Peep sight tube broke or slips off – how to fix and prevent it

Peep sight tubing makes aligning a peep sight a whole lot easier. You just attach the tubing to your peep sight, and it will straighten itself when you get to full draw. This is extremely convenient when it works. Sadly, this makes the peep sight more complicated, and the tubing often causes issues.

The most common issue is that the peep sight breaks or slips of the tube fitting. Some archers even experienced that the peep sight got ripped from the string by the tubing. Therefore, I will discuss how to repair a broken or disconnected peep sight and how to prevent it.

How to repair/replace a broken peep sight tube

If the peep-sight tubing broke close to the fitting, you can cut off the damaged part and reattach it. When the tubing is damaged in the middle, you must replace the entire tube. Tie the new tube to the string and slip it over the peep sight fitting.

Alright, let’s discuss both options in more detail.

The quick fix

In most cases, the peep sight tubing breaks near the peep sight fitting. At this point, the stress on the tubing gets to its maximum, which causes a lot of issues. Luckily, you can easily solve this issue, even while you are on the field. Just follow the steps below

1. Cut off the damaged part: Before we can reattach the tube, we need to cut off the damaged part. In some cases, there might still be some tube left on the peep sight, we need to remove this as well.
2. Slip the tubing over the fitting: You can now simply slide the tubing back over the fitting. That might be a bit difficult when it’s a tight fit, but you should be able to do this by hand.
3. Check whether the peep sight stays put: Since the tubing will be shorter than normal, it will pull harder on the peep sight. Therefore, this doesn’t work in all cases. Therefore, draw your bow and check whether the peep sight stays put.

You can only do this trick about 3 or 4 times before you need to completely replace the tube. Since the tube gets under more pressure every time, it will break faster and faster.

2. Remove the tube from the cable: most peep sight tubes will be tied directly onto the string with the tube itself. Use some scissors with a sharp point and cut the knot. Don’t use a knife for this job, you will damage the string or the serving with it. If the tube is attached to the serving wire you remove it the same way.

3. Remove the tube from the peep sight fitting: You also need to remove the excess tube from the peep sight fitting. You can just slide it off by pulling hard on the tube. If it’s glued on you might have to remove it with a knife.

4. Measure the ideal length of the tube: Now you can start to install the new tube. But first, we need to know how long the tube should be. To do this, draw your bow and let someone measure the distance between the peep sight and the cable. Subtract 1 inch (3 cm) from this measurement and you have the ideal length of your tube.

5. Cut the tube to length: Use some scissors or an exacto knife to cut the tube to the measured length. Keep the tube longer if you aren’t sure about the length. You can always trim off some extra later.

6. Attach the new tube to the cable: Most archers tie the new tube directly to the cable because that is the easiest. I like to tie mine with some serving wire because this allows me to adjust the tension without having to replace the entire tube. If you don’t have serving wire, I recommend buying this set. This set also includes a serving jig which allows you to replace the serving of your bow.

7. Attach the new tube to the peep sight: To attach the tube to the peep sight you just must slide it over the fitting. This can be quite difficult because it’s a tight fit.

8. Test whether the tube stays put: In some cases, the tube might slip off the peep sight fitting. To solve this issue, you can use some serving wire to tie it down. Only use this trick when necessary, because it increases the stress on the tubing slightly.

Tips to prevent the peep sight tube from breaking

It is perfectly normal for peep sight tubing to break once per year. But if it breaks every month, it can be rather annoying and expensive. Therefore, I discuss 9 tips on how you can prevent your peep sight tubing from breaking.

1. Use a longer tube

In most cases, peep sight tubing breaks because it’s being stretched too far. To solve this issue, you just must replace the tube with a longer tube. The tube should only be stretched at the end of the draw to minimize wear.

Replace the tube and use my recommended calculations discussed earlier to determine the tube length. The less it stretches, the longer it will last. The peep sight should only be aligned at the end of the draw.

2. Align the peep sight

If the peep sight is misaligned by more than 90 degrees, there will be a lot of stress on the tubing. The tubing must pull very hard to get the peep aligned and the fitting will poke through the side of the tubing. Therefore, to solve this issue we need to fix the alignment issue.

