Spot Hogg Bow Sights

What Spot Hogg makes for bowhunters

Spot Hogg is an archery accessory maker. Its trade-press coverage describes three product types: bow sights, release aids and arrow rests. On this site the grid splits like this:

• Bow sights: nearly the whole grid, from multi-pin hunting sights to single-pin movers
• One arrow rest: The Edge, a left-hand blade-style rest

This site doesn't have a Spot Hogg release listed in the grid. The release section further down covers what the maker says about the WiseGuy, and the bow release page covers releases across brands.

The grid filters by type and changes week to week. So I'll write about the sight families and what separates them, not about how many of each are listed today. Most values in the grid came from Amazon listings, and the grid marks them that way. A dash means the listing didn't say.

Lineup notes: the Spot Hogg bow sight families

Here's what actually changes from one family to the next. Read these as five branches off the same tree: same company, same fiber-pin idea, different answers to "how many pins" and "how does it mount."

Hogg-It: the original hunting sight

The Hogg-It is where the brand started. Bowhunter's company history says founder Steve Johnson introduced it as "a ruggedly constructed bowsight." Archery Business describes it as a hunting sight, not a target sight.

In the grid, the Hogg-It MRT comes as a 3-pin and a 5-pin, both listed with .019 inch pins on a dovetail mount, right-handed. That's the classic multi-pin layout: one fixed pin per distance, nothing to dial at the moment of the shot.

Hunter: the multi-pin with smaller pins

The Hunter MRT is the Hogg-It's neighbor. In the grid it also comes in 3-pin and 5-pin versions, right-handed, but the listings give .010 inch pins instead of .019.

On paper, that's the only spec difference between the two families here. In practice it matters a lot. A .010 pin covers less of the target at long range; a .019 pin gathers more light at dawn. (More on that trade below.)

Fast Eddie: one, two or three pins

The Fast Eddie family is the widest in the grid. The listings include:

• Single pin: the Fast Eddie XL Single Pin, Fast Eddie MRT Single Pin and Fast Eddie PM Single Pin
• Double pin: the Fast Eddie Double Pin and Fast Eddie XL Double Pin
• Three pins: the Fast Eddie Triple Stack MRT

Pin sizes run .010 or .019 depending on the listing, and the Double Pin listing names .029 as a third option. The PM version mounts on a picatinny rail; its listing names a pic-mount bar, 6061 aluminum and a quick-release lock. Archery Business reported in 2020 that the Fast Eddie XL Double Pin was the brand's best-selling sight at the time.

A single- or double-pin sight moves. You set the yardage with the housing, then aim with one pin (or two, with the second covering a longer distance). That's the trade GoHunt describes: exact yardage on every shot, but a dial to turn before you draw.

Boonie: modular, with several mounts

The Boonie family is newer-looking in the grid and leans on mount options. Per their listings:

• Boonie Dovetail 3 Pin and Boonie Dovetail Triple Stack: 4-inch dovetail, yardage wheel
• Boonie Hard Mount Triple Stack: a fixed hard-mount bar with horizontal micro-adjust
• Boonie Picatinny Triple Stack: pic rail mount, described as "Modular Boonie"
• Boonie ROTI double pins: on dovetail (DT), hard mount or pic mount, with a double-pin ROTI guard

Several Boonie listings name 1st, 2nd and 3rd axis adjustment and a lock-down yardage wheel. "Triple Stack" in these titles means pins stacked in a vertical housing, per the dovetail listing. A sight with a yardage wheel and several pins is a hybrid: fixed pins for the close shots, a dial for the long one.

Hogg Father Pro: the ambidextrous one

The Hogg Father Pro DT Triple Stack is listed as RH/LH, the only sight in the grid marked for both hands. Bowhunter names the Hogg Father among the brand's long-running sight lines. Its listing gives a dovetail mount. The pin size and pin count aren't in the listing data, so the grid shows dashes.

Lineup notes: The Edge arrow rest

The one rest in the grid is The Edge, listed as left-handed. Its listing describes a blade-style launcher with self-locking vertical and horizontal micro-adjust. Bowhunter's history traces Spot Hogg's rests back to the Premiere series, which started at Golden Key. Rest types across brands, including drop-aways and whisker biscuits, are on the compound bow arrow rest page.

Spot Hogg releases and the WiseGuy

The release aid is where the founder's story begins. Bowhunter traces it to Steve Johnson's Cascade, a thumb-activated release. Today's best-known Spot Hogg release is the WiseGuy. Archery Business describes it as a release for index-finger shooters, with a light trigger that has no travel and adjusts.

