Top Bow Sights for 2026 — What's Hot Right Now

One upgrade can make your bow feel brand new, and it is not another stabilizer or a fresh set of strings. It is the bow sight you trust when a whitetail steps out at 28 yards and when TAC puts a target at 110 on a steep angle. I’m breaking down the premium 2026 archery sights that are driving the biggest shift I’ve seen in years: micro-adjustable vertical three pin slider sights that work as a true hybrid setup for hunting, 3D archery, and Total Archery Challenge.

We dig into Spot Hogg’s Boonie and the new ROTI housing, including the PRIZ prism accessory that can move your sight picture up and unlock serious extra travel without changing your arrow build. I also talk through the real trade-offs, like what happens when you add glass in wet weather and why housing size can limit distance. If you want bright pins without relying on a sight light, rugged durability, and a system you can move from bow to bow, this part will help you decide fast.

Then we get into two of the biggest movers this year: the HHA NYTRX XV3 Pro and the Dialed PRUF. I cover what makes a slider feel “crisp,” how good indicators save you when dialing under pressure, why removable wheels and dual sight tapes can be a big deal, and the setup steps that separate a great sight from a frustrating one. We also hit the fundamentals that matter more than brand names: leveling first, second, and third axis, setting peep height to maximize travel, and trueing your sight tape by actually walking it back.

If you’re building a hybrid bow setup for 2026 and you want fewer mistakes at full draw, subscribe, share this with your bow buddy, and leave a quick review. What sight are you running this season, and why?

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Transcript

Why 2026 Sights Matter

Zakk Plocica 0:00

2026 sites. There's a lot of good options this year. There's some honestly some pretty impressive new technology. So that's what we're going to cover today in the Archery Project. Welcome back, guys. I am your host, Zach Place. Some of you guys know I have a company called Extreme Outfitters, one of the fastest growing archery suppliers and shops in the country. So if you need anything archery related, head over to the website ExtremeOutfitters.com, use the code ArcheryProject. Save you some money on whatever it is you need, arrows, sights. We've got it all, man. Check it out. But 2026 has been a pretty pretty impressive year, I would say. Like when we talk about just the bow side of things, right? The bows constantly evolving every year. There's a lot of great technology that has been dropped in the bow side of things from the tuning, the performance, all the different features, a lot of cool stuff. But we haven't talked about sites. And um, you know, when we look at the next most expensive cost for a bow for most people is gonna be your site, right? Um, you know, your premium sites are you were looking at four on the low end, four to six hundred some bucks to get one of these high-end sites, and um, you know, they're not gonna get any cheaper. It is what it is. Uh, and you know, it these sites are definitely not for everybody. And I'm not saying you need a premium site by any means, but you know, I know a lot of the bow guys out there, archery guys, including myself, love a good quality site and are willing to invest in one because it's a long-term investment when you look at it too. Most of these sites now, it doesn't matter if you buy it in bridge lock configuration and then you go from a Matthews to a Hoyt or a Prime or whatever it is, you can take and convert these at this point, which is cool. So it's no longer you have to buy one site and you're locked into it, and that's it. You got to buy a new one whenever you change bow brands if you decide to go a different direction next year. So I think a lot of these sites have done a really good job by making these long-term investments, allowing the modularity that comes along with them to move them from bow to bow to bow. Because a lot of guys I know now aren't so brand loyal like we've seen in the past. Guys are willing to trade, you know, change manufacturers and try different brands year after year, especially your guys who are you know pretty heavy into it and um, you know, buy a new bow every year. Because believe it a lot, there's a lot, there's a lot of dudes that do that, including myself. Um so yeah, I want to go through some of the the top sites that we've seen this year, some of the bangers, man, some of the the cool new site technology that's out there um that we've had a chance to or I've had a chance to kind of play with and you know talk to the public about and just see what have been the best performers. And um, you know, like I said, there's been a lot of really great technology, but one of the sites that really has kind of intrigued me. I've always been a fan of the brand, Spot Hog, right? When we talk about durability and just robust, that's what Spot Hog is. Like they're built to

