The Best Bow Sights of 2025, Tested and Reviewed

There seems to be an all-out war among compound bow sight manufacturers to see who can capture the market with the lightest, coolest, most feature-laden sights, or, who can offer the best sight at the lowest cost. 

What do those bowhunters want? Generally, they want a lightweight slider sight – one they can dial to the exact yardage they’re shooting. They want an ergonomic sight so that when they dial to a specific yardage, the movements are fluid and natural. They want a sight that enables them to shoot long range – at least 100 yards. They’re not necessarily going to shoot at live animals at those longer distances, but they definitely want to shoot that far on the range. 

Having said all that, it is noteworthy to mention that the cost of those sights is ballooning to unseen heights — $500 to $700 is typical. That pricing has created a healthy market of bowhunters who just don’t want to pay that for a sight. And there are more manufacturers now than in the past catering to those bowhunters, giving them many options, where they previously had few.

Let’s be honest. A sight is a tool. It’s not going to make you a better archer. Putting a $700 sight on your bow won’t keep you from punching the release or gripping the bow handle like you’re choking the life out of it. So, while there certainly are advanced bowhunters who can benefit from a sight that allows them to make sure all three axes are level for accurate, long-range shooting uphill, downhill, and across sidehills, there are others who just need an aiming reference to put on the target as they develop their skills.

Through my job at Lancaster Archery Supply I test all the latest compound bow sights and I get to see what products get returned due to issues. Using that hands-on experience I reviewed the ten best bow sights.

The Best Compound Bow Sights: Reviews and Recommendations

Best Overall: Axcel Driver

Key Features

• The main drive wheel is big and has a rubber exterior for good traction
• Scope houses bright pins with a rheostat cover that allows for dimming those pins in bright conditions
• Sight scale indicator(s) feature slots so they can be adjusted up and down to get them exactly where they’re needed
• Sight tape receiver is angled back toward the shooter for increased visibility
• Adjustable elevation stop can be set where needed so you can have a hard stop wherever you zero your sight

The Axcel Driver is the sight that feels like Axcel saw everything that was coming out on the market, so their engineers rolled up their sleeves, told everyone to stand back, and said, “Hold my beer.” The Landslyde Axcel introduced just a few years ago was a huge hit among bowhunters, and the Driver is basically an improved Landslyde.

The Driver is a slider that comes in just about any configuration you can imagine – dovetail, Bridge-Lock, Picatinny mounting options, single or double vertical pins, three or five horizontal pins, and three different scope options. You name it, they’ve got it.

The wheel is bigger than it was on the Landslyde and it has a rubber “tire” on the outside that’s great for traction in your hand. The locking bar, which locks the scope in place, is conveniently located on top of the sight, right about where your index finger would be when you go to adjust the sight. And it is an absolute lock. When you lock it down, the scope does not move.

Axcel took out a lot of the guts from the Landslyde to lighten the Driver, without sacrificing features or stability. The Bridge-Lock version with a 3-pin Accustat scope weighed just 8.5 ounces. One of the features that was removed, but is offered back in another way, is the typical second axis adjustment was eliminated. The second axis adjustment typically is a set of two screws that hold a bar in place. Loosening the screws allows you to pivot the scope up and down to make sure that it’s level. 

With the Driver, Axcel machined the scope receiver so that the scope is perfectly perpendicular to the vertical, elevation bar. By doing that, now the user can level both the first and second axes simply by adjusting the first axis. The first axis adjustment is a set of two screws connecting the vertical elevation bar to the sight’s mounting system – pic rail, dovetail, Bridge-Lock bar. That’s the most important one on a slider, because you need to know the elevation bar is moving straight up and down, or else you’ll have left-right issues as you adjust the sight for different yardages.

Each sight includes 1-3 sight scale indicators that can easily be adjusted to meet the calibration of your sight. And you’ll get some metal sight tapes and dozens of stick-on paper sight tapes with every sight.

