Trophy Ridge Flatliner Report
12-29-2002, 08:14 AM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Goodyear AZ US
Posts: 215
Trophy Ridge Flatliner Report
I just put a Trophy Ridge Flatliner 5 pin on my Merlin Lite Storm. I had a Cobra sight on it and I liked that sight, but I had some xmas money burning a hole in my pocket so I'm trying the TR. 
The whole "no tools" thing is silly. If you use the wingnut bolts they give you to mount the sight to your bow riser you cant put a quiver bracket on. There are wingnut bolts for windage and elevation adjustments too. Those are a good idea for when you first install the sight and are in the process of sighting it in, but once you get it sighted in, use the 'standard' bolts they give you as well to lock the sight in and keep it from moving. With the wingnut bolts I couldnt get the windage adjustment tight enough to stop it from moving when I shot.
The sight housing and the pins, in my opinion are weak/fragile. Great idea they came up with as far as using vertical pins stacked on top of each other to give you a clear sight picture but they could have put some umph into the sight for the money they're charging. The housing is plastic but sturdy, I dont think you would crush it if you steped on it. The sight pins are thin, brittle, fragile, cheap plastic. That being said, they are fairly well protected by the sight housing. I say “fairly well” because it’s not unlikely that a tree branch would poke through the sight housing as I’m lowering my bow from my treestand and most certainly breaking off one or more of the sight pins. I’ll have to be careful but when I get out in the evening and it’s dark there’s not much I can do to stop that from happening.
The elevation adjustment has a scale to use but there’s no accurate marker to pinpoint what line you’re using exactly. For the windage adjustment you can use the side of the sight bracket to accurately pinpoint what windage you’re using. Since I remove my sight when I put the bow in the case, a nice addition to the sight would be a block on the side of the windage bar that can be tightened down where you want it. My cobra sight had that and it was nice to slip the sight back in, but it up against the block and go. As it is you just have to remember what line your using and put it there, still accurate though.
The pins are bright but not overly so. Nothing groundbreaking there. I figured for the amount of filament wraped around the sight these things would be on fire. I have yet to use it in low light conditions so the jury’s still out. I do like the sight window though. A nice clear view with only one line in the vertical through to the sight pins as opposed to other sights with several lines in the horizontal extending into the field of view. In the literature they say you can tell if you’re torquing the bow if you can see the side of the sight pins. I suppose that is true but you would have to have a monumental amount of torque to notice it unless you were just concentrating on that one thing. The No-peep shows torque like no other sight aid I’ve seen, but that’s another story. There is an adjustment to the sight housing to hinge it back and forth and there’s a little adjustment scale on top but no indexer to make it useful. This is not something that detracts from the sight because making this adjustment is a one time thing. The vertical pin adjustment is pretty nice. On the bottom there are two pegs for each sight pin. One peg (on top in the picture below) unlocks it and the other peg (on bottom in the picture below) adjusts the sight pin up and down as you move it.
Overall I’d say it’s a fair sight as far as durability goes. Great as far as sight picture goes. Average pin brightness (not tested in low light conditions yet). Fair to poor concerning cost. My $.02
Cargo
Edited by - CargoF16 on 01/01/2003 09:44:22
The whole "no tools" thing is silly. If you use the wingnut bolts they give you to mount the sight to your bow riser you cant put a quiver bracket on. There are wingnut bolts for windage and elevation adjustments too. Those are a good idea for when you first install the sight and are in the process of sighting it in, but once you get it sighted in, use the 'standard' bolts they give you as well to lock the sight in and keep it from moving. With the wingnut bolts I couldnt get the windage adjustment tight enough to stop it from moving when I shot.
