If you were to sit me down as a child and tell me what bow sights would be like today, I’d be in disbelief. The catalog of bow sights we have access to today is nothing short of impressive, and the bar keeps rising with each passing year. With that in mind, I had been waiting for Dialed Archery to release a horizontal 5-pin sight since their inception.
So, when the Pruf came out in that configuration, I had to take it for a spin.
In short: The Pruf ($560) from Dialed Archery adorns the bows of many happy bowhunters across the country. Just be ready to spend a little extra time adjusting those pins.
Specifications
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Highly customizable
- Angle elevation system allows you to dial further than normal
- Bright pins
- Made in the U.S.A.
Cons
- Pins can be tricky to adjust
- Some screws are hard to access with a traditional Allen set
- Indicators are too far away from sight tape, which makes dialing accurately difficult
Dialed Archery Pruf 5-Pin Bow Sight Review
Overview
Starting back in 2021 until the present day in 2026, Dialed Archery has become a force to be reckoned with in the archery industry. The unique design, customization, and functionality of their sights captured the hearts of many, starting with the ARXOS and now landing on the latest innovation from Dialed Archery, the Pruf.
The Pruf is a highly engineered movable bow sight with both versatility and customization in mind. This sight is made of machined aluminum and topped off with a Cerakote finish. Hunters have the choice between vertical 1- and 3-pin as well as horizontal 3- and 5-pin options. Of course, you can choose between .019 and .010 pin sizes, too.
And, let’s not forget, the endless color options and configurations, all of which are available for both left- and right-handed shooters.
On top of the sight housing, you’ll notice a slider to dim or brighten pins. The entire sight body is clearly labeled for axis adjustments (1st, 2nd, 3rd). On the front of the sight, next to the housing, is your locking knob for micro-adjust windage, with the adjustment knob located in the outer portion of the sight from there.
Two screws on the front of the rail allow for elevation adjustment. And you’ve also got one sight tape on the inner portion of the sight, and one sight tape on the outer portion. To adjust pins, there are screws on the outer edge of the sight housing. Oh, and this is all made, sourced, and manufactured in the U.S.A.
Features
Customization
Far and away the most striking thing about the Dialed Archery Pruf is the appearance. Yes, it’s a highly functional bow sight made to handle whatever you can throw at it, but it looks great, too. Hunters have the option of choosing colors for the body, frame, switch tape, void wheel, optic slide, and sight housing.
Aside from colors, a hunter also has the choice of pin size, vertical versus horizontal pins, as well as 1-, 3-, and 5-pin models. Mounting options of Picatinny, Bridgelock, and Riser Mount are also on the table.
2 Tapes
What’s better than one sight tape? Two sight tapes, of course. This is a cool feature, especially for those who like to run multiple arrow setups. Say they have an arrow setup for TAC and an arrow setup for hunting. You could have your TAC tape on one side and hunting tape on the other. A much better setup versus having to switch tapes out every time.
A.E.S. Technology: Shoot Farther Faster
Something Dialed Archery has become known for is the A.E.S. Technology. This stands for Angled Elevation System. You might notice that the rail on a Dialed sight is at an angle. This is by design and allows, on average, a hunter to dial an extra 10 yards past what they’d experience from a vertical rail.
Basically, when you dial down, which is very smooth by the way, the sight housing is moving toward you, rather than straight down. Because of this, the sight housing doesn’t cover as much real estate vertically, which provides more arrow clearance below. This carries over to the Pruf.
My Experience
The anticipation for the Dialed Archery Pruf to arrive at my door was thick to say the least. I had been wanting to try out a Dialed sight since they started, but I’m just not a single-pin guy, nor do I personally believe them to be the best option for spot-and-stalk western bowhunting. I think a 3-5–pin slider is perfect for that, so I snagged up a 5-pin Picatinny Pruf.
Off the rip, the packaging of this sight is impressive to say the least. I guess it’s expected, right? Dialed isn’t your typical bow sight, so why would there be typical packaging? Makes sense to me.
All that said, the sight really is a work of art, and it felt great in my hands once I got it out of the spaceship-like packaging. Things seemed sturdy and well-made.
The first few times I came to full draw, I had to train myself to look at the top of the sight housing, as opposed to the bottom. The bubble level on this sight is actually at the top. Now that I’ve played with it for a bit, I kind of like it. It frees up the sight picture below the bottom pin. And speaking of pins, these are bright.
Questionable pins can make shooting a sight a bit of a hassle. These are nothing of the sort.
Lastly, the dial is butter. It operates via a locking lever, which is easily accessed and adjusted. What’s wild about the dial is how much I don’t feel like I’m dialing down the sight when I do so. I’ve shot this accurately out to 90 yards so far and have plenty of clearance between the sight housing and arrow.
What’s Wrong
I have some thoughts about a few things that could be better with the Pruf. These aren’t deal breakers by any means, just opportunities to get better. I enjoy shooting with this sight.
The first is the pin adjustment system. It is not micro-adjustable, which is a bit disappointing, but what grinds my gears a bit is that the pins seem to stick a bit when trying to manually move them up and down. I’ve found you need two hands. One on the pin and one on the wrench.
On that note, I highly recommend a stubby wrench, not your typical archery Allen set. This will make adjusting the pins a little easier, but also accessing some of the screws on this sight. That leads me to my next critique. Some of these screws are hard to access via your typical Allen key set.
The other thing I noticed was how far away the indicators are from the sight tape. They’re too high. The reason I’m not a fan of this is that if the angle at which you’re looking at the tape isn’t directly straight on with the face of the indicator, you can vary when dialing up to 2 yards. In a hunting scenario, when the pressure is on, this could be problematic.
Final Thoughts
Nitpicky gripes aside, my younger self would be extremely jealous of my older self having access to the Dialed Archery Pruf. Not only is it a great bow sight, but it’s also a cool story. Dialed Archery was started by three hardcore bowhunters who wanted to make something better.
And in doing so, they wanted to keep it all under the roof of the U.S.A. That’s admirable and inspirational.
So, go chase your dreams, and maybe chase down a Dialed Archery Pruf while you’re at it.