Axcel employs some of the brightest fibers on the market for its pins. There is the option to mount a light on any of the scopes, but I’ve found that, except when I’m hunting from a blind, I’ve never needed a light to see the pins on an Axcel hunting sight. They gather light in ever the lowest-light situation. A blind is different because you’re sitting in the dark shooting into the light, which makes unlighted pins all look black.

Runner Up: HHA Nytrx

Features

• Large, ergonomic wheel
• Positive lock prevents wheel from any movement
• Adjustments for all three axes
• Macro and micro windage adjustments
• Scope mount is separate from the second axis adjustment
• Movable pin fiber cover

Why do I have a runner up for Best Overall sight? The HHA Nytrx is too good not to talk about, even though I prefer the Axcel Driver in this category. You can’t go wrong with the Nytrx. It’s well made, it’s got all the features bowhunters need, and it’s easy to use in the field.

The Nytrx is a slider sight with a large wheel that has a dial lock in the center of the wheel. It’s available with scopes housing single or double vertical pins, or with three or four horizontal pins. One of the new features of the Nytrx is a longer elevation bar. This virtually ensures that you can set the scope to zero by turning the wheel all the way to the hard stop, with the elevation bar raised to its max position. Previous HHA sights with a shorter elevation bar worked for most bows, but some bowhunters found they ran out of bar to attach the scope when trying to zero the sight at the upper hard stop.

What I’m describing here in setting the sight to zero is turning the wheel so the elevation bar goes as high as possible until you hit the hard stop. Ideally, that’s the wheel position you want as you set your scope so your top pin – or single pin – is positioned for dead-on shooting at 20 yards. That’s the distance where most bowhunters want their sight “zeroed,” so they can simply turn the wheel to raise the bar until they hit the hard stop. Then you know you’re set for 20 yards without even looking at the sight tape.

The Nytrx features bright pins, with a movable scope cover, so you can adjust the pin brightness. If the sun is high, slide the cover to shade some of the fiber and dull the pins. If it’s getting dark, push the cover back to expose all of the fiber to any available light.

The scope attachment system is one of the best on the market, because a rail on the back side of the elevation bar allows for infinite positioning of the scope anywhere within that rail. And HHA separated the attachment point from the second-axis adjustment, so you can level the scope once, but then move the scope up and down the rail as needed without affecting the level position.

While it doesn’t feel right to call the Nytrx an “affordable” sight, it is priced nicer than other sights like it. All of the Nytrx sights that are not in the Pro series cost between $300 and $400. No, that’s not cheap, but when other sights like it cost $400-$700, $309.99 sure is an easier pill to swallow.

Read Next: Best Compound Bows

Best Budget Sight: Trophy Ridge FIX3

Features

• Three fixed pins
• Micro-adjustable elevation and windage
• Second-axis leveling capability
• Bright pins, with the fiber protected in a clear plastic housing
• Fixed mount, meaning this sight stays on the bow at all times

The Trophy Ridge FIX3 is a direct-mount sight with three fixed pins. That means the three pins are set at the distances you want, and then they can’t be moved in the field. I’d set these pins at 25, 40, and 50 yards, planning to use those references to aim a little high or low for in-between distances.

The FIX3 has bright pin fibers, so the pins will be easy to see in low light. The pins are micro-adjustable for elevation and windage, which just makes setting up easy. The scope includes a level and a bright outer ring for centering in your peep.

This is a simple sight for bowhunters who want fixed aiming references. And at $99.99, it’s super affordable. But it’s not cheap. The components that need to be metal are metal, so you know this sight will be able to handle the rigors of bowhunting.

Best Budget Slider: Redline RL-2 Slider 1-Pin

Features

• Large scope with bright green outer ring for eye alignment
• Micro-adjust windage
• Adjustable second and third axes
• Light included
• Includes 40 sight tapes offering yardages out to 100 yards

The Redline RL-2 Slider 1-Pin at $129.99 is your basic slider sight that offers sufficient features for the budget-conscious bowhunter who doesn’t want to be limited by their equipment. It’s a single-pin sight, so you have to adjust it every time you shoot at a new distance, but you also have a super clean sight picture with that one, vertical pin.