Premium Sight Pricing And Modularity

Zakk Plocica 2:50

just for the bow hunter, I would say you can just beat these things to death. And um, you know, their sites are just designed to last. I mean, just incredibly durable pieces of equipment, man. I would say probably the most durable thing on your bow if you go with a spot hog. And you know, the boonie was introduced last year, and uh everyone was familiar with the fast eddy. Well, the boonie is just an improved version of the fast eddy. It's it's a lighter sight than the fast eddy. Spot hog sights are gonna be a little bit heavier, which in my opinion, not really that a big, not that big of a deal, but they are on the heavier side, and um you know that's a drawback for some people. But what you gain with that is just durability, man. This thing's like a hammer. You could, you know, beat something to death with it. It's just built really, really well, just very durable. And the Boone, you know, when you look at it compared to the Fast Eddie, it is it's a little bit lighter. That's a big thing. But they introduced the triple stack housing with this, you know, this site. And I think that's kind of the talk of 2026, your micro adjustable vertical three-pen sites. You get three pins, they're all individually adjustable, micro adjustable, I you know, on their own. So you can take in, you know, set your 20, 30, 40, whatever yardages you want to, and then dial out to whatever yardage you want. So as a bow hunter, like I think it's the, in my opinion, for me, it's like the premium choice. Three vertical pins, so you don't have an obstructed or cluttered site housing that are all individually adjustable. So for me, for majority of my bows, I run a 20, 30, 40. So in a hunting scenario, I'm good out the 40, 50 yards without having to dial sight. And as a white tail hunter, that's perfect. I'm never gonna have to dial that site. But I also enjoy shooting long distance, right? I love going to attack events, and that's why this podcast I thought was a good fit for this week. We're heading to Pennsylvania this weekend to go to Seven Springs. And um, you know, a site is an important choice. And you, whenever it comes to buying one of these premium sites, you kind of, in my opinion, want one that's gonna be able to do it all. And these vertical three pin sites that all these manufacturers have come out with this year, I mean, just allow you to do that. As a hunter, you're covered, you're fixed, you don't got to think about moving anything, especially as a whitetail hunter, but you need to dial out those extra yardages. You want to shoot those extreme distances, they have the capability. So it's a good investment long term. And back to Spot Hog, you know, they were one of the first to come out with, I believe one of the first to come out with the triple stack. So it was their micro adjustable vertical three-pin site that I've got here. Um, just incredibly well built, right? The pins on these things are, in my opinion, are awesome. You can get them at a 19,000ths or 10,000ths, whatever you desire. And um, just very, very clean, just very durable. The actual pin housing on these that contain the pins themselves are super tough. So you don't got to worry about weak pins, right? Potentially breaking. Um that's a thing of the past now with these sites. And the great thing about Spot Hog too is the pins are really bright. Like it doesn't, I'm not a big fan of having to run a sight light in my site just because I felt like I've never I've never personally needed it. I mean, if I hunted out of a blind, it it would make more sense. But for the for the most part, I want a site that has pens that are plenty bright. And spot hog does that, even with their 10,000ths. I pens I think are really bright. Um, but I typically run a 19,000ths in all of my sites. Um, I like that little bit bigger pin. Specifically, it's primarily set up for bow hunting, but I use it for all my tack events, not the spothawk specifically, but the pen size. And um, I like to be able to see them without lights because we all know a site light dies at the worst time. That's how it always goes. Um so I like a site that has good, reliable pens that I can

