Black Gold Ascent Verdict Review

For 2016 Black Gold Archery sights has just released their new line up and in that continues to be the Ascent slider sight. Now renamed the Black Gold Ascent Verdict. The Ascent has been an extremely popular sight and for a good reasons, its a GREAT sight and affordable. Two years ago Black Gold introduced the Pure series of sights to offer a "higher end" sight that has all the micro adjust features, 2nd / 3rd axis adjustments, stronger 7075 aluminum etc. that a hunter could want. At that time in my opinion the Pure Adrenaline (I prefer standard vs: micro adjust pins of the Pure Gold) was the best slider sight on the market. Really my only true complaint was the weight of the sight was still a touch heavy at around 12oz and I could have personally done without the micro adjust wind age / elevation. I am definitely a hunter who prescribes to the K.I.S.S. principle (keep it simple stupid) but all the little upgrades over the Ascent series was worth it to me. Fast forward to today and a lot of the great features and tech they put into designing the Pure series has trickled down into the new for 2016 Ascent Verdict sight. For me I have run out of anything to complain / nit pick about in the new Verdict series and it may just be the perfect sight for the Western Bowhunter. I am running a 5 pin set up (pins 27,40,50,60,70) with the top two pins .019 and the bottom three pins .010 with the colors going Green, Green, Yellow, Green Green. I also put a 4" dovetail on the sight that adds the 3rd axis adjustment which is 100% necessary for western hunting. This set up comes in at 9.1oz and gives me the utmost versatility and strength that I have found for that weight. Some of the new features that I love in the Ascent Verdict are the rotating sight ring w/ integrated bubble, 45 degree angled sight tape and the new hidden sight tape needle. In the following pics you'll see some of the new features.

New Features:

The new rotating sight ring. You can see the two screws that hold the green sight ring to the sight housing. Both of the holes are slotted so to set the level all you need to do is loosen those two screws and rotate the housing (with your bow in a jig and leveled out) until its reading level. BRILLIANT!The old way of how the level attached was frankly a pain in the butt to get the level set correctly. You can also see the new the hidden needle. The new needle wraps behind the sight tape so it isn't exposed to catch on anything as you are hunting.

In this image you can clearly see the new 45 degree sight tape. I definitely prefer this over the older side facing and the 100% rear facing models. It gives great visibility of the sight tape and the ability to check it while at full draw to make sure you are where you want to be.

For 2016 they also extended the knob out a little further for knuckle clearance and put more knurl in the dial so you can get a better grip on it.

The 3rd axis adjustment screw in the 4" dovetail. Critical for Western hunting.

If you are in the market for a new hunting sight, I highly suggest you take a look at the Black Gold Verdict sight. Whether your run 1 pin or 5 its one heck of a sight and for the money I guarantee you won't find a better sight. Steve