The sight housing and the pins, in my opinion are weak/fragile. Great idea they came up with as far as using vertical pins stacked on top of each other to give you a clear sight picture but they could have put some umph into the sight for the money they're charging. The housing is plastic but sturdy, I dont think you would crush it if you steped on it. The sight pins are thin, brittle, fragile, cheap plastic. That being said, they are fairly well protected by the sight housing. I say “fairly well” because it’s not unlikely that a tree branch would poke through the sight housing as I’m lowering my bow from my treestand and most certainly breaking off one or more of the sight pins. I’ll have to be careful but when I get out in the evening and it’s dark there’s not much I can do to stop that from happening.
The elevation adjustment has a scale to use but there’s no accurate marker to pinpoint what line you’re using exactly. For the windage adjustment you can use the side of the sight bracket to accurately pinpoint what windage you’re using. Since I remove my sight when I put the bow in the case, a nice addition to the sight would be a block on the side of the windage bar that can be tightened down where you want it. My cobra sight had that and it was nice to slip the sight back in, but it up against the block and go. As it is you just have to remember what line your using and put it there, still accurate though.
The pins are bright but not overly so. Nothing groundbreaking there. I figured for the amount of filament wraped around the sight these things would be on fire. I have yet to use it in low light conditions so the jury’s still out. I do like the sight window though. A nice clear view with only one line in the vertical through to the sight pins as opposed to other sights with several lines in the horizontal extending into the field of view. In the literature they say you can tell if you’re torquing the bow if you can see the side of the sight pins. I suppose that is true but you would have to have a monumental amount of torque to notice it unless you were just concentrating on that one thing. The No-peep shows torque like no other sight aid I’ve seen, but that’s another story. There is an adjustment to the sight housing to hinge it back and forth and there’s a little adjustment scale on top but no indexer to make it useful. This is not something that detracts from the sight because making this adjustment is a one time thing. The vertical pin adjustment is pretty nice. On the bottom there are two pegs for each sight pin. One peg (on top in the picture below) unlocks it and the other peg (on bottom in the picture below) adjusts the sight pin up and down as you move it.
Overall I’d say it’s a fair sight as far as durability goes. Great as far as sight picture goes. Average pin brightness (not tested in low light conditions yet). Fair to poor concerning cost. My $.02
Cargo
Edited by - CargoF16 on 01/01/2003 09:44:22
12-30-2002, 06:54 AM
#3
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Buford GA USA
Posts: 567
RE: Trophy Ridge Flatliner Report
Cargo, for what it is worth, if you paid for a Matrix you got ripped off. The site in the pic is the Flatliner Extreme 5 pin and it is about $30,on average, cheaper than the Matrix. You know you have the Matrix because all of the Matrix have the brass dampners.
I have used a Flatliner for 2 seasons now, and have never had any problems with mine. Having said that, I have heard the same issues from other hunters that you detailed above. Good review.
I have used a Flatliner for 2 seasons now, and have never had any problems with mine. Having said that, I have heard the same issues from other hunters that you detailed above. Good review.
01-01-2003, 08:38 PM
#5
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Oct 1998
Location: Hughesville, PA USA
Posts: 18,322
RE: Trophy Ridge Flatliner Report
Great report.
I was never a fan from the very begining due to one thing. You can't gap your pins and still have a percise aim point. The pins behind hide the target...say a hair or a hole in the target.
<font color=blue>Good Luck and Good Shooting</font id=blue>
<font color=red>Rob</font id=red>
I was never a fan from the very begining due to one thing. You can't gap your pins and still have a percise aim point. The pins behind hide the target...say a hair or a hole in the target.
<font color=blue>Good Luck and Good Shooting</font id=blue>
<font color=red>Rob</font id=red>
01-03-2003, 11:46 PM
#7
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 10,679
RE: Trophy Ridge Flatliner Report
That's more or less the way I felt with mine. For the money those things cost they could use much better pins, get rid of those goofy wing nuts, and just make a better sight. One more thing I noticed with mine is after a season of hard hunting on the ground and bumping it in to bushes, etc... the plastic under the torque adjustment bolts began to wear away and that started moving also. It's a great idea and I love the in-line pins but they won't get any more of my money. As soon as they beef it up a bit the things will cost another $20.