Spot Hogg Boonie Triple Stack Breakdown

Zakk Plocica 6:50

see very easily without any additional accessories. And SpotHog, I think, does that um just incredibly bright, especially their 19,000s? Now, when you look at the Spothawk sites, one of the things about them is the housing on them is really big, right? Compared to the other sites. So when we talk about total archery events, the housing is is big. I mean, it's hard to get the same amount of distance out of your site because the housing's so big, whenever you go to trap, you know, you adjust the travel on that site, you make contact with your arrow a little bit quicker. So that's one of the drawbacks with the triple sack housing and pin configuration. Um, but they introduced something this year which is really, you know, kind of intrigued me. And it's brand new. I mean, brand new within the last few weeks, is they made a new housing for it, or not the housing, but the actual piece that goes in the housing. They came out with the roadie housing this year, and um it's a smaller housing for the boonie, so it's gonna allow you to get more travel out of your site, more distance, right? So for all the guys that want to shoot the distance, this is gonna be a great housing. The problem is it only comes in a single pin or double pin, not a deal breaker. Um, but it is a little bit more limiting, in my opinion, versus the triple stack. I love the triple stack pins, man. I love those three individual adjustable pins. This has your two-pin option, but it's not individually adjustable. So you get what you get. You set your 20, and then your second pin is whatever it ends up being. Um, not a deal breaker uh by any means. And honestly, the the indicators on your site wheel are gonna be probably a little bit more accurate if you don't use a micrometer to set your indicators with your individual, your triple stack. So it's fixed out of the box. So there's pros and cons to each of it, right? The how the sizing of the housing is the thing that I like. It's a little bit, it's still big enough. You've got your MRT rings, right? You can change those out depending on your peep site and what MRT ring you want to win you want to run for peep alignment. Um, but the overall size of the housing is smaller. You still get the pin brightness, it is still incredible, right? They got fibers all the way around this thing. You can still run a sight light on it if you want to. Um, so it's a great addition to the boonie. I think it's a great upgrade. Um, and I think there's gonna be a lot of people that would rather have this housing versus that bigger housing, especially if they're, you know, you're running a hybrid bow, right? You want something that can do it all. This is gonna be really great housing. But the thing that's really cool about this that they just introduced, which is kind of niche, um, but nonetheless, it gives you the ability to get more range out of your site, is it's called the PRIS. So this is not a lens, this is a prism. And this was probably one of the cooler things I think that have come out with when it comes to sites this year, just because of technology that it offers. So it's a pretty unique um contraption accessory for your spot hog roadie housing. And what it does is it goes into the actual housing behind your pins. This is a three-piece housing, breaks apart, you put your pris in there, your prism, and it takes and moves your site picture up into your scope housing. So, what does this mean? This allows you to get roughly 30. Some guys are getting 40, 50 yards more out of their site because it's moved their site picture up. So when it moves the site picture up, you have to move the entire housing up on the site bar. So therefore, you're starting up higher, which allows you to get more travel out of your site. It's a really, really awesome um accessory for the spot hog. Now, again, it's not a lens, it doesn't magnify anything. It just is it's a prism that moves your site picture up. Um, it's very easy to put in and take out, uh, super cool, just so you get more travel out of it. And I think this is a, like I said, a very niche product. And I think it's more so catered to Total Archery event, honestly, more than anything. Um, but even like 3D and stuff. Can you hunt with it? Absolutely. There's no reason you can't. Um, but you know, when it comes to the hunting side of things, there are some things that I would be conscious of if I'm gonna run again in hunting scenario. And particularly it comes down to like weather and environmentals, right? Because you're putting a piece of glass inside your actual scope. If that glass gets any condensation on it, any fog, any kind of moisture on it, it distorts your view, right? So if you're in the woods and it's a you know, a wet or rainy hunt and you have the opportunity at an animal and you go to draw back on that bow and there's water sitting on top of that prism, it's gonna distort your view. It's gonna be harder to put a good shot on an animal. So there are drawbacks to it. But for the guy going to total archery event or 3D or wanting to shoot long range, dude, there's like not a better thing out there. This gives you way more travel out of your sight. So let's let's look at scenario-wise. Let's say you're a bow hunter and you don't and you want to go to total archery event and you run an arrow that's set up specifically for bow hunting, and you only get, let's call it, 80 yards out of your sight, right? Which is still a good distance, but you're like, oh man, how am I gonna shoot these 100 plus yards? Because I'm gonna go show shoot the the sitka course, or I'm gonna go shoot the um Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation course, which has bomber shots, right? Or the prime course. You got 120 yards, 110 yards. I can't do it with my setup and I don't want to build new arrows. Boom, enter the priz. You're gonna take from 80 yards, let's say you get 30 or 40 more yards, you're gonna get what, 110, 120 yards out of your site now without changing anything. You don't have to change your arrow build now. So you just reset your zero. It's cool, man. It's uh I think it's a really uh pretty neat and unique thing that Spot Hog came out with. And honestly, one of the cooler things, in my opinion. And so you can buy it a couple different ways, right? You can get just the priz if you already have your roadie housing. You can buy just the priz, you can slap it in there, you can, you know, reconfigure your site, boom, you're in the game. Um, or you can buy the combo. We sell both of them at Extreme Outfitters. We have the combos and I have just the prizes. Um, but you can buy the combo, which comes with your new roadie housing. So if you have a boonie already, and let's say you have a you know the triple stack or a different um site housing on it that's not the latest roadie housing, you can buy the kit. So you get the roadie housing and then you get the priz and you can configure this thing, mount it on your current boonie, and you're in the game. The other cool thing about it is it comes with all new sight tapes, and uh these are built by Precision Cut Archery. And when you go to these sight tapes, the thing that's funny about them is they go out to over 200 yards. Uh sight tape 40 goes out to like 207 yards. So if you're somebody that has that capability, this comes with all the sight tapes you need to get that extra distance. So you've got everything when you buy these combos or just even the priz, the priz comes with your extra sight tapes. Um super cool. Uh, I think Spot Hog really knocked it out of the park with this. It's one of the cooler things that I think I've seen this year. Um, we know Spot Hog is just known for just quality and they didn't miss on this at all. You know, back to the the boonie, first, second, third axis adjustment, you've got your three indicator pins. So you've got, you know, based off, you know, depending on the the um pin confection that pin configuration that you run, if you run the triple stack, you got your three pin configuration, so you can put your 20, 30, 40, and then you have three indicators. So whenever you dial, you can use any site as your reference point to hold on target. The the boonie also comes with a removable wheel. So if you want to run, want to run multiple site tapes, you can just pull the wheel off, slap a new wheel on, and you can run different site configurations, or excuse me, not site configurations, arrow configurations specifically for TAC. So very cool. You want to go from a heavy arrow to a light arrow, you can do it. Micro adjustable wendage, again, awesome build from Spot Hog. And the cool thing about it too, if you want to go from you you go from their dovetail to a pick mount, you can do that with their um different, the modular bar system that they have. So you can go from any of those different configurations or mounting options depending on

