Rack-attack

That cash just burns holes in my pocket and with a friend getting into the sport I had the perfect excuse to hand down my old sight (Black gold) and get myself a new one. After all the great reviews I had seen, all the marketing, and briefly spying one through my pro-shops case I decided to shell out the bucks for a Trophy Ridge Flatliner 3 pin Camo Sight. Besides they look so cooool. <img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle>

My first impression was that this is a great innovative design. The sight looked well made, the pins are bright, and it is easily adjusted. Well, this good first impression soon took a downfall, when the longest pin was offset from the others. I gently tried to push it back in line and it snapped in half <img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle>. O.K. I said to myself, 5 years with my MBG and never a problem, 10 mins with this new sight and 1 broken pin.

So I put it on my bow, reposition the no-peep and proceed to sight it in. I get it dialed in and proceed to shoot and my arrows are hitting lower and lower and lower with each shot. The sight is sliding up the dove tail. I reposition it, and crank it down. 10 shots later they start hitting low again. Now I get the wing nut as tight as I can, I mean I leaned into it. I retrieve my arrows, draw the bow, aim and the fiber optics fall off the other pin. The very, very fragile little cups that hold the fiber optics on snapped.

Now at this point I know I am not keeping this thing, so out of curiosity I take a few more shots to see if the dovetail will hold. Nope <img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle>, as tight as it will go and the sight is still moving.

This sight didn’t stay together for more than 100 shots, and even if it did those pins are so thin and fragile I would never trust them in the woods.

I do not know what was up with that dove tail <img src=icon_smile_question.gif border=0 align=middle> , they can’t all be like that. My MBG never moved in over 5 yrs.

The red pin is useless, to me anyway, during low light it is impossible to see. This may be a personal preference thing, but I feel the pins are too small for hunting. They also gave off a large halo that made them seem much bigger and fuzzy. They are only very slightly brighter than my MBG pins.

Another thing, the bottom of the sight is so bulky I can see many people having arrow clearance problems.

I do not know were all the hype came from, marketing at its best I guess. If the pins were much tougher and a little bigger and the darn thing would stay in one place for more than 10 shots I would have been happier with it.

Needless to say my buddy doesn’t get the MBG <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

PABeardBuster

I experienced the same problems. The fact that you don't need tools is nice, but the other short-comings are too big to ignore. The whole sight, other than the mounting bracket, is plastic. I'm not comfortable taking this thing in the woods, so it's coming off as soon as my Copper John Dead Nuts gets here.

PBB

Pick a hair.....or a caruncle!!

moonge

I use a black & it is great....never had a problem. I look at flatliner about a month ago & for some reason changed my mind. boy I am glad now! I'll just stick to the black golds. Rack-attack I am sorry about you trouble, I know how it feels when you buy something & then it turns out to be a big problem.

good luck

reylamb

I have shot the Flatliner about 1000 times, and do not have any of those problems, with the exception of the red pin. I hate red pins on any sight.

george_s

I was undecided about the trophy ride or HHA optimizer, which also has the pin coming up from the bottom. I was probably leaning towards the Trophy Ridge, I liked the stacked pins, but did a search on it. I found about a 50/50 like to dislike ratio on the TR. More than enough to make the gamble not worth it. Not that there are not people who have not had success with TR, but I was not confident. I bought the HHA and love it. You guys who try a product and give a review, good or bad, are helping all of us!!! this place is great.

Josh 24:15

bigbulls

Great riview, my feelings exactly! I bought the flat liner when they first came out and initally I loved the sight. The virtical pins are awesome but they are very fragile, metal pins would be MUCH BETTER! I also have broken a pin. Also I have the same problem with the dove tail not holding very well at all and there is a rattle in it somewhere that I can't seem to get rid of no matter what I do. I like the over all design of the sight but feel it needs to be beefed up a bit. I think that I will be getting the HHA tripple threat before hunting season. It seems to be built much more solid.

IL-Cornfed

IMO, wing knobs ar a no no on any hunting tool. The first thing I did with my Matrix was call TR and ask if they had standard hex head bolts to replace the wing knobs with and they sent 'em right out. I never gave it a chance to mess up.After all those adjustments are crude anyway,it's not like you moving them that much only to get the top pin close to center which doesn't take long. Once you get it set close lock it down and forget about. I truly love this sight. The ViPin concept has me spoiled,for on game shooting it's tops. This sight comes up on deer and turkey better/easier than any sighting system I've ever used. I'm sorry you guys don't enjoy the sight half as much as I do. To each his own I guess. I do agree with you guys however on the need for metal pins in the future and I'd expect to be seeing some like the Alfas' soon.

Thaninator

You folks have hit several important points when it comes to the Flatliner and it's cousins.

As soon as I dumped those dopey wing nuts, and replaced them with proper bolts, I ceased to have any creeping problems.

In fact, my sight performed flawlessly up until yesterday, when I noticed a buzzing/rattling noise coming from the fiber optics that are wrapped around the housing.

I'll be calling Trophy Ridge on Monday, to give them an opportunity to remedy this situation...but in the interim, I'd appreciate any input from you guys, on how this might be resolved (other than getting a different brand sight


Hunt Alaska!

Rack-attack

Bigbulls - I agree the overall concept and design is real nice, but it needs some improvement.

Cornfed & Thaninator - I have hex nuts that would of worked, and if I would of kept the sight I probably could of fixed the dove tail problem. I really wanted to keep the sight, I like the v-pin set up also, and in the short time I shot the sight it does give a nice field of view. It also set up on the target well. But those pins are junk IMO, and that was the real killer for me. If they beef them up I would check the sight out again.

Thaninator

Rack Attack:
If you, I, and everyone else on this forum, where to call some of these manufacturers with our mutual concerns, I'll bet that we'll start to see some of these imporvements.

I know that it's a competative market out there, and these companies want to stay on top. If they know that their products are recieving less than glowing reports, they may listen.


Hunt Alaska!