Product Description
The Fast Fire III Red Dot Sight is the most versatile red dot sight on the market. Mount it on your favorite handgun, shotgun, or hunting rifle for greater accuracy and faster target acquisition. You won't need to worry about sight alignment, eye dominance, or finding your target. Just put the red dot on your target and pull the trigger.
| List Price: | $386.00 |
| Price: | $254.99 |
| as of Thu, 21 Feb 2013 05:53:41 GMT ***Remember, deals price on this item for sale just for limited time*** | |
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #6285 in Sports & Outdoors
- Size: 0.31
- Color: Black
- Brand: Burris
- Model: 300234
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .20" h x 2.50" w x 7.20" l, .20 pounds
Features
- 3 MOA Dot Reticle
- Tool-less wind age and elevation adjustments
- Top of sight battery access
- Convenient power button with three levels of brightness and an automatic brightness setting
- Low Battery warning indicator
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
By Matthew Morse
I purchased this optic to use on a Ruger 22/45 Mark III Hunter (5.5" Barrel). I also purchased the Ruger Dovetail mount from Burris. It should be noted that I didn't purchase this product from Amazon (they get plenty of my money, though). Below are some of my thoughts (caution, I get a little lengthy). Upon opening the box, my initial impressions were as follows:
1. This thing is SMALL!
2. It's very well built.
3. It has good solid components.
4. Terrible cover/lens shade.
The FFIII is the smallest optic I've ever seen. I sat it on top of my 22/45 just over the dovetail where it will eventually live and it didn't change the balance by even a little bit. It's negligible compared to the heavier 5.5" hunter barrel and polymer frame. I LIKE IT!
My initial reaction to the function was a little bit questionable until I got the hang of it. The FFIII doesn't use a physical switch to turn the unit on or off. It uses a button with a series of settings that are activated when you cycle it. They are as follows:
1. ON - AUTO
2. ON - FULL
3. ON - MEDIUM
4. ON - LOW
5. OFF
I would have preferred a physical on/off switch because when you activate the rubber button, it takes the unit several seconds for the auto brightness feature to kick in and bring the dot into view. This is a very small quibble and one I'm sure to get used to. Ideally, though, an on/off switch with a button for changing modes would have been much better. And a memory that goes back to your last-used setting would be a superb feature for target shooters. I mostly shoot outside and taking the FFIII in the back yard, I find that the Medium brightness setting is ideal for my shooting preference. Having it automatically go to this every time would be perfect. Again, it's a small quibble and I wouldn't fault the unit for it. I am glad that they introduced user-adjustable brightness into the FFIII, but I feel it could have been executed differently.
Build quality seems excellent. It doesn't creak or rattle. Nothing is out of place. It's very compact and secure. I read online that several people were having trouble with the battery compartment lid not laying flat when closed, but I think they were cross-threading it, which is easy to do because it's in an awkward spot and the threads are very fine. You also have a battery with a spring-loaded platform under it pushing against the lid when you're screwing it in. I found that a beefy flat head screwdriver did the trick to get it in and out of place fairly easily. I would liked to have seen a side-mounted battery slot (similar to the SIM card slot on the iPhone) that you could stick a paper clip in to extend the drawer. Just the two times that I touched the battery cap with the screwdriver left some nicks in the finish. I covered them easily with a sharpie, but perhaps a plastic cover would prevent marring the finish on future models. Or put some masking tape over your screwdriver's head before using it.
Burris includes high-quality tools with the unit. There's a star-driver for the included screws as well as a decent micro screwdriver for adjusting windage and elevation. It was nice of them to include these so that one doesn't have to hunt down specific tools. I don't mind that I have to use a tiny screwdriver for adjustments because I keep a small inventory of tiny screwdrivers, allen wrenches and other commonly used tools in my range bag (the guys at the club refer to it as my "weekender bag" because it's so huge).
