Sight Tape Generator — Print a Tape That Matches YOUR Bow, Not the IBO Spec
The factory tape that came with your sight is wrong. Not slightly. Wrong enough that at 60 yards you'll miss a pie plate. It was generated against the IBO test rig: 30-inch draw, 70-pound bow, 350-grain arrow, sea-level density altitude. That's not your bow. That's not your arrow. That's not where you hunt.
A real sight tape gets calibrated to your setup. The Forge's Sight Tape Printer does it free.
What a sight tape is
A sight tape is the printed scale on your slider sight that converts yardage to elevation. You range an animal at 47 yards, you dial your sight pointer to 47, you aim center. It works because the tape is mapped to your arrow's actual trajectory.
Single-pin sliders (HHA Tetra, Spot-Hogg Tommy Hogg, CBE Vertex, Axcel Achieve, Shibuya Ultima CPX-III, Bowfinger 1 Sight V2) all rely on this. Generic tapes come close. Custom tapes are exact.
Why factory tapes are wrong
Factory tapes use a published IBO velocity and assume zero atmospheric correction. The IBO test is 30-inch draw, 70 pounds, 350-grain arrow, 5 grains per pound. Almost nobody shoots that combination. If your draw is 28.5 inches, you've already lost ~15 fps from IBO. If you shoot a 460-grain arrow, you've lost another 18-20 fps. If you hunt Colorado at 9,000 feet density altitude, your trajectory flattens.
The result: a generic tape can be 2-3 yards off at 60 and 4-5 yards off at 80. That's a miss on an elk.
What a real sight tape needs as inputs
To calibrate correctly, the generator needs:
- Your measured velocity. Chronograph the actual arrow you'll shoot. Not the bow's IBO. Not an estimate. Real fps off your string.
- Your peep height. Distance from the floor at full draw, or the angle measurement from the arrow to your eye.
- Your sight radius. The distance from your peep to the pin. Longer radius equals more tape spacing per yard, which means more dial-in precision.
- Your sight axis. 1st axis, 2nd axis, 3rd axis levels matter for steep-angle shots but also for tape accuracy.
- Your atmospheric density altitude. Where you sighted in and where you'll hunt. A tape calibrated at 700 ft DA in Illinois will shoot high at 8,500 ft DA in Wyoming.
- Your sight model. Tape spacing differs per sight. A Spot-Hogg Tommy Hogg uses a different scale than a Shibuya CPX-III.
- Two known yardages. Confirmed pin positions at, for example, 20 and 50 yards. These calibrate the math against reality.
The math, briefly
Sight tape generation uses a ballistic trajectory model. The simplified form:
Drop at range = (4.9 × (range / velocity)²) corrected for arrow ballistic coefficient.
Sight elevation per yard = (drop × sight radius) / range, converted to the linear scale of your sight body.
The generator integrates drop across 5-yard increments from 20 to 100 yards, applies your atmospheric correction (density altitude affects drag), and prints a scale matched to the physical dimensions of your sight's tape window.
The two known yardages let the math self-correct. If your printed pin at 20 reads 21.3 in reality, the model rescales the entire tape by that ratio.
Why it matters in the real world
One of our coaching clients shot her first archery elk hunt in 2024. New Hoyt VTM 34, 56-pound draw, 28-inch arrow, 430 grains, factory HHA Tetra tape. At the range in Chicago she was dead on at 20, 30, 40, 50. She felt ready.
In Colorado at 8,200 ft DA, her 50-yard shot at a bedded cow elk hit 6 inches high. She missed. The arrow buried in dirt over the elk's back. She'd never accounted for the density altitude shift. A custom tape calibrated for 8,000 ft DA would have put that arrow through the lungs.
She came back, we built her a Forge tape for two elevations (Chicago and Colorado), and she killed her bull in 2025.
Sights The Forge supports
- Axcel Achieve series
- Shibuya Ultima CPX-III
- Spot-Hogg Tommy Hogg / Fast Eddie XL
- CBE Vertex / Engage Hybrid
- HHA Tetra / Optimizer Lite
- Bowfinger 1 Sight V2
- Black Gold Ascent series
Each sight has its own tape window dimensions and scale. The Forge prints to scale, so you cut on the line, peel, and stick.
How to use The Forge's Sight Tape Printer
- Build or load your arrow in the Arrow Builder.
- Punch in your chronographed velocity.
- Enter peep height, sight radius, sight axis settings.
- Enter your two known sighted-in yardages.
- Enter the density altitude where you'll hunt.
- Pick your sight model from the dropdown.
- The Forge generates a PDF tape sized exactly to your sight. Print at 100% (not Fit to Page), confirm with a ruler that the 1-inch scale bar prints at 1 inch, and apply.
Open The Forge and generate your sight tape. Sight Tape Printer is part of Hunter tier ($6/mo) with unlimited tape generations and multi-elevation profiles.
FAQ
Do I really need a custom sight tape?
If you hunt past 40 yards or shoot at different elevations than where you sighted in, yes. Generic tapes work for 20-40 yard whitetail. For Western hunts, custom is non-negotiable.
How accurate is a Forge-generated tape?
Within half a yard at 80 yards when the inputs are accurate. The two-point calibration corrects for any small velocity or radius errors.
What if I don't have a chronograph?
You can use the two-known-yardages back-solve. The Forge will estimate your actual velocity from pin gaps at 20 and 50 and build the tape from that. It's a fallback, but it works.
What's density altitude and how do I find it?
DA is a number that combines elevation, temperature, and pressure into a single value that predicts how much drag your arrow sees. Apps like Density Altitude or any Garmin GPS unit will give it to you for your hunt area.
Will the tape work at the indoor range?
Yes, but only for the calibrated DA. If you printed for 8,000 ft and you're shooting at 700 ft indoors, your 60-yard pin will print slightly low. Most indoor ranges are 20 yards anyway, where the difference is invisible.
Can I print one tape for multiple sights?
No. Each sight's scale is unique. But you can save your bow profile and generate tapes for multiple sights on the same arrow build.