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Pros - 2.5 MOA Dot Reticle - 95% Light Transmission - Unlimited eye relief Cons - Cheap plastic construction - Lens covers pop off easily - Blurring around outer quarter of sight

Welcome to our review of the TruGlo Traditional Red Dot Crossbow Sight. This is TruGlo model TRG8030B2, which is important to note because some of TruGlo’s models are unmagnified, but this one is magnified. How well does it perform, though? Let’s put the sight through its paces and find out!

How Much Magnification Do I Get From the TruGlo Traditional Red Dot Crossbow Sight?

This red dot sight is also a low-powered scope, providing 2X magnification. The resolution of the picture is decent, but the outer quarter of the sight does suffer a fair bit of blurriness. This blurriness does not affect the usability of the sight, but it is disconcerting at first, and other competing magnified red dot sights don’t suffer from this flaw.

How is the Optics Quality on the TruGlo Traditional Red Dot Crossbow Sight?

The TruGlo Traditional Red Dot Crossbow Sight features a 42mm objective lens, and the optics are multi-coated for resistance to water and fog. TruGlo advertises the sight as being fogproof and waterproof, and my testing bears this out. Even in the coldest northeast Ohio temperatures, I never noticed any fogging on the sight.

The red dot is a 2.5 MOA dot, which is very nice for quickly acquiring your target. The smaller dot helps tremendously for longer range shooting, since it doesn’t cover up as much of the target image as some of TruGlo’s dots do (especially the 5 MOA dots).

Eye relief is unlimited on this model, and the linear field of view is 27 feet at 100 yards. The red dot is illuminated with 11 brightness settings, which gives an excellent variety of brightness settings to match all lighting conditions. The sight boasts 95% light transmission, so your target image will be bright, crisp, and clear (except for the outer quarter of the sight image).

The lens caps are see-through and flip open for convenience when you don’t want to use them. Unfortunately, when they flip up, they have a tendency to pop off completely. You can work around this by wrapping electrical tape 3-5 turns around the seam, but this really shouldn’t be necessary.

What’s the Housing Like on this Crossbow Sight?

TruGlo has manufactured the housing on the TruGlo Traditional Red Dot Crossbow Sight from cheap plastic, which really doesn’t have the durable feel I would like to see on a good crossbow or gun sight. TruGlo says the sight is shock resistant to 1kg, but that isn’t really a lot of shock resistance when a typical crossbow weighs at least 2.7kg.

The sight is 5.3 inches long, and weighs 9.2 ounces, so it won’t add a lot of size or weight to your crossbow or gun. I’ve used this particular sight on crossbows, shotguns, and pistols, and found it to be wonderfully balanced and almost unnoticeable on my weapons.

How Easy is this Sight to Mount?

If your weapon has a Weaver-style rail, the TruGlo Traditional Red Dot Crossbow Sight mounts in seconds. You will need either an Allen key wrench or a flat-head screwdriver to tighten the integrated mounting system bolts, but I find this much better than the thumb screws some of the competition chooses to use.

How Easy is this Sight to Sight In?

Sighting in the TruGlo Traditional Red Dot Crossbow Sight is a breeze, with windage adn elevation screw-down caps working beautifully to keep your windage and elevation set after you sight in. I was able to sight this in on my crossbow within 6 arrows, and never had to touch the windage and elevation adjustment knobs again.

Is the TruGlo Traditional Red Dot Crossbow Sight an Easy to Use Sight?

This sight is very easy to use. No tips or tricks are required; you just point, line up the dot, and shoot. This is an excellent upgrade over iron sights, and helps tremendously to improve your aiming speed and accuracy.