Roadie Housing And The PRIS Prism

Zakk Plocica 15:05

the bow that you run. So one of my favorite things this year, I'm the Spot Hog Roadie with the PRIS configuration, super new to us, but it is a very, very cool just design and the capability that gives you is phenomenal. We've seen some guys get some serious distance out of it. I'm very intrigued by it. Next up this year, one of the other sites that really took 2026 by storm that I saw for us at Extreme Outfitters was the HHA Nitrix, the new XV3 Pro. So this site has been a hammer for 2026. And um in particular, HHA has been a good brand for a long time. We just recently started carrying HHA in the last year or two, and we brought in the Nitrix and the Nitrix Pro. They did fantastic. Well, when they dropped the XV3, this site absolutely banged. It's what I ran this this past year was the just the regular nitrix with the X V3 housing. And again, the XV3 housing, it's your vertical three pin, micro adjustable vertical three pin um site scope. So I think the redesign on the X V3 housing is phenomenal. It's bigger, it's like the perfect bow hunter scope, in my opinion. The pins on these things are incredibly bright. It's got your adjustable Rio stat, so you can dial the brightness of these pins. It's awesome. It works really, really well. Um, you can dial it in, dial it out, depending on how bright you want the pins to be. You can open it all the way up, you get really, really good pin um brightness. And the clarity on this thing is fantastic. You can get it in a 10,000ths or 19,000ths. Um, just a very, very well-built site. Um, I'm a fan. So if you know there's a nitrix and a nitrix pro. The difference between the two is the nitrix pro allows you to remove the wheel to change out sight tapes. That's the massive difference between the two. So the nitrix pro, you can pull off this yardage wheel and put a new one on, depending on if you want to run different arrow configurations. So it's very cool, very intuitive, very simple. Um, I do really like the ergonomics of the uh the Nitrix Pro. So I think the sight wheel is very, very smooth. Um, and when you lock it down, like it doesn't move. Some sites, whenever you lock it, there's still a little bit of play in it. There's no slop, there's no play in this whatsoever. And there's no slop and no play in the actual yardage whenever you dial at all. So if you want to dial 16, you know, you want to dial 47 yards, like it's easy and it's crisp. The indicators on this thing are really good as well. Um, they're very sharp, they're very fine, very easy to see from behind the site. Some of the complaints, like with the the boonie, is the sight wheel is on the outside of the site. So it's not on the inside where you can see it if you're looking at the inside of the boat. Not a deal breaker. Um, it's not never been an issue for me. I personally like it. That's just what I'm used to. But some guys prefer their sight wheel on the inside where they can see their sight tape. So it's really based off the individual. You'll notice I've got one here in the Sub Zero, the white. So they've got some limited edition runs that they've done and uh they've crushed it, man. The Sub Zero is super cool. Obviously, not very practical for a bow hunter, but like 3D guys, uh Total Archer guys, this thing's pretty slick, man. The coating on it's fantastic, it just pops. Um, again, another one of the sites that we sell that's been really popular. Um, Sub Zero, obviously not as popular as black, but uh it's very cool nonetheless. Um it's just it's very unique, man. I think it's uh a pretty clean looking site. And their finishes are fantastic, man. They do a really, really good job with it. And just the durability of these sites is good. Same thing, man. When we talk about like modularity and mounting options, you can go from a pick mount to a bridge lock to um a dovetail, direct mount, whatever you want to do with these sites, just simply by removing it. So it doesn't matter what brand you go to, you can just swap out the actual mount itself and get the new the correct mount, whether you're going from pick to bridge lock, vice versa, whatever it is, you can you can do that very, very simply. So essentially you're buying one site that's gonna last you for eternity. And that's why I'm so big on investing in a quality site. And again, this is not for everybody, man. You know, some of these sites are you know 400, 600 plus dollars, um, and not everybody can adjustify it. And I get that. I, you know, it's it's it's definitely not one of those things that everybody needs to do. But if you're an archery guy, man, and it's your hobby and you live and breathe it, man. I think investing in a good quality site is definitely worth it. Um, the warranty that you get behind all these, all these these companies stand behind their products and the lifetime you're gonna get out of these because now they're modular. You can mount it on whatever bow you want without having to buy a new one. So you might as well buy one that's gonna last you like indefinitely versus having to buy, you know, back, you know, some of the bows, they didn't have the modular um mounting option. So you would buy a bridge lock and it was bridge locked forever. And then you'd have to buy a new site if you went to a different site. You don't got to with any of these. So super cool, um, super intuitive, very clean, very robust. First, second, third axis adjustment on the this side as well. The other thing when we talk about the indicators, how easy they are to align on whatever distance you are. They're very crisp, very, very, you know, very sharp, um, so very precise, all individually adjustable, depending on the pin configuration that you go with with the Nitrix or Nitrix Pro. So obviously, this is the Xv3, it's your vertical three pin. They have your horizontal three pin, they have your single pins, they have your double pins. Um, there's a whole host of options so that depending on the pin configuration that you get, can determine the uh indicators that you end up with on your site. So again, this is an XV3 vertical three pin. You can micro you can adjust each of these indicators for each of your pins. And you've got to be precise with this, right? So if you set a 20, 30, 40, you need to make sure that these line up correctly. Um, and it's always good. You can always check the the gap between each pin with a micrometer, measure it, make sure that it is precise. Uh, but whenever you go through and get your sight tape, it's pretty easy to do. Um, same thing about all these. When it comes to setting them up, for the most part, you're shooting 20, you know, and then going back to 16 and you're choosing your sight tape, which for me has been very, very accurate out of all these sites that I've run. I've run Spot Hogs, I have the um the HHA Nitrix X V3, I've got um, I've had the dial sights. So I've I've played and experimented with all of these different sites. And the 20 to 40 to 20 to 60 sight tape um calibration or configuration for when you get set up works pretty well for me. I s I'm still a guy that goes back and shrews all the yardage, though. I understand that there is um precision cut archery for the guys that want to use it, it's great. You take