We spoke with Copper John's Al Coon about testing the Dead Nuts Pro. Everyday we checked our mailbox anticipating the arrival of the new Dead Nuts Pro. We had heard so much buzz about this product that, real or imagined, we became obsessed with "getting busy" on the product review. I currently use the Copper John A.N.T.S. target sight. I love it for 3D and as well as long range shooting for fun. The Dead Nuts Pro will most likely replace my red dot on my hunting bow this coming deer season.

We finally received the Dead Nuts Pro and breathed a sigh of relief. We spent at least 30 minutes to an hour examining the "Pro". We were impressed with Copper John's machining abilities. The Dead Nuts Pro is machined from solid aluminum on multiple axis Fadal CNC machines. Even with extremely expensive machinery, most can agree, it's the programming of the machine and design engineering of the product that must work together to form a solid product. In a word, the machining on the Dead Nuts Pro is superb! There are no machining marks or sharp edges to snag yourself on. The "Pro" has very smooth flowing lines, the only place you'll find hard edges is where you are supposed to find them, such as the dovetail right to left adjustment and so on. Copper John shows off their CAD/CNC machining ability by actually machining their company’s emblem into the mounting bracket of the "Pro". Not only does this look fantastic, but it also serves a structural purpose of connecting the upper and lower mounting brackets. Brothers and owners Doug and Eric Springer should be proud of this high quality product. Well done!

Beyond the quality of the machining, the overall appearance of the "Pro" is excellent. The Dead Nuts Pro comes in four different color options; Mossy Oak Breakup, Realtree X-tra Grey, Skyline Excel, and anodized Black. We received an anodized black four-pin version for our test session. The Dead Nuts Pro is similar to the Dead Nuts Hunter with a couple of exceptions. The "Pro" comes with a 2.125" objective for an unobstructed field of view. The four pin configuration is just like the "Hunter" but uses smaller .019" fiber optic pins instead of .029" fiber. The smaller pins will work fine for hunting and also allow you to use the "Pro" for 3D and other target situations. Serious target shooters would want to check out the "Pro III", which incorporates 3rd axis leveling. Don't get me wrong, the "Pro" is more than capable of tournament shooting, but the "Pro III" is just better suited to target shooting due to the 3rd axis leveling and the 7.25" extension, but, hey, that's another review.

Ease of use of the Dead Nuts Pro is excellent. You can do all your adjustments with two allen wrenches. Right to left adjustment is accomplished by loosening one allen bolt and sliding the head back and forth. One suggestion we'd like to see implemented are some white adjustment increments. Knowing the Springer brothers, they are probabloy already on this! Vertical gang adjustments can be achieved by loosening two allen bolts and sliding the head up and down. We also felt that two more threaded holes would be a welcome addition here, to allow for a greater gang adjustment. The all aluminum pins can be adjusted vertically by simply loosening the desired allen bolt and then tightening it back down. The pins on the "Pro" are manufactured with an offset so all four pins are in a row. With this configuration we found that with today's high-speed bows this setup won't work. You can get the pins close to one another, but not close enough when you're shooting five increments. Hmm, we simply reconfigured the pin slot setup and actually buried one pin behind the other. Whether or not Copper John meant to do this, we found it a welcome feature when 3D shooting.

Sight leveling is easily adjusted by loosening two allen bolts and can be accomplished by even the most novice shooter. The three mounting holes give the shooter the ability to move the "Pro" in and out so he/she can achieve perfect peep to objective alignment. The bright orange ring on the objective helps in peep alignment in low light conditions. The "Pro" also incorporates a threaded hole in the sight housing to accept a light for low light hunting situations. Nice touch!

The all aluminum construction of the Dead Nuts Pro makes it a rock solid hunting and target sight. The user-friendly configuration and the outstanding machining of the Dead Nuts Pro resulted in a 4 out of 5 star rating for this product. We'd like to see the addition of two more threaded holes on the vertical gang adjustment, and some white increment marks on the horizontal and vertical adjustments on the "Pro". We know this would help the shooter make adjustments easier and more accurate. In 3D situations, we would like to see the addition of one more pin for a total of 5. None of these suggestions will effect the performance of the Dead Nuts Pro, we feel that's all that is lacking to make this a perfect hunting/target sight.

BowCountry.com would like to congratulate the folks at Copper John on another fine archery product! Visit Copper John on the web at www.CopperJohn.com.

BowCountry.com would like to thank all the archery manufacturers that help make Test & Tune possible.
The BowCountry.com test crew
Copper John
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