The pin has a bright fiber, which is protected in a plastic housing, and a battery-powered light is included. The windage adjustment is a dial that doesn’t click, but which still allows for micro-adjustments left and right, which makes sighting in a snap. It’s rare for budget sights to have both second- and third-axis adjustments, but the RL-2 Slider has them.

At just 8.4 ounces, the RL-2 Slider 1-Pin is ultralight. And while it is a basic sight, it’s got the features you need. 

Best Mid-Priced: Black Gold Ascent Verdict

Features

• Nice sized scope with bright green outer ring for alignment
• Pin fiber housed in a special, clear container that gets darker as the ambient light gets brighter, and clearer as the light grows dimmer
• Sight tape is angled back toward shooter
• Three individually adjustable pins
• Medium-sized wheel for making sight adjustments
• 54 sight tapes included

There are bowhunters out there who don’t want the cheapest sight on the market but also not the most expensive. The Black Gold Ascent Verdict, at roughly $260, is a good, well-built, slider sight that’s priced smack in the middle between the two extremes.

The Ascent Verdict is a three-pin slider with one sight-tape indicator. Some will set that indicator to match their top pin, so they can use it like a single-pin slider. Others, will match it to the bottom pin, so they’ve got three fixed sight references, and then they can dial in their sight to any distance beyond the distance set for the bottom pin. 

I’d set the pins for this sight at 20, 30, and 40 yards, with the wheel turned all the way up to the hard stop. I’d then set the indicator at 40 yards to match my bottom pin. It would be my slider pin.

The Ascent Verdict has all the features of higher-priced sights, but the construction is simpler. For example, each pin is locked in place by a simple Allen screw. No micro adjustments. Likewise, the sight-tape indicator is held in place by a screw that clamps down on a slotted bar. Loosen the screw, and the indicator can be manually slid up and down via the slot. The wheel lock is a simple twist bar mounted on a spring, and it’s positioned on the inside of the sight, while the wheel is on the outside. It’s functional, but not necessarily in the most ergonomic location.

One of the greatest features of this, and any Black Gold sight, is the pin fiber. It’s super bright so you can see it in the lowest light, but Black Gold houses it in a special clear container that reacts to the amount of light and will automatically get darker as the light gets brighter to quiet the pins. This sight is a great choice for the bowhunter who wants a decent, slider sight, without having to take out a loan.

Dialed Pruf Mover

Features

• Angled elevation bar
• Allows for sight tapes inside the sight bar, outside the sight bar or both at the same time
• Multiple scope options allow for one-pin vertical (actually two), three-pin vertical, three-pin horizontal or five-pin horizontal
• Sliding fiber cover allows for dimming pins in bright conditions
• The void and angled elevation bar make this one of the most recognizable sights on the market
• Solid locking bar prevents the scope from moving
• Adjustments for leveling first, second and third axes

The Dialed Pruf Mover is the second offering from Dialed Archery after their initial entry into the marketplace with the Arxos three years ago. The Arxos was a unique sight, but bowhunters had some issues with it. The Pruf Mover corrects those issues and now has to be considered one of the best in its class.

The signature features of the Dialed Pruf are the “void,” which is the big hole in the center of the sight made by the slider wheel, and the angled elevation bar. The bar angles toward the archer at the bottom, which pulls the scope closer to the eye as the sight is adjusted to shoot longer distances. As the sight comes closer, it sort of multiplies the shootable range for the archer than if the scope simply moved straight up and down. It doesn’t gain you a ton of yardage, but it does increase your effective range by several yards as you get to 80 yards and over.

The Pruf Mover can be configured to suit your preferences for interacting with your sight tape. You can run a tape inside the sight, outside the sight or both. You get four sight-tape indicators with the sight, regardless of pin configuration, and you can move them to wherever you want. Also, each indicator is individually adjustable to get it exactly where you want it. 