and you enter in all your These different measurements and it's going to give you a very precise sight tape, which is fantastic. I'm still a believer in trueing your data, right? Because maybe you have a bad input uh in the in the software or you've made a mistake or mistakes happen. If the the worst thing you can do is whenever we talk about setting up a sight tape, is just trusting in a sight tape that's you know, whether you went and shot 20 to 60 or you just used precision cut archery and you didn't shrew it, you didn't walk it back and actually confirm the sight tape. And then you go to like shoot that extreme distance at an event like Total Archery Challenge, and you come to find out it's off. So I'm a big believer in walking back and chewing all your data, um, just to confirming everything's well. I do that for all of my sites. Um it just gives me confidence. And, you know, it's an opportunity to spend some more time behind the bow, but I just know that the site is dialed in and the the yardages are good. I still typically, you know, walk, shoot 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 all the way out to 100, and you know, maybe a little bit further. And I put marks on my site tape to confirm it, and then I'll match that up. And um works really, really well. And I'm I'm very confident in the data that I've collected for that site. I know it's good. I can I've confirmed it. I'm not just trusting in computer software, which is very accurate, obviously. But um, you know, I believe in in just making sure that you're confirming the data essentially. And you can do that with all of these. Um, all of them do come with your your different sight tapes too, out of the box. So you don't necessarily have to go in and buy aftermarket uh sight tapes for your site. So Nitrix Xv3 man is super slick, dude. This is again, it's built very, very well. Um the the axis adjustments on it are very easy, very simple. Everything's very easy to get to with your tools, with your Allen keys. There's nothing that's just extremely difficult to where it's just a pain to get to. And then I think the the design of the overall site is really good too, just based off the ergonomics of it and how you hold your bow and go to dial this thing. You've got your lock on the outside, which doesn't require a lot. You unlock it, and then you can dial up or down depending on um whatever yardage you need to dial. And then you have with the Xv3, my favorite option, you've got your three pins, so you can really get some extreme distance out of it. And the thing, too, for me, like the reason another reason I like the three pin configuration is it allows me to get more distance out of my sight than if I just ran a single pin. Because if you think about it, single pin, that's your one fixed pin. If you've got three additional pins, you've got your 20, 30, 40. Whenever you dial, you have additional pins as indicators to dial that site out a little bit further. So if I was only able to get maybe a hundred yards out of my sight with a single pin, but then I have those three pins below it, I can get another 20 to 30 yards out of the site. Uh, so you just get a little bit more yardage out of it versus having to just run a pin bottomed out in your actual scope housing. So that's one of the reasons I like the the three-pin configuration. To me, it just checks all the boxes, man. It's great for hunting, it's great for shooting long distance, total archery, 3D stuff. Uh, it just works really, really well. The other thing when we talk about like distance-wise, getting distance out of your sites, you need to make sure that your site is set up correctly. And that goes, that stands true for all of these different sites. Um, when you're setting them up, you need to make sure, like if you're if you order these sites online, right, you need to be able to level these sites. You need to be able to level your bow and level the axes on your sites to your bow. I mean, that's important to be able to get the most performance out of these bow sites, especially when we talk about shooting angles. Your third axis needs to be on. Um, and I think these sites do a really good job, just the way they're built, of maintaining um one, their zero and then two, staying level. Like they don't bump off as easy as you know, some of your more inexpensive sites. Um, but it's important whenever you guys go to get these things that you take the time to get them set up correctly, whether, you know, from the mounting process to leveling your axes to actually selecting a site tape, take your time when you're doing it so you can confirm it's on there, it's on and it's set up correctly. Because if you go to shoot any of these extreme extreme angles and your third axis is off, you're gonna miss left or right if your site's not leveled. So just keep that in mind whenever you get these things. If you order one offline from somebody, make sure if you have the the tools to be able to do it, or you take it to a shop and have them level it for you, uh, just so you can get the most performance out of it. So things to keep in mind, man. And the other thing when it comes to getting like more distance out of your site, we've covered in the past, but you know, make sure your bow is set up correctly for you, too. The big thing is your actual peep height. Um, when it comes to peep sights, what we see some people struggle with is the actual height of the peep because it's too low, right? And they're ducking their head. If the the lower your peep is, the less distance you're gonna get out of your sight. So if you can draw that bow back, make sure your posture is good, make sure your form and everything's good, figure out where your anchor is, and then set your peep height and confirm it, you're gonna get a little bit more distance the higher that peep is. Obviously, we don't want to stretch for it, um, but we want to make sure we're we're not ducking our head into the string and um limiting the travel that we get out of our sight in order to shoot those longer distances for all the guys that are heading out to Total Archery Challenge. Uh, what was the other thing I was gonna say about um peeps? Uh, when it comes to like these housings too, some of these housings are pretty big. Uh just if you run a standard peep, I run a 530 seconds peep for the most part in all of my bows. It seems to line up really, really well, like as far as like haloing the actual scope. Um, I just like the size of it for the most part. But they've got some really cool like Hamski, like their insight peep or even their Raptor, I think it's the RF, which has interchangeable apertures. So you can change the size of the actual aperture in your peeps, um, your peep housing in order to really fine-tune the fit of your your bow site scope and peep alignment. So that's kind of cool too. If you're somebody that really wants to dial it in, I would look at the Hamski Insight stuff or their their new Raptors, which allows you to change out the aperture to find the right aperture size for you and the scope housing that you're running. It's just another way to be more precise and more consistent with your bow site. And the easier it is for you to line it up and be consistent with aligning your um

