One of the biggest struggles in bow hunting is low light. Though this is one of the best times for that big buck to come out in front of you, issues can arise when you can’t see your pins or see through your peep because there is not enough light.
Brightness Settings
This is where shooting a red dot on your bow can help! One of the great advantages of shooting a red dot is that you can change the brightness settings. Our favorite red dots here at Adjustable Red Dot are from Ultradot. These red dots have 11 brightness settings for you to use during your hunting trips from dawn to full sun to dusk. This allows you to adapt to any hunting scenario. Let's say you don’t use an Ultradot red dot, but you bought our rail system and use a red dot or reflex style sight you already had on a gun. The vast majority of red dot sights have brightness options so you will still be covered in all lighting conditions.
No Peep
Using a red dot on a bow eliminates the need for a peep sight. This can be a great advantage in low light conditions because your focus is solely on your target and the dot simply comes into your vision. With a red dot, there is no need to struggling looking through a peep and finding your pins during the critical hunting light. Simple focus on your target, center the dot, and release.
Battery Life
A common concern we get is how long the battery will last. Most red dot sights will use a lithium coin cell battery and these can have a battery life of anywhere from 500-50,000 hours depending on conditions. From our experience shooting red dots on bows for 30 years, if you turn your sight off when you’re not hunting or practicing you can get 1-2 years life out a battery. We’ve never had an issue with a battery dying mid hunt but as a precaution, you can always tape an extra battery to your riser or keep on in your pack. Additionally, non-battery powered red dot options are available with the Meprolight M21, M22 comes out in the United States next year which will work better on our rail, and the SeeAll sight. Those are good options if your state doesn’t allow battery powered electronics on bows.
Overall, by not having to stress about whether you can see your pins or peep in low light, having a red dot will eliminate that stress and allow for a seamless hunting experience.