The Pruf Mover employs excellent fiber for maximum pin brightness, and the top of the scope features a sliding cover to block varying amounts of light from reaching the fiber, so you can dull the pins in the brightest light, like when you’re on the open ski slope in the middle of the day at the Pennsylvania Total Archery Challenge event.

A top-mounted level in the scope prevents the level from blocking your view of vertical pins. The sight has easy adjustments for leveling all three axes. There are Bridge-Lock, Picatinny, and direct-mount options, so the Pruf Mover can work with any compound bow on the market.

Most Bulletproof: Spot Hogg Boonie

Features

• Big scope with bright, interchangeable rings
• Micro-adjust second and third axes
• Large, ergonomic wheel makes yardage changes a snap
• Locking mechanism absolutely locks wheel in place
• Silent, no-click windage adjustment
• Dovetail, direct mount and picatinny mounting options
• Solid aluminum body

The Spot Hogg Boonie is a good sight that’s built to take a beating. Cam Hanes and John Dudley use and abuse this sight, and they trust nothing else for their adventurous bowhunts in the mountains. In the same vein, while we sell a ton of Boonies at Lancaster Archery Supply, it’s rare when we see one returned for a construction or performance deficiency.

The Boonie is a slider with many options for pin and mounting configurations. Basically, there’s something for everyone. It’s got a generous elevation bar that offers plenty of adjustments for long-range shooting. The pins have bright fiber, and both are well protected inside the scope against damage in the field.

Second- and third-axis adjustments, click-less windage adjustments, and multiple mounting positions for the scope allow the user to optimize the Boonie for his or her individual preferences. The Boonie is a large sight, but it’s so well made, you don’t have to worry about banging it around.

Most Expensive: Mathews UV Slider

Features

• Generous scope with one or three vertical pins or three or five horizontal pins
• Large, smooth-moving adjustment wheel with the lock button positioned exactly where your forefinger rests
• Micro-adjust windage knob housed in the center of the adjustment wheel
• Includes rechargeable and removable light
• Brighter pins than the original UV Slider
• Weighs 9 ounces

At $699.99, the Mathews UV Slider currently is the most expensive sight under “Hunting Sights” on the Lancaster Archery Supply website. It’s a well-built, user-friendly sight that’s ideal for anyone who has a Mathews bow with the Bridge-Lock cutout in the riser. Those are the only bows this sight can be mounted to.

Designed by the folks at Ultraview, think of the Mathews UV Slider as an upgraded, branded UV Slider. The functionality is the same as the UV Slider, with the big wheel, the perfectly placed lock, and the micro-adjust windage knob housed in the center of the yardage wheel, but improvements have been made, primarily in the scope. It’s a smaller, lighter scope with brighter pins housed inside a smoke-colored plastic ring that’s intended to keep the pins from starbursting in bright light. 

The sight comes with a removable light, but unlike previous UV light kits, this one doesn’t take replaceable batteries. It’s rechargeable, via micro USB. 

The sight can be leveled on all three axes, although the first two are married to one adjustment. When you set one, the other is guaranteed to also be level. It’s got an adjustable hard stop, and the gear ratio is such that it only takes half a turn of the yardage wheel to go from the top to the bottom of the elevation bar. There are receivers – and indicators – for mounting sight tapes on either or both the left and right side of the sight. For right-handed shooters, the left sight-tape mount is angled toward the archer for easier viewing, and vice versa for lefties.

The Mathews UV Slider is a well-made, feature-laden sight. Is it worth $700? That’s your call.

Axcel Landslyde 5-pin

Features

• Five fixed pins mounted on a movable vertical post
• Two sight tape indicators can be set to mark the top and bottom pins
• Movable rheostat
• Long lengths of high-quality fiber optic
• Adjustable on both second and third axes

The Axcel Landslyde five-pin sight is the ultimate bowhunting sight. It offers the quick aiming of five-fixed-pins sight, and the adjustable precision of a sliding, single-pin sight. So if you’ve got your five pins set at 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 yards, you’ve got fixed aiming references if your target buck comes racing in to 20 yards, but then scoots out to 35 after you’ve come to full draw, but before you could shoot. Stay at full draw, and simply move to the gap between your 30- and 40-yard pins.