HHA Nitrix XV3 Pro Deep Dive

Zakk Plocica 28:20

scope and housing and centering those pins, the more accurate and consistent you're gonna be with that bow site. Because we know peep alignment is critical. You know, if you start to fall out of your peep or you just can't consistently align it, you're not gonna be as accurate with the high quality site that you've got. So all of those things really come into play, and uh you need to make sure you're taking the time with that. And and it does take a little bit of time. Um, but um it's worth it. It's worth the investment, in my opinion, and it's definitely worth taking the time to make sure you've set it all up correctly. And once you do it, I mean you're locked in, man. You shouldn't have to change anything from that point on. You just need to shoot the bow. So again, another really great option for 2026. Now, I think the single biggest seller for 2026 that we've seen is the dial proof, man. I mean, when you look at just like aesthetics, ergonomics, design, look, feel, I feel like the dial proof has taken 2026, like has taken over, man. Like, so I've got right here, this is the new, this is the proof, right? This is with their new um mag cartridge, or yeah, I think it's the mag cartridge, they call them the mag. This is the 3VA. So this is their vertical three pin housing. Again, individual adjustable vertical three pin. And dude, dialed has absolutely crushed it. If you've ever met any of the guys, like I've talked to Jake from HHA, who was incredible, awesome dude. You've and then Kevin and Scott from Dialed, like all these dudes within these companies are awesome. Um, and you'll see Dialed out at all of these Total Archery events, and they are hustling. Kevin is awesome, man. He's uh who we deal with internally at Dialed, and he's just on it, man. He's one incredible dude, and two, just a wealth of knowledge. And um, he's over there in the booth, slaving away, man, leveling sites, putting on new sites, building custom sites for customers. Um, they do a killer job, but the proof, I think, is probably is has got to be the biggest like seller for 2026, in my opinion. The amount that we've gone through this year is unreal. And you'll notice this is a limited edition version, right? This is their Mossy Oak bottom lands, super slick. We got a bunch of these in and they crushed it, man. But they've got tons of different color options as the other site site manufacturers do. Um, but they just really nailed it with this site. The weight on it's good. I think the uh adjustment that you get in all this site is just very, very intuitive, man. It's very easy to do, it's very easy to set up. You'll notice that all of your axes are leveled on this thing. Those little things to me are huge. When everything's labeled, it's easy to identify, it's easy to see, and it just makes sense. It makes setting up the bow very, very simple, man, or setting up the site very simple. Their indicator pins are fantastic, nice and sharp. They're individually adjustable for depending on the pin configuration that you're running. They've got all their different mag cartridges that go in these things. From I think they've got single pins, they've got vertical three pins, horizontal three pins, I think vertical five pins. They've got you can you can run any of these, and you just change out the actual cartridge. It's pretty cool, man. Like they've done a killer job with their stuff. Um and it's just super clean looking, and the design is really good. One of the big things that everyone really likes about the dialed stuff is again, this has two sight tapes, so you can run two sight tapes on one site. You've got your sight tape on the inside, and then you've got your sight tape on the outside. So if you're somebody that wants to not have to keep up with anything, you've got everything you need right on the site. Your your two different site um tapes. Or if you're somebody that just wants to have you run one arrow, you can run two site tapes on this thing. So you've got two different reference points, right? If they've got it where it's on the inside of the actual site, so it's very easy to see, right? At full draw. So if you forgot to dial a site, you can glance at it real quick and say, oh man, I need to let this site down or this bow down and redial this thing because I forgot to dial. Um, or you it's on the outside. So super cool. Um, very clean. They they offer offer a lot of customizations for these as well, as far as configure, you know, different um wheels and sight wheels, different color options. So you can really like custom customize the site to your liking and your bow. Um so just super cool. And again, same thing. When it comes to like your mounting options, if you bought a bridge lock originally, you can go to a pick mount by simply swapping them out. So very um, very well