My biggest complaint, and one that I'll just have to deal with, is the lens cover. It's gigantic. With the lens cover mounted, it's roughly 4" long and very bulky. It's a shoot-through design so you don't have to take it off to use the unit, but it's VERY out of place when mounting the FFIII on a handgun. On an AR or Shotgun platform, it wouldn't seem so strange and would probably serve a very valuable purpose. But I think Burris should make a cover like the one for the FFII that slips over the unit and fits snugly without adding a lot of bulk. This is on a target gun, not a defensive weapon, so I don't need to be able to use it "on the fly" in a SHTF scenario. I would encourage Burris to offer a compact cover (even at an additional price) for those interested in picking one up. I may try and rig something up until then. My pistol that this is going on stays in a padded soft-sided case when not in use, so I may just not use the cover at all when it's in storage. We'll see... I don't want to scratch the lens.
After a couple of range trips, I was able to make a few more observations. I dialed it in at about 50' yesterday and it was shooting really well. I was having some double vision problems with the fiber optic front sight as I had mentioned previously, but it wasn't too bad and once I started shooting, I was able to stay on target fairly easily and maintain a good sight picture.
I did end up getting the lower front sight from Ruger and put it on. I hit the range for 100 rounds or so and it was MUCH better. I didn't get the double vision problems that I was having and the new sight blade is significantly lower. When I spoke to Ruger on the phone, the woman was insistent that the front sight blade I purchased wouldn't be any lower than the fiber optic front sight I was currently using, but when comparing them side-by-side on a table top, there's about 1/8" difference in the two. In fact, the top of the standard sight comes up to just a hair below the bottom of the fiber optic insert on the fiber optic version of the site.
Please note that if I were to go back to iron sights (unlikely), that I would have to switch back to the fiber optic front sight or purchase a different rear sight. The front sight blade I'm using now is just a filler because Ruger does not sell a front sight screw blank and I couldn't find one to fit. It should also be noted, just for reference, that the screw blanks in the receiver (on the drilled and tapped models) are not the same as the front sight screw. I'm not sure why Ruger did this, but it's a pain.
I took the pistol to the outdoor range and threw some cans out at about 50 feet and started plinking. I was seated, with my elbows on the table, using a two-hand grip, but the gun was unrested. I was able to shoot the cans out to about 25 yards or so and was hitting them consistently using Federal Blue Box (525 Round Bulk Packs). The sight maintained a constant zero and using it on the auto brightness setting gave me an adequate sight picture. It was slightly overcast and I had no trouble finding and keeping my sight picture with the dot. However, during a previous outing where it was perfectly sunny with a deep blue sky and no humidity I found the dot just a little bit hard to see, even when setting the highest brightness manually. I did not try it with the oversized cover on it as I find it unwieldy to use, but I'm sure it would have shaded the dot some and given me a better sight picture. At no time during either outing did I ever feel that the dot wasn't adequate enough to give me a reliable sight picture for target shooting and general range plinking. Shooting the gun rested on my range bag yielded less than a 1" group at 50 feet which is more than adequate for me and probably says more about my shooting inabilities than it does the abilities of the optic or gun (both are far more accurate than I am). I didn't find the 3 MOA dot to be too small or too large and I always found it quickly and easily and was able to rapidly transition from one target to the next without loss of sight picture. On a heavier recoiling firearm, you might have to do a slight amount of hunting for the dot between shots, but I can't say for sure as I haven't used this on any other firearms.
Something I noticed that was fairly annoying, but probably won't creep up too much in most of my shooting was turning the dot off during very bright daylight (yesterday's session is a great example). I was using the optic on auto brightness. If you remember from my previous post, the button to turn the optic on/off and set the brightness manually, is a push button and has to be cycled. The cycle is as follows:
1. ON - AUTO
2. ON - FULL
3. ON - MEDIUM
4. ON - LOW
5. OFF
I was watching through the dot to see when the dot turned off and the lowest setting (button press 4) didn't show up at all and I wasn't sure if I had pushed the button too many times and it was off, or if I had not pushed it enough times and the dot wasn't showing up properly. This is where a hard toggle switch would have come in handy. Or, a fairly simple solution without adding more buttons and switches would be to have the option to hold the power button for a set length of time (3 seconds, for example) and it would power the unit down. Also, after pushing the button to turn it on, there is a 1-2 second delay as the unit powers up and determines the appropriate brightness setting for the shooting conditions. So, if you push the button too many times and aren't paying attention, you could be putting it back into auto brightness mode and then when you pack up the dot, you pack it up turned on. This is something I feel Burris could address in their next FastFire series optic and I would be delighted to see either a hard toggle for on/off with a button for manual brightness, or a long-press that allows you to turn the unit off without cycling.