To solve this issue, we first need to place the bow in a bow press and remove the tension from the string. If you don’t have one, I recommend buying this bow press from Bowmaster. Click here for an in-depth review and demonstration on how this tool works.

Once the tension is removed from the string, you want to add or remove one or two twists from the string on the upper cam. Remove the bow press, shoot a few arrows, and check the alignment again. It might take a couple of tries adding or removing twists, but eventually, you should get the peep sight better aligned.

3. Remove and reattach the peep sight

Although compound strings are made from very firm materials, they still stretch a bit. The stretch can cause the peep sight to rotate beyond 90 degrees. As we discussed earlier, this can cause the tube to break very fast.

In most cases, you can solve this issue by adding or removing some twists. But sometimes that won’t fix the issue. In that case, you must completely remove the peep sight and reattach it. You will have to completely retune the bow though, so I would keep this as a last resort.

If you want to remove and reattach the peep sight, I recommend following this tutorial.

4. Make sure that the peep tube is angled correctly

When the tube is stretched, the fitting should be horizontally aligned. If the tube is attached too high to the cable the tube will tear at the bottom near the fitting. If the tube is attached too low the tube will tear on the top near the fitting.

To solve this issue, you need to remove the tube from the cable and reattach it. You have to check the alignment at full draw, so you can use a mirror or ask a friend.

5. Use high-quality peep sight tubing

Not all peep sight tubing is the same. I have had an especially bad experience with tubing from Chinese manufacturers or sellers. The major difference is in the quality of the rubber that is being used. Another difference is how it’s being stored. Cheap tubes are often stored in hot warehouses for ages, which causes the tube to dry out.

Also, synthetic rubber or silicone tends to last a lot longer than organic rubber. Therefore, you might also want to test some different materials, especially if you shoot in harsh climates.

7. Store your bow at room temperature

Eventually, all rubber, even synthetic rubber, will lose its stretchiness. When this happens cracks will appear, and the tube starts to tear. We can only decelerate this process, by storing the bow and the tubing at room temperature. Both extreme heat and extreme cold will degrade the rubber. Rubber performs best in high humidity.

8. Don’t shoot your bow in extreme weather conditions

Especially in extremely cold climates, the rubber can degrade extremely fast. This is caused by the extremely low humidity, which also causes your lips to dry out. In that case, you might want to pick another bow without peep sight tubing.

9. Shoot without peep-sight tubing

Although peep-sight tubing is very convenient, it also has its disadvantages. Especially durability in cold climates is a big issue. Therefore, you might want to consider a peep sight without tubing. Read the article below if you want to know more about the pros and cons of using a tubeless peep sight:

Tube vs tubeless peep sight – what is better?

Tips to prevent the tubing from slipping off the peep sight.

Another common issue is that the tubing slips off the peep sight. This is often caused by a loose fit on the peep sight fitting or if the tubing is too short. Below are 3 tips on how to solve this issue.

1. Use a longer peep sight tube

If the tube is too short, the amount of tension on the tubing will cause it to slip off the fitting. Therefore, to solve the issue you need to attach a longer tube. I recommend following the guide earlier in this article to make sure that the tube has the correct length.

2. Roughen up the edges of your tube fitting

In some cases, the fitting of the peep sight is simply too smooth. Since the tube is held on by friction, you can solve this by roughing up the fitting with some sandpaper.

3. Tie the peep sight tube down with serving wire

This trick always works even when the tube doesn’t match the size of the peep sight. Simply wind some serving wire around the tube on the fitting. You need to tie it rather tight for this to work. So, I recommend winding it at least 5 to 10 times around the fitting.

More about the peep sights

I have written a lot of articles about peep sights. If you want to deepen your archery knowledge, click on any of the articles below: 

• How to setup a peep sight 
• 5 best peep sights 
• Tube vs tubeless peep sights 
• 6 tips to fix peep sight rotation issues

Final words

I hope this article was helpful and that it saves you some headaches trying to figure out a solution. Eventually, we must replace our tubing, because it won’t last forever. But with these tips, you can significantly increase its lifespan.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them down below. If you have any tips yourself, please add them as well! I will reply to any questions as soon as possible and I will send you an email once I replied.