thought out site. I think it's a massive step up from the Arcos, which is a site that I had. Um, they just did a really good job with it. The other thing I like about it is they're they have a light kit that goes onto this thing that clips in the top that you can move in or out. So if you're not running the light, you can still change, use the the actual light as like the adjustable Rio stat to let more light in, or you can cover it up, turn your light on, and you've got light right there. I think it's a really cool system, it's rechargeable. Uh, it seems to work really, really well. I think if I was gonna run a sight light on a site, this would is probably one of my favorite ones. One, it's very low profile, it doesn't really change anything, and um, it still works as like a Rio stat to allow more light in or more light or or block more light, depending on how much uh how bright you want those pins. They come out with a ton of different limited edition options as well. I think they do it really, really well as far as color options, just limited time drops. Again, like I said, the Mossy Oak Bottom Lands, super clean looking. Um, and then they did, I think they did a 250th anniversary one along with some of the other companies did as well, but theirs are just super clean looking, man. The red, white, and blue series that they came out with, all the different customizations that you get out of it. Uh, the dialed sites are just they're bangers, man. They have got to be the number one site for 2026 solely based off the sales that we've seen. And people are eating these things up, man. I I don't think we can keep them in uh stock or can't get them back in stock fast enough as quick as they go out. Um, just a great site that just fits the bow and just looks really, really well. There's nothing on this site that looks cheap, like it just looks like it's built extremely well. Like their micro adjustable wendage, fantastic. The clicks are awesome. You can lock it down. It's tool-less adjustment, which is awesome. That's huge, right? When we talk about adjusting the wendage, you don't need an Allen key or anything like that. Same thing with the HHA, same thing with the spot hog. Uh, they're all toolless adjustment for your wendage. Um, and the clicks on these things are just phenomenal, man. Just very, very fine. I don't know if you can hear this. Let's see. Dude, super crisp. Like, I dig it. Uh, these things are are immaculate, man. And again, just very clean looking, just very well designed. Yeah, I'm a fan, man. All and just, I mean, you can you can set these things up to your liking. And I I again, I know the sights are expensive, man. I understand that. But I think again, it's like a your bow. These bows now, you don't gotta buy a new bow every year. You don't. You can buy one bow and it can last you like indefinitely. Change out the strings every couple years, put a good sight on it. That thing is gonna be ready to rock and roll forever, man. Um, I honestly don't know how the technology gets any better. I think it's just little features that'll be added to this stuff. But as far as like just quality, I think everybody's really crushed it this year. Uh, and again, the big talking point is that vertical three pin. Everybody's got it now. You want that vertical three pin. I mean, you can get it in any of these site combinations at this point in time, and they're all individually adjustable. That's the thing that really matters to me is the individual adjustability within your three pins because I think Excel has a triple uh triple threat um vertical three pin, but it's not an individual adjustable pins, it's fixed, which isn't bad. I just personally prefer the individual adjustable pins, and I know a lot of our customers do. That's like that is the number one request for us. The I think single pins as like bow hunters are kind of a thing of the past at this point, just because you now have it's the same amount of material. You just get three indicators within um that actual um your pin configuration in there. So like a vert uh a single pin just doesn't make sense for a bow hunter anymore because it doesn't take up any more room and you get more indicators for um pin references, right? So if you, you know, like let's talk about a hunting scenario. Let's say you you've ranged an animal at, you know, you have an indicator at 25 yards, and you know, you've got another indicator at 35, and with the single pin, you only have that one reference point. Well, now, you know, you've got a 20 and a 30 or a 40. He goes from 25 yards to 30, you've got that 30-yard pin, you know where to put that between, you know, split the difference between your 30 and 40, and you've got a solid reference point. It just to me makes a lot of sense versus going from the single pin. And I think that's why we've seen a lot of people trend

