Option Archery Option 6

We have been looking at Option Archery ever since we saw their products at the ATA show in January 2016. Option Archery is a company that isn’t afraid to think outside the box and their ingenuity shows that in their new product offerings. But it takes more than ingenuity to make a great company. Things like ship times, quick communication, and customer service are just as important as having great products. Naturally we were leery of bringing on a new product, but couldn't resist the new Option sights. I am so glad we did! We have sold quite a few of the option sights, and we’ve seen same day or next day shipping on just about all of them. Not only that but quick responses to our questions, and REAL communication on parts that may be out of stock. We are very excited to be partnering with such a great company. Now the question is how good are their products? Today I’m going to review the Option 6. Look for a review of the Quivalizer coming in the next few weeks.

First thoughts.

My first thoughts when getting this sight in the mail was that the packaging looked very nice, and actually reminded me of opening that brand new cell phone.. and wait..is that a set of Allen wrenches in the box? Very cool! I’m already getting the sense that this is going to be a positive experience. Opening the box there are a few more surprises. There are detailed instructions (impressive) and also a sight light! There are sight tapes and assorted screws for mounting the sight, along with hardware for a quiver mount. Pulling the Option 6 out of the box I can see that this is a highly refined sight. All the edges are rounded, the knobs and dials turn smoothly. All of the edges and corners are precise and each piece fits together in an exact fashion. The micro adjustments have tick marks and number but they have arrows marking your settings! The swing away housing is held in or out with 3lb magnets that seem to be the perfect amount to hold without making it difficult to change. Zero noise when adjusting the slider or when moving the fixed pins open or closed. The weight on the Option 6 is 10oz exactly. Pretty impressive.

Pins.

If there was one thing about this sight that I would say was not my favorite, I would choose the pins. I like the bulletproof style pins better (even though the fiber is usually exposed), and while these are very strong pins, I would not say that are as strong as say Spot Hogg or Black Gold. They are however much stronger than most other sights out there. Option Archery chose the fully enclosed tube design so that the optic fiber is 100% protected. The fiber tube is much thicker than the industry norm. The nice thing about the tube style pins is that the sight picture is very clear. Also the movable pin does not get as much light as the fixed pins, so for it, I would recommend a .019 pin.

How does it work?

This seems so simple that I can’t believe someone else hasn’t done it. But I’m glad Option Archery did, because they nailed it. The sight housing is split in half with the sliding pin in the front and the fixed pins in the back that can swivel out of the way. This design gives all you of the features of both a single movable pin AND all of the features of a fixed pin sight. Make no mistake, this is not a gimmick sight. This is one tough, lightweight, and fully adjustable sight. Machined to tight tolerances, and engineered to be precise, with no slop anywhere, I am very impressed with the quality and thought put into this sight.

Problems solved.

The biggest problem i have personally with a hybrid fixed/adjustable sight is that when i make a change to the adjustable pin, the rest of the pins are not usable until i move the sight housing back to the default position. I know it's my fault, but i miss more shots due to me forgetting to move the pin back then any other reason. Fortunately for me, i only use the adjustable pin during practice or 3d shooting. That problem goes away with this sight, because the fixed pins are always accurate, no matter what position the adjustable pin is in. The other problem i run into while practicing longer shots is that my sight housing can travel down far enough to interfere with my arrow. I have actually shot the bubble off of my sight before, not knowing that the sight was so far down that the arrows fletchings hit the bottom of the sight. With the Option 6, the sight housing is fixed, and only the pin moves. This has got to be more accurate because the sight picture is always going to be the same.

At the range.

Shooting the Option was uneventful. Which is exactly how it should be. It was very easy to get sighted in. And setting my 2nd and 3rd axis was a breeze thanks to the very detailed instructions included with the sight. Did I mention that the Option sight comes with a set of Allen wrenches? The micro windage and elevation adjustments have pointers and markings on them that make it easy to adjust. When I was done, I took a picture of the settings in case I needed them for later. I also like that you need to loosen a lock down bolt to make micro adjustments. The adjustable pin runs on a helix rod threaded through a cylinder. And the tension on the knob is adjustable so it can be as easy or hard to turn as you like.

Quivalizer.

One thing that was not super easy was adding the quiver mount to the sight. There are spacers and a mount that come with the sight that is required if you want to attach your quiver or Quivalizer, (look for my review on the Quivalizer soon) to your bow. I got it figured out, and it wasn't complicated or anything, just a bit difficult to mount.

4, 6, or 8 Platinum?

The Trophy Taker Option comes in 3 different pin configurations. The 4 pin Option comes with the following pins.

1. Green .019
2. Yellow .019
3. Red .019
4. Adjustable pin Green .010

The 6 pin Option has

1. Green .019
2. Yellow .019
3. Red .019
4. Green .019
5. Yellow .019
6. Adjustable pin Green .010

The 8 pin Option has a longer oval sight housing and this pin setup:

1. Green .019
2. Yellow .019
3. Red .019
4. Green .019
5. Yellow .019
6. Red .019
7. Green .019
8. Adjustable pin Green .010

The Option sight also comes in an upgraded Platinum version. The Platinum Option sights are 100% made in the US, where the standard Option is imported. The Platinum has titanium pivot pins on which the swing away housing moves vs the standard Option sights are stainless steel. Also the Platinum is made from 70-75 aluminium where the standard is 60-61. Personally, after loosing my last job to a company that off-shored its IT, I will spend the extra money on a US made product every time. It simply matters. I like that Option Archery is giving me that “option”, and from the sales so far, it looks like our customers are preferring the Platinum version as well.

Customize your Option.

Looking at the stock pin options makes me cringe. As you may or may not know, I am a huge fan of symmetrical pin colors. For example my setup is Green Green Yellow Green Green. Don't ask me why or how it works, I just know that I don't have to think at all when it comes to choosing my distance. I guess that i don’t have to count pins or whatever… it just works Another reason you might want to do a custom build is that the 4/6 pin housing does not give you the option of taking those longer distance shots. Most guys who use the 4/6 pin housing will only get about 80 yards of max distance. However if you choose the 8 pin housing, you’ll have enough room in your sight housing to likely reach out to 110 yards. You can order the 8 pin housing regardless of the number of pins you want. You can select 3 fixed pins and choose the 8 pin housing if you want. Pin colors are average brightness, with green being the brightest followed by yellow, and then red. I chose yellow .010 for my adjustable pin, but if i could to do it over again, i would have chosen the brighter green .019 color. That would be primarily due to the single pin fiber not having as much exposure to sunlight the fixed pins have. Although at the range, I had no problems at all.

Summary...Fixed pin vs single pin.

Since the dawn of man, hunters have argued over the reliability of the fixed pin setup vs the accuracy of the single pin sight. Here it is 2017 and I can still see heated arguments on forums over this topic. Argue no more. This sight does both, and does them very well. If you’re in the market for a new sight, and can’t decide if you should switch to a single pin, or switch to a multi pin, do yourself a favor and take a good look at this sight. You really can have the best of both worlds. I really like the Option 6 sight. Unlike most of the sights I review, this one is going on my bow. Obviously I don't have a lot of field time with with it yet, but if I still like it at the end of spring bear season, I’ll keep for September. What better endorsement is there? -rob