On a scale of 1-10, I'd have to rate this a very solid 9. I think Burris loses a little bit for the inability to turn the dot off without cycling. They also lose a bit for the oversized cover. I realize that this may seem trivial and not worth docking points for, but I think the option to purchase a smaller cover or providing a smaller cover would take all shooters into consideration, not just the tactical users. They make the mounts for the FF series for several handguns and the FastFire lineup is known in the target shooting arena as a fast, reliable optic so providing those shooters with an option would be a good customer service offering that Burris could implement with little cost to them (especially if it was offered separately). I really don't have any other issues with the unit and I am more than pleased with my purchase. If I were in the market for a tactical build, I would certainly consider something similar to the build seen previously in this thread from Tacky where he has a FastFire on top of his main optic so that he can acquire both near and far targets with ease. I think this optic would be a great addition to any 3-gun setup as well as you could get them for multiple firearms which would keep your sight picture consistent across the board.
I've compiled a pros and cons list below to sum up my thoughts:
PROS
* Small
* Lightweight
* Durable
* Simple Interface
* Quality Optics
* Quality Components
* Versatile
* User-Friendly
* Good Value* (See Note Below)
CONS
* High Price* (See Note Below)
* Power Switch Cycle
* Oversized Shade (Cumbersome Design)
* Brightness (May Be Inadequate for Some Situations)
*NOTE: While I find the Burris FastFire III to be a good value for the money based on a simple pros and cons comparison, I find the initial investment to be rather high as compared to other red dot optics, especially considering the high price of the adapters for your particular application (roughly $50 for the base of your choice, minus the Picatinny base which is often included and can be had much cheaper if not). However, it is unlikely that you will find a similar red dot with all of the qualities of the FastFire III in this price range, and certainly not for less money. I felt that it was worth mentioning to potential buyers that there is a steep initial investment into the Burris system, which may be discouraging, but I feel that for the money, it is a good value.
(Similar products owned: UltraDot Red Dot and several other lower end dots, including Millet, Bushnell and VISM. Of all of the red dot optics I've owned, I have only kept the UltraDot and the FastFire. The rest just don't compare.)
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
By Tom L.
Installed this on a Model 581 Ruger Ranch Rifle using a GG&G Mini-14 & Mini 30 Ranch Rifle MIL-STD-1913 Scope Mount GGG-1382, also available from Amazon. The sight appears to be very well made and is easy to install with the included tool and instructions. It holds zero very well, even when the weapon and sight are stressed with fairly rapid shooting. Together, the sight and rifle are probably more accurate than this shooter, as even I am able to place 20 rounds within a 3" bull at 50 yards using only a rudimentary rest. Distance or precision shooters may expect more, but this sight is very quick and easy to shoot with both eyes open. I bought the Burris due the fact that it was purpose built to handle the shock of operating on a pistol slide - a much more violent motion than that of a rifle receiver. I hope that this will make it even more durable for my intended use. Time will tell. I also liked the small size of the sight. The only down side to this may be the small size of the on/off switch. It is quite small and not of a contrasting color so you have to really look for it. You can pay a lot less or a lot more for a red dot sight, but I believe it will be hard to exceed the value of this product.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
By Auton
I bought this for a Beretta U-22 Neos. The biggest issue is that the picatinny mount does not fit the rail on the Neos. The height of the lands on the Beretta is taller than a standard rail, and the mount on the Burris is very shallow. I was not able to mount the FastFire to the Beretta, I had to use a riser to adapt the sight to the gun.
This version of the FastFire has a nice feature that allows both automatic and manual brightness adjustment. The automatic brightness works very well and seems to adjust quickly. The manual brightness adjustment is ok, but with only three settings, it is not as adjustable as other sights I have used. I an not all that satisfied with the control. The unit as a single button that goes from Off - Auto - Bright - Medium - Dim - Off. I wist there was a separate control for on/off and brightness. With the single button you have to keep pressing and looking to get the brightness you want. This is most problematic when turning the unit off, because you have to go to the dimmest setting and then to off, there is a risk that you won't see that the sight is still on.
Over I like the FastFire III, the 3moa dot is perfect for a .22 at close range. I have only used this unit for a week or so, but thusfar it has held zero just fine.
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