Dialed Proof Features And Why It Sells

Zakk Plocica 38:05

away from the single pin. You know, there's not really, unless you're a target guy dialing for that perfect yardage, a single pin for a bow hunter just doesn't make as much sense as these vertical three pins do. There's no clutter anymore. The design on them is really good, very durable, very robust pin housings, right? So you don't got to worry about pins breaking, they're not brittle or anything like that. Um, and again, the clarity on these things is unreal, man. And I think three pins for most people is a sweet uh sweet spot, uh, especially for somebody that wants a site that's kind of a hybrid site, like which is what we're talking about today. You hunt, you do total archer, you do 3D stuff. These are the three vertical three pins, is the perfect hybrid site. Now, if you're like a true bow hunter and all you do is bow hunt, I don't think these sights are make sense for you, right? Specifically, if you're like a whitetail bow hunter, you know, a fixed five-pin sight, I think, is like that doesn't move, that's mounted to the riser. Like, I think that as a bow hunter is makes the most sense. Uh, just because you've got a 20, 30, 40, 50, and a 60 yard pin. You're not gonna need to dial any yardage any further than that. All your shots are gonna be in close, closer than that. And you, you know, you still get out to 60 yards. And even more so, if you're just a white-tail hunter, a three-pin, fixed three-pin probably makes more sense. They're gonna be a lot cheaper. Um, you don't need all the bells and whistles on those. You just need to make sure they are of good quality. The pin brightness is good. Um, that's always a big thing. And they they don't clutter too much for you because I know some guys who get into like maybe five, even seven pins, there's just too much clutter in the housing and it becomes confusing, kind of chaotic in the housing, and uh can really distort your your vision, especially if you're somebody that has like stigmatisms and stuff like that. You got to kind of be cautious of the site and pin configuration that you get. So just things to consider. Um, again, these sites are your premium sites, they are for the guys that are really uh looking to get the most out of their their bow and and do all kinds of stuff. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that investing in one. Um, but they're definitely not for everybody. Some other honorable mentions, man, like the um the Excel driver, I think has been a really good site. It is the lightest site on the market. Um again, you've got your different pin configurations for that, your different mounting options. It's just very it's so light. It almost feels like like whenever you pick it up versus any of the other sites, it feels like air, it feels like nothing. So if you're looking for extreme lightweight, I think the Excel driver is a really, really good option, especially your pick mount. There's nothing to that thing, man. Um, again, if you know anything about Excel, Excel's been around for a long time. I think they, you know, they have are known for just high-end quality equipment. Um, but you know, with the introduction of all these other sites, we've kind of seen a drop off of the driver uh a little bit. Um, and I'm kind of curious as to why it is, because it is a good site. So I'd be curious on some feedback to you guys, you know, as far as like sites in the lineup, current sites on the market, what you're kind of you're gravitating towards or what you've gone with and why. Um, because I'm always curious to hear from you guys as you know some feedback on that. And then um the other site too is the the ultra view, the UV slider too. Um, we've sold a pile of those things, man, but it seems like this year they've really dropped off. Uh, and I'm not sure exactly why. I know that that like that site has been fantastic. I know one of the biggest issues that or complaints that we heard about it was the pin brightness. Um, but they've got their light kits and stuff. But if you're somebody that can't run a light kit, that becomes a problem, you know, depending on the state that you're hunting in. So there is that too. Like that's why I'm big on running a site that doesn't require any kind of sight light. So that's just me personally. But the UV slider two was always a good site, man. I mean, we sold a lot of them, and it seems like they've really kind of dropped off this year because the ergonomics of that site are fantastic. Like your lock on it, the wheel on it, it's so smooth, it's so crisp. You've got micro adjustable axes on it. It's a really great design. I think Colby and the guys at Ultra View did a fantastic job with it. And you've got your different pin cartridges that you can swap out. So again, it's a very, it's another really great site to look at. Um, and just the overall design of it, I think, is fantastic. Um, but when we talk about like these sites of this year, for us specifically, the dial being the number one and the HHA Nitrix being uh probably a close second. And I really think that the spot hog booney, like with the new roadie housing, is kind of I don't know, I just haven't heard enough marketing behind it, but it's a dude, it's a killer combo. Like with that pris is insane what you can do with it, where you get that additional travel out of your site, moves that site picture up. It's pretty, pretty slick, man. Um, so yeah, I mean, that's kind of my take on the premium sites for this year uh that we've seen, the ones that have had the most demand from us specifically. So drop some comments, let me know what you guys have seen, what you've gravitated towards specifically for like a hybrid build, right? For a hybrid bow build, what is the site that makes the most sense in your eyes and why did you choose it? I'm always curious to hear from you guys. What's the brand you went with and why did you go with that brand? Um, and then, you know, like I said, this is not, these are premium, man. They come with a pretty, pretty price tag on them. It's hard, it's some of them are hard to justify, but if you're only buying one, man, you might as well buy the best one you can afford. And uh these guys definitely fit the bill for you know that all three of these Spot Hog Booney, the HHA Nitrix, and the dial proof, all great sites. There's a ton of other great side options out there, man. Don't overlook the Excel driver, don't overlook the Ultra View UV slider two. And then you guys who aren't looking for that premium price point, you know, that super high end five, six hundred dollars. You want something that's a little bit more cost effective. Um, there's a lot of great side options out there as well. I know black gold makes some pretty good um high end. sites that are on in my opinion on the little bit more affordable end and their pin brightness is

Honorable Mentions And Final Picks

Zakk Plocica 44:05

untouchable like their design for pens is fantastic so check out the black gold stuff as well trophy reaches come out with some really cool pretty intuitive stuff uh this past year um with their their new sites that they've dropped which I think are in more in that affordable price point and offer a a lot of bells and whistles for the money um so if you're somebody that again doesn't want to drop a you know all of your money on a site to check out some of those sites and um even HHA I would say is probably the best price premium site that we've talked about today. I think the price point is like four mid fours um if you go with just the standard nitrix not the nitrix pro which I think it I mean it's still expensive but it's on the lower end of your premium and the the the the quality you get with it is there. So HHA Nitrix check them out man it's it's definitely a um for the money I think it's I think for the value it's the best valued premium site for just overall premium features. I think the dial proof is the number one and just robust durable uh and moat and most unique uh with their new housing and priz system is going to be the spothawk booney with that roadie and priz. So that's it guys that's the sites 2026 sites give us some feedback let us know we'll be at Total Archery Challenge Pennsylvania this weekend up in seventh spring so we're gonna have a bunch of product there we're gonna be building arrows for people so if you come by come hang out with us um if you need arrows we'll be there and also if you need any of this stuff in the meantime head over to the website of streamoutfitters.com use the code archery project you can pick up any of these sites all of them the limited edition options the inline standard ones and then all your other archery equipment it's all there hit the website streamoutfitters.com as always I appreciate you guys following along hopefully we'll see you guys in seven springs this weekend and maybe we'll be able to shoot some on the practice range with you guys if you're there come by and say hey come say what's up uh until then we'll see you guys in the next episode thanks for listening guys