The scope contains the lens, which is also sold separately in various sizes and magnifications, usually 4X. The scope also has a fiber-optic pin or dot that sticks onto the lens, which you use to aim. Learn more about sights here.

Arrow Rest

An arrow rest guides your arrow from the moment of release until it leaves the bow. The two varieties commonly used by compound archers are drop-away rests, and blade-style rests.

One benefit of drop-away rests is that they provide complete clearance for the arrow’s vanes. A benefit of a blade style rest is that it guides the arrow during its entire path out of the bow. Both styles can deliver excellent accuracy. Therefore, ultimately, personal preference dictates which arrow-rest style archers choose.

Stabilizer

Stabilizers help archers steady their aim by slowing the bow’s movement. Most compound-bow archers use a long front stabilizer and a short side rod. Right-handed archers usually mount the side rod on the bow’s left side as low as possible to lower the bow’s center of gravity. Archers attach weights to both stabilizers, but the front stabilizer usually has fewer weights than the side rod.

Peep Sight

Peep sights come in different sizes to match your scope’s size the venue’s ambient light. When using a small scope, a smaller peep sight lets you precisely align your peep and scope. If you’re shooting in a venue that’s not lighted as brightly as your home range, a slightly larger peep makes the target appear brighter.

To change peep sights sizes more easily, manufacturers make peeps with an interchangeable aperture that lets you swap sizes without removing the entire peep. This feature also lets archers use clarifiers and verifiers. When using a magnified lens, some archers find it makes the target look blurry. If so, a clarifier sharpens the image.

Need more help accessorizing your bow? The pros at a nearby archery shop will help you upgrade your bow. Find a shop here.