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Pros: - 3.5 MOA dots - Excellent field of view - Lightweight and compacts Cons: - Only red dot, no green - Dots are not perfectly crisp - Difficult to determine ranges for the dots

Hi there, and welcome to another crossbow sight review. Today, we’re taking a look through the BARSKA Red Dot 30mm Crossbow Sight, and we’ll evaluate how well this sight stacks up against the competition. The BARSKA Red Dot sight is comprised of a 30mm objective lens with a 3-dot reticle for shooting at various ranges.

How Much Magnification Do I Get From the BARSKA Red Dot 30mm Crossbow Sight?

Since this is a simple crossbow sight, you don’t get any magnification through the lens. What you do get is an excellent field of view with unlimited eye relief and 3 dots to use as aiming points.

How is the Optics Quality on the BARSKA Crossbow Sight?

The 30mm objective lens on the BARSKA crossbow sight is multi-coated, providing excellent resistance to water intrusion, fogging, glare, and reflection. The field of view at 100 yards is approximately 68 feet, which is more than adequate for just about all shooting situations. Eye relief is advertised as unlimited, but I found that to be not quite the case if you want all of the dots to line up right. With that said, a typical cheek-rest shooter will find no problem at all with the eye relief on this sight.

The three vertical dots are only illuminated in red, which is unfortunate. I would have liked to see a green illumination, since other crossbow sights in this price range offer dual illumination. I also found the dots to be less crisp than I like, but they are crisp enough for accurate shooting at all ranges. A definite plus for this price point is the use of 3.5 MOA dots, which are very nice for longer-range shooting with pinpoint accuracy.

Light transmission is quite good, and I’ve found the sight to be particularly useful during low light hunts and shooting matches or paintball games. Contrast and detail are very good even in poor lighting, and I’m able to pick up details in the shadows of trees from up to 30 yards out. Unfortunately, there is no option to change the illumination to green instead of red, so if you prefer green dots you might need to choose a different sight.

Where the BARSKA red dot scope really falls flat, however, is in the user’s manual. There is no clear information on how to accurately determine the ranges for the different dots. I found that I had to determine this information by trial and error, but I would have liked to see some more mathematical formula for calculating this information.

What’s the Housing Like on the BARSKA Red Dot Crossbow Sight?

The black matte housing of the BARSKA crossbow sight is made from aircraft-grade aluminum, and is as solid as can be. It withstands the heavy recoil of any firearm, and works perfectly with my TenPoint Titan crossbow. I’ve got a nasty habit of letting my crossbows hit the ground a bit too hard when I’m lowering them from my tree stand, and this sight has taken the brunt of the force more than once without any problems. It’s shock resistant, fogproof, and water resistant.

How Easy is the Sight to Mount?

If you have a standard Weaver or Picatinny rail, this sight mounts in seconds and then is ready to sight in. It is 4.8 ounces, so adds a little more than a quarter of a pound to your weapon’s overall weight, and is only 3.75″ long. The sight can also be mounted on dovetail rails, but you need a Picatinny-to-dovetail adapter to do this.

How Easy is the BARSKA Red Dot 30mm Crossbow Sight to Sight In?

Sighting in this sight couldn’t be any easier. The sight zeroes in quite quickly. For my crossbow, I was able to sight this in within a half dozen shots. When I used it on my handgun, I used a laser bore sighting tool to get everything on paper first, and then spent no more than 30 rounds of ammunition getting it perfectly centered. Once sighted in, the sight holds zero forever (seemingly) without needing to be adjusted.

Is the BARSKA Red Dot 30mm Crossbow Sight an Easy to Use Sight?

Yes, this sight is very easy to use, once you figure out what range the different dots are configured for at your particular velocity. I found that the only way to determine this was through trial and error, unfortunately, since the owner’s manual does not provide any useful information on this. For most applications, though, I think the dots are roughly set to 20 yards, 30 yards, and 40-50 yards. When you sight in the sight, you will be adjusting all of the dots together; there is no independent adjustment for the individual dots.