Self-confessed gear junky, but I've found that trying it out works better for me than reading fifteen positive reviews with no content, or context, in the writing of the review. I've used 1,3,5,7 pin set-ups.
All worked, but I have settled on the Montana Ascent with five pins.
Single pin - I found the same concern with the dialing the single pin to 20 yards, and the deer coming in does a turn, and wanders out to 40. I don't want to be fumbling with the sight. HHA is a great sight, repeatable stops, easy to adjust and have been pretty bulletproof in the field. The only drawback I found is the quiver mount. The sight has to clear the sliding bar for the sight yardage adjustment, this mounts the quiver out quite a bit from the vertical center of gravity of the bow, the bow (mine) had a tending to lean in the direction of the quiver.
Three pin - what I started with in the way-back, and it works in the Virginia woods for 99% of what I want to hunt. I've used the G-5 sight with the three fixed pins, and the four pin rover. I liked the sight, but the sight light was garbage for me. The pin fiber are well shielded, but that also means they aren't getting a lot of light and the pin light is a requirement for dusk and dawn. Nice big sight housing, and the adjustments were pretty simple. The sight light was the killer for me, they are about $35 each, and the design has the light housing sticking up above the sight. I routinely broke one or two a season, and didn't see that as a positive. Specifically, the rheostat dial would pop off after a few weeks of use. I also found that the roving pin didn't get used much, and it wasn't helping the decision to keep it, and deal with the lights.
Five pin - Axion Axcel, Spot Hogg Hunter, Montana Black Gold, and the MBG Ascent. All good sights, all worked, and I've killed game with each. Axion sights are bullet proof, ridiculously over-built, accurate to adjust, and heavy. The sight is pretty chunky on the scale, this did not matter from a carrying issue, but the weight up high on the riser tended to need more weight on the bottom of the riser to balance out. I found I was spending more time trying to balance the hunting bow, than shooting it. Target bow balance was easy, but I wanted the same for hunting sights.
Spot Hogg Hunter - if you told me I could have only one sight, this would probably be it. Bullet-proof, mounts close to the riser, large sight housing, bright pins, and easy adjustments. Economical sight light, and very little to go wrong with it. I use the "wrapped" version, with the extra fiber ring on the front of the sight housing. The down side - the extra fiber can really make the pins bloom in the direct sunlight, but great at dawn and dusk.
Montana Ascent - 5 pin purple haze in view. I hunt Idaho, no sight lights allowed. The MBG company has a lock on the market with the purple light shrouds on their sights. The clear shroud turns purple in the sunshine, and tones down the fiber to a soft glow. The purple is a reaction to UV light, if I understand the tech right. As the light fades, the purple fades back to clear, allowing the natural light back in.
I use the five pin housing, the sight comes with one, three, or five pins. The sight housing slides on a geared track with an adjustment knob, for the three and five pin, the bottom pin comes your "rover". I dial 20-30-40-50-60, with adjustments out to 80. I don't expect to shoot past 40, but I can if needed, and I routinely practice out to 80 yards. The longer shots aren't for hunting, they help identify errors in form, release, grip - that I can't get at 40.
Seven pin - only once on a target bow. It worked, but you get too much in the sight housing, you start trying to see the forest without the trees. YMMV.
Pin size - I have tried .010, .019, and .029s. I currently run .019, but it's also an aging eyes limit. I liked the .010, but I found they were harder to get consistent lighting out of with a pin light. I swapped fibers around, and just didn't get the results I wanted for visibility. I tried the Tru-glo five pin sight with the mixed fiber sizes, .029 for 20, .019 for 30-40, and the .010 for 40-50 yards. Really liked the idea, but couldn't get the illumination I wanted.
At longer ranges, the .029 seemed to cover more of the target area than I wanted, and I found I was getting more consistent groups with .019 pins, than the larger. However, as the advance of age increases, I may be back with them again. We have small deer in Virginia, especially in the urban northern areas.
Trophy ridge react 5 pin - I bought the single pin version on here recently (see line number one), and it's not what I expected. I agree, it's a weak sight that will break if abused. My does not adjust easy, this good once it's dialed in, but it's a pain to adjust on dial in. A number of the screws in the sight have worked loose, I'd need to thread-lok the whole sight to feel comfortable with it.
Practice - at the end of the day, no model of sight or number of pins is going to correct for the abundance, or lack of it.
JMHO - and limited experience trying different set-ups.
Last edited by AH64guy; 03/27/17.