On the other hand, if you’ve got the time, you can dial your sight to the exact yardage that buck is standing at so you can paste a pin to the spot you want to hit. No gap shooting if you don’t want to gap shoot.

The micro-adjust system for moving each individual pin is ingenious and it takes minutes to sight in your bow. Each pin is held in place by a locking screw. Underneath the pin stack is a dial. You unlock one pin and turn the dial, and then only that pin moves up or down. You are able to make tiny adjustments with the dial, so you can get each pin in exactly the right place. Once a pin is set, tighten the locking screw, and it won’t budge.

When you get the Landslyde in your hands, it’s easy to understand why it’s fairly expensive. You can feel the quality. The pins are bladed, so they won’t bend. The fiber optic is incredibly bright in even the dimmest light. And if it happens to be super bright outside and your pin is starbursting, you can slide the rheostat to cover up some of the fiber, which dulls the pin and eliminates the starburst.

Every sight comes with a good selection of metal and coated paper sight tapes. Odds are, one will work for your setup. If you can get a metal tape to work, you don’t ever have to worry about it getting wet or tearing. With the dual indicators, you can set the top arrow to mark your top pin and the bottom to match your bottom pin. That way, you can use your top pin as a single pin sight from 0-60 yards, and your bottom pin for aiming at anything beyond 60 yards.

I’ve chosen the five-pin sight as the best, but Axcel offers the Landslyde in three-pin and single-pin configurations. You choose what you prefer. You can also choose between versions where the sight bar mounts directly to the riser, or which slides through a mounting block so you can easily adjust how close to or far from the riser the scope sits.

Garmin Xero A1i Pro

Key Features

• Operated by the touch of a button attached to the bow’s grip
• Can be set to account for multiple arrow setups
• Choose red or green aiming dot
• Choose single dot that appears at a ranged distance, or a stack of preset dots similar to a fixed-pin sight
• Micro-adjust windage, elevation, and scope pitch
• Quick disconnect cord so sight can be removed from the bow for travel

The Garmin Xero A1i Pro is a bow sight that also functions as a rangefinder. It can be set to that when you press a button attached to the front of the bow grip to range a target, the distance will appear in a display, and an illuminated dot will appear on a screen in the scope housing at the exact spot where it would need to be to aim dead-on at that target. Or it can be set with a series of fixed aiming references set at 10-yard intervals and pressing the rangefinding button simply displays the distance to the target.

Outdoor Life’s gear editor field tests the Garmin Xero A1i Pro.

The Pro is the newest version of the Xero A1i, and includes micro-adjust capabilities for elevation, windage, and the pitch and yaw of the scope. The pitch and yaw ensure the display screen in the scope is perfectly flat to the user’s eye. That’s key for accurate rangefinding.

Setup for the Xero A1i Pro does take several steps, but you’re guided through those steps by on-screen directions. Follow those directions, and setup is not difficult.

The customization this sight affords is unparalleled. Besides choosing between single-pin or multi-pin aiming, you can choose the pin colors, set up an on-screen digital level if you want, and set the sight to account for normal or extended-range shooting, among other options. You can even set the sight to adjust for different arrow profiles.

You can read the full Garmin Xero A1i Pro review here.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Bow Sight

Pin Size

Bow sight pins come in a variety of sizes, but the three most common you’ll encounter are .010, .019, and .029 inches. The smaller the pin, the more precise you can be in aiming. That can be important, especially if you plan to shoot long range. A .029 pin is nice for aiming at a deer 15 yards away, but back up to 70, and that pin is likely to cover half the animal’s body.

