RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

Shame on you Greg! Get a blind and take that young 'un huntin'!

And let me know how the sight works in it too! [8D]

RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

Lemme chime in here since I now have this sight mounted on my new bow. I agree with sparky 100% on the battery plate connection being weak. A coupla changes of batteries and I can see this being a broken useless sight due to the screws stripping. The housing itself should be all metal in my opinion at a minimum at least where the battery compartment is located. The battery connection is weak in as much as it is a press fit and relies on the weak plastic battery plate and screws to press the battery into the connector. I have always hated those clip type battery connectors they never last. Better to have attached the circuit boards and battery to the riser side of the housing and given us a 3 volt lithium battery.

The sight should be offered in a camo version as well. The level mode should not be incoporated into the sight. It is annoying and something that doesn't inspire much confidence in the sight when it is prone to turn off. It may not be a issue during usage but it is a weak aspect of the sight from a marketing viewpoint. A normal level would work well with the sight. I feel strongly about this issue from a hunters viewpoint as you will always be wondering when the sight is gonna turn off. That itself will turn alot of buyers off.

I would say the instructions weren't tough to follow but I am no dummy either. I can see someone having trouble following alot of the directions. One issue I found confusing was the fixed pin sighting in the deluxe model. The instructions cover both models of the sight and I am unsure whether the deluxe model needs to be sighted in single fixed mode per section 4 of the instructions before use as a pendulum. I am assuming that is the case as a floating pin would be more difficult to dial in. Also, the user having to set the bow speed back to medium after doing this should be unneccesary and too confusing. Getting the sight into fixed pin mode causes you to turn the sight on fast bow mode. Summit should give some general guidelines on what speed range slow, medium, and fast is.

Overall the concept is nice. I like the sight and the led's are neat. Drop the level feature, make the instructions a bit more clear ( a dvd would be nice), offer a metal battery housing as a minimum, and give us a camo option. I would pay more for the same sight with the above changes and would consider them necessary for the "improved" model of the sight. I like the sight a great deal and for a pendulum I would rate it high from a conceptual standpoint but as a bow sight in general I would give it a 75 out of 100 until they fix the above. Then it would be 100 outta 100.

RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

Just put my Hot Dot on my bow today. Man o Man.......it shoots key holes at 30 yds on my 3D target! I couldn't believe it!

RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

As far as the batt plate..... don't use your gorilla grip. It's an electronic device. If you follow directions to a T, as far as sighting it in, it is far better than any other sight I've used......EVER. For example....I took it out of the box, put it on my bow, and shot it at the 30 yd mandated distance for the pend mode. After only a few minor adjustments of elevation and changing it to fast mode, I was hitting the bullseye on a 3Dfrom various distances from a20 ft. tree stand I have in my back yard. I will use it on my bow this hunting season.



P.S. GREG/MO :Thanks for your review, I did alot of research prior to my purchase. I really appreciate someone who does the ground work for new devices, such as yourself.

SD

RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

No gorilla grip used. The screws are short and have wide threads. I love the sight but it needs some improving as do many things. I have noticed that a quick movement will cause the sight led to shut down for a sec. I assume that is the pendulum mode. So far the sight is great for its intended use but to be a real winner they need to improve some things.

I will defiinately buy a improved model so don't get me wrong here. The sight performs well but the trade offs in the current model could easily be fixed.

RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

Had some more time to play today. I love the sight more and more but my above comments still stand about the battery plate.

Summit should have mentioned in the directions which pin # corresponds to the fixed pin setting. It would have made setting up the sight in multiple pin mode much easier. Since our fixed pin setting has to be sighted in at 30yds for pendulum mode, the archer could use it as a single 30yd pin. In multiple mode they could turn all other pins off during setup and use the single 30 yd pin as a starting point for a 15, 30, 40, 50 yd setup. This can still be done but since Summit doesn't tell you which pin is the fixed pin used during setup you will have to guestimate until you get it right. I am gonna drop Summit a line and see if they know which pin is used for pendulum setup at 30 yds. Then I will easily know which pin to keep on during multi pin setup as my 30 yd pin. Then I can approximate which led would work well at 15 yds and turn it on, if it works then I can move on to the 40 and so on. The advantage to this is your multi pin settings do not change when switching from pendulum mode. If your follow Summits recommended setup you will have to move the scope to go from Pendulum mode to multi pin. Summit offers their setup as a suggestion and informs the user that they don't have to follow their way of doing it.

I would have just done things another way and made them easier. Great job on the sight and I will probably buy another for my Bowtech and drop the Copper John I like it so much. It will take a bit of time to get it setup right but I can see this thing as being my favorite sight so far once it is setup for me.

RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

Speaking of key-holing my shots w/my HD. My brand new broadhead target I bought last week needs to be replaced because my Hot Dot coupled with my new Slick Trick 100 Grain Mags have put gaping holes in all my bullseyes.I'm telling you guys-n-gals Slick Tricks and the Hot Dot is a deadlycombination.

RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

Great review :)

RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

Ok I figured out that the fixed 30 yd pin used for pendulum setup is pin #4 Led #5.

Here is how I set my sight up. I set the pendulum mode per the instructions using the fixed 30 yd pin.

Then I switched to multi pin mode and moved pin #1 led # 15 to led # 7. So Pin#1 is now led # 7 and hits dead on at 15 yds.

Second, since I already knew that Pin #4 Led #5 was my 30 yd pin and was already zeroed. I swapped Led#12 for Led#5 on Pin#2. So now Pin#2 is no longer turns on Led#12 it now turns on Led#5. Now I have a 2 Pin setup, Pin#1=15yds and Pin#2=30yds.

Third, pin #3 corresponds to Led#9 under the factory configuration. I set Pin#3 to turn on Pin #1.

I now have a 3 Pin setup that gives me 15-30-40 yd led pins that I can switch to from pendulum mode without moving the sight scope. Some fine tuning may be necessary but in theory this setup should work well.

The reason for Summit's suggested setup is b/c the 30 yd pin they use for pendulum setup is so low it does not leave much underneath for 40-50 yds. By using pin #5 for the 30 yd setup pin you are limited somewhat by bow speed as to what you can use for your 40 yd pin. 50 yds probably won't work without having to move the sight and re-set.

If it had been me I would have either given us marks on the vertical and horizontal axis of the scope to quickly move from a preset fixed pin setup to pendulum. OR the better way would have been to use a higher numbered led as the setup pin for 30yds in pendulum mode. Then you would be able to do as I have above and still retain plenty of leds to adjust your scope.

RE: Review of Summit's Hot Dot sight
 

Dude, my head is spinning after that post. I've been reading about this sight and would like to get one but I don't know if I have the brain pan to figure it all out, maybe after purchasing one and reading the instructions about a dozen times. So do you like it and would you recommend it? I've been bowhunting for about 2 yrs now, well 1yr seriously. My first deer ever was last year and with a bow.