No Spot Hogg release is in the grid on this site. If you're shopping for one, the bow release page explains wrist-strap and handheld styles, and how trigger type changes the shot.

How to choose within the Spot Hogg lineup

Pins first: fixed, movable, or both

GoHunt's comparison is the clearest summary I've read:

• Multi-pin fixed (Hogg-It, Hunter): pins usually set 10 yards apart, no dialing, less movement before the shot. The risk is using the wrong pin, and gaps between pins need "gapping."
• Single pin (Fast Eddie single): one pin dialed to the exact yardage, a clean sight picture, but you move the housing for every new distance.
• Double pin or stacked with a wheel (Fast Eddie double, Boonie): a middle ground with fixed pins and a dial.

GoHunt also notes that hunters in thick cover or tree stands often know their yardage and favor a single pin, while open-country hunters like several pins for fast changes. The bow sight page and the single pin bow sight page cover both styles across brands.

Then pin size

Quick math on pin sizes: a .019 pin is almost twice as wide as a .010. Think angel hair next to spaghetti. Both are pasta; one is a lot easier to find in a dim kitchen.

What changes in the field:

• .010: fans say it allows finer aiming at long range; GoHunt notes it "almost completely disappears in low light"
• .019: more light, more visible at dawn and dusk, covers more of the target far out
• .029: the brightest option listed, for shooters who want the pin easiest to see

Grand View Outdoors says .019 or .029 pins can be easier for hunters with weaker eyes or close shots. My one opinion on this page: pick the pin you can see at the last legal minute of light, not the one that looks best at noon. Deer keep a dawn-and-dusk schedule, and the pin has to work then too.

Then the mount

The grid lists three mount styles:

• Dovetail: the sight slides on a dovetail bar, which lets you set how far the housing sits from your eye
• Picatinny: a rail mount on bows that have one on the riser
• Hard mount: a fixed bar with no dovetail slide

Grand View Outdoors writes that a sight mounting straight to the riser gives a more dependable connection, drops a bracket and centers the sight for balance. GoHunt adds that moving the sight closer to you reduces visible pin movement, which some shooters find calmer. Check your bow's riser before you pick a picatinny model.

Then the hand

Almost every listing in the grid is right-handed. The Edge rest and the Fast Eddie XL Double Pin listings are left-handed, and the Hogg Father Pro is listed for both. Order the same hand as your bow. A right-handed bow takes a right-handed sight.

Setting up a Spot Hogg sight

Level all three axes

Archery 360's leveling guide explains why the axes matter:

• 1st axis: keeps the sight bar true, so moving the housing up and down doesn't move your arrows left or right
• 2nd axis: levels the sight itself, like leveling a shelf
• 3rd axis: swings the housing "like a door on hinges" for uphill and downhill shots

The guide says a new sight needs leveling after it's installed, either at home with leveling tools or at a shop. To check the 3rd axis, it suggests a steep downhill shot. For a right-handed archer, arrows grouping right mean the sight swings toward you; grouping left means away. Shooting down from a tree stand is the deer-hunting version of that test.

Make your own sight tape for the movable sights

A Fast Eddie, Boonie or other sight with a dial needs a sight tape: a strip of yardage marks showing where the housing goes for each distance. GoHunt's guide says custom tapes are the best option for single-pin sights. The method is to sight in at a close distance, then at the longest distance you shoot well, and let software fill in the marks between. The farther the second mark, the more accurate the tape. Print it at 100 percent, not "scale to fit."

Write the setup down

Write down the pin size, the yardage of every fixed pin, and the date you last checked them. My notes have one column labeled "sight checked." Uncle Walt calls it a wasted column. It's also the only column he asks to borrow the week before opening day.

Spot Hogg facts

Here's what I could verify outside a store listing:

• Start: Archery Business dates the company to 1997; Bowhunter says its official start came in the late '90s
• Founder: Steve Johnson, who designed products for Golden Key before launching his own bowsight concept with support from his wife, Gloria, per Archery Business
• First product under the name: the Hooter Shooter shooting machine, per Bowhunter
• Home: Harrisburg, Oregon, per Bowhunter's 2022 company profile
• Early lines: the Cascade release and the Hogg-It sight, per the same article

Level the bubble, check the pins, and write the date on the tape. Future you will want to know.