However, the smaller the pin, the less light it is able to transmit. So if you’re a tree stand hunter under a heavy canopy, a .010 pin will go dark as prime time arrives in the evening substantially before a .029 pin. As you get older, those smaller pins go dark even sooner.

Think about your age, your eyesight and what you need and want to see while aiming when you choose the size of the pins in your sight.

Fiber Length and Exposure

When you look through a sight and see glowing red, orange, green and/or yellow dots at the sight pin heads, the glowing is thanks to fiber optic. The fiber optic used in bowsights is a thin strand of plastic. Anywhere that fiber is exposed to light, it is gathering light. Any light it gathers is transmitted to the end of the pin, which is what bowhunters use to aim.

The longer the fiber is, and the more that fiber is exposed to light, the more light it can gather. The shorter it is, the less light it will gather. So in low light – prime hunting time – a pin with lots of exposed fiber will be more visible that a pin with a shorter fiber, or fiber that has more length covered.

If most of your hunting is spot and stalk on the open prairie, fiber length is not a huge deal. But if you’re going to be hunting in the timber, having a sight with lots of fiber is critical.

Number and Orientation of Pins

Pin options today are as varied as the sights that house them – single, double and triple vertical pins; one to seven horizontal pins.

Slider vs Fixed 

Do you want to shoot long ranges? Do you have time to use one of the best laser rangefinders for bowhunting and then dial a sight in a hunting scenario? If you answered yes to both question then a single pin slider is a good option. If you answered yes to long range, and “it depends” to the hunting scenario question, you might want to consider a slider sight with multiple.

If you’re primarily shooting 40 yards and less, a three or five, fixed-pin sight is the way to. They’re simple reliable and frankly all you need for shooting under 40 yards.

What’s best?

A single, adjustable vertical pin offers the cleanest sight picture. You’ve got one aiming reference and it’s extending up from the bottom of the sight, so it’s not covering any part of the animal. However, you’ll have to adjust this sight to the correct yardage for every single shot.

I’m going to make the case for the three-pin horizontal slider as the best option for a bowhunting scope configuration. I’m setting this scope so my pins are at 20, 30 and 40 yards, when my slider sight is turned all the way up to the maximum height. Ideally, I’ll have at least two sight-tape indicators – one for my top pin and one for the bottom. If there are three indicators, I’ll set it for my middle pin, but I don’t need that one.

With this scope setup I can slam the sight wheel all the way up to a hard stop, and I know I have aiming references out to 40 yards. If I have time, I can dial my top pin to the exact distance of my target out to 50 yards, or my bottom pin to distances beyond 50. If I don’t have time to set a pin to the exact distance out to 40, I can easily aim using my pins in their fixed positions. With the speed of today’s bows, I can easily hold one pin a little high or low to account for distances in between 20, 30 or 40 yards.

The horizontal orientation of three pins for me promotes a cleaner sight picture than a vertical orientation. To use my bottom pin on a three-vertical-pin sight, I have to cover part of my target with the top two pins and the bar that connects all three. I don’t like that. With three pins coming from the right side of my scope, I can see everything I need to see to take aim with any of the pins.

How I Chose the Best Bow Sights

How did I pick the best in each class? I have a dozen years’ experience working at Lancaster Archery Supply, one of the largest archery and bowhunting equipment dealers in the world. My job is to handle this gear and make product videos to educate consumers about the features and performance. So I get to see and handle just about everything on the market. Also, I see what products get returned to us due to issues with performance or construction. The following list of sights is based on my handling and use of dozens of sights currently and previously on the market, and on my years of experience in this field.

Final Thoughts on the Best Bow Sights

Choosing the right sight for your bow is a critical piece to the accuracy puzzle. It is the last thing you’re looking through before an arrow is released. At the end of the day, though, it’s an aiming reference. You can go as simple or as feature-laden as you want with today’s sights. The good news is there are options for everyone – whatever you like to have in a sight, and whatever you want to spend. If you’re in the market, this is a great time to invest in a new sight for your bow.