January 18, 2011

Apex Gear: Atomic Rover lights once, fails in field

APEX GEAR ATOMIC ROVER SERIES
Straight out of the box, the APEX GEAR single-pin, lighted sight from the Atomic Rover series worked like a charm. Light, compact and easy to adjust. I was tickled after my first hunt, with a clear, crisp fiber optic pin putting my arrow exactly where I wanted it on my first doe of 2010.

But, problems came on about my fifth hunt, when I had a decent buck come in about 20 minutes before dark. I moved to turn on the pin and found that the light was not getting to the end of the fiber optic line. With light leaving quickly, I waited for the deer to walk into a lane, but lost light before I could get off a shot (I could have with a lighted pin).

Upon inspection back at camp, the fiber optic line was cracked or pinched, not allowing any light from the unit to get down the line. I took the plastic sleeve off the line reel, snipped the cracked section of line and reinstalled the line. It seemed to have worked fine at the camp, but back into the stand, and it was cracked again.

This time, I saw that the line was getting pinched between the plastic sleeve and the main unit. So, more adjustments, added tape to the sleeve and seemingly had it fixed. Got into the field, and, again ... no dice. The light just wasn't making to the sight's pin, although the OTHER end of the optic line was glowing brightly.

I have a call into TruGlo/APEX and awaiting a response on this one. Sure will suck if I only get a few hunts out of this sight!

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