heymatthew
Well-Known Fanatic
Hi Guys and Gals,
I recently purchased a Burris FastFire III for my Ruger 22/45 pistol. I was keeping a sort of diary of the process on another forum (RugerForum.net) and decided that I would compile the information into one post and share it with you all here. This is definitely lengthy but lines up all of my thoughts and includes a handful of images for you to see my particular application.
Enjoy and feel free to shoot me any questions or comments.
First Impressions - 10/6/12
I received the FastFire III yesterday. Unfortunately, I can't mount it to the gun because the idiots I purchased the Ruger Dovetail Mount from shipped it UPS Innovations (which is probably the least innovative shipping method ever created in the history of logistics). It will be here next week sometime. Grrr.
BUT! I did pull the FFIII out of the packaging to check for function and to give it a once over and my initial impressions were as follows:
1. This thing is SMALL! (That's what she said.)
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.
I'll get to the range next weekend for sure, get it sighted in and run it through its paces. I'm very excited to use it and will update this thread as soon as I have a chance to take it out and shoot with it.
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Initial Images - 10/8/12
Since there's been some interest in this thread so far, I thought I would throw up some images of the optic before I put it on the pistol for anyone interested in seeing it in a little more detail with its various components.
Front:
This is a decent view of the lens coatings, which are said to be superb.
Rear:
Here you can see the Power Button on the left-hand side, as well as the adjustment markings, which are new to the FFIII. You can also see the top-mounted battery cover.
Cover:
This shows the optic with the cover attached. Note: It took a little pit of panicked shaking and smacking to get the optic out of the cover without it being attached to anything. Don't put the optic in the cover without it fastened to a firearm.
Cover - Viewing Angle:
This shows the optic with the cover attached. The cover is see-through which allows you to use the optic while it's protected.
Optic/Cover Comparison:
This shows you just how large the cover is. Notice that it is roughly double the size of the naked optic. Again, in a tactical situation, this might be ideal as the optic would be both protected and still usable under the cover. But for a target application where the gun will be used in more controlled environments, this cover is definitely overkill. I would have much preferred something significantly smaller.
Picatinny Mount:
This shows the optic with the provided picatinny - or Weaver - Mount attached to it. It's still extremely compact even with this baseplate and screw attached. I'm not using this setup because I wanted the dovetail mount for a tighter, more compact total package, but my unit came with the picatinny baseplate at no additional charge. Note: The picatinny mount doesn't come included unless specified. You can buy the FFIII in several configurations including the mounting base for your particular firearm. Be sure and check which one you are getting. The various mounts are listed on the Burris website and you can purchase whichever one you need to meet your specific needs.
I'll update tomorrow evening (hopefully) with the optic attached to my 22/45. Stay tuned...
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Mounting - 10/9/12
I received the mounting plate today at work and put it on the pistol during my lunch break (it sure is nice to work at a place where I can go into a conference room and mount a scope or an optic or swap out a stock during lunch). I'll post pictures of it tonight when I get home and have a chance to take some.
First impressions on the gun are superb, though. It's small, lightweight and tough. The mounting was a little tedious as the curvature of the Ruger receiver doesn't allow for a perfectly even surface to make sure the dot is mounted squarely, but I did eyeball it and it's good enough for me. The mounting setup on this thing is rock solid. The instructions didn't completely apply to my particular mount as they were generic and applied to other mounts so I had to sort through the information to get what I needed. A quick Google search led me to an old archived thread on another forum where I got some good information as well. Once locked down, though, this thing fit rather nicely.
I'm considering removing the front sight from my gun at this point as it sticks up pretty high. I'll take it to the range this weekend and see if the dot and the front site blade correspond. If they don't, I'm removing the front sight and I'll just put a blank in to fill the hole.
Stay tuned for photos of the mounted setup soon...
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Mounted Photos - 10/10/12
Finally got some photos of the FastFire III on my 22/45 Hunter (5.5" Barrel). It really does fit well and doesn't change the balance of the gun a bit. The 5.5" barrel really helps to even everything out on the front end. I've got a plain black sight coming from Ruger to replace that HiViz sight as I find the extra red dot a bit distracting. It shows in the viewing window just a little bit and when shooting both eyes open, I get a weird ghost image because one eye is seeing the fiber optics while the other is seeing the red dot. Weird. I figure a lower profile black front sight will serve the purpose of filling the hole (couldn't get a screw blank for the front sight) while staying out of the way enough to keep me from getting distracted.
Hitting the farm this weekend to sight it in and see how it shoots (hopefully).
Here are the images:
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Final Thoughts - 10/14/12
Okay people... I had a chance to get the FastFire out yesterday and again today (briefly both days). 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.
Yesterday evening, I got the lower front sight from Ruger and put it on. I hit the range this afternoon for 100 rounds or so and it was MUCH better. I didn't get the double vision problems that I was having and this sight blade is significantly lower. When I spoke to Ruger on the phone, the woman was insistent that the front sight 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 again today 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 today and I had no trouble finding and keeping my sight picture with the dot. However, yesterday's outing was perfectly sunny with a deep blue sky and no humidity and I found the dot just a little bit hard to see, even when setting it at the highest brightness setting 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 about 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 pu 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. chase. 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.
In closing, I wholeheartedly recommend the Burris FastFire system as a standalone optic for your target pistol, or as a lightweight alternative to an optic on a lightweight rifle. It is small enough to not command a large amount of real estate on your receiver or slide and seated above your grip frame, it won't change the balance of the firearm, which is a big plus for maintaining consistent sight picture and good shooting ergonomics. I find that it would make an equally useful secondary optic for close-quarters combat and target acquisition when paired with a longer optic. Due to it's incredibly low weight, high build quality and unobtrusive size, it could easily be added to any AR build without changing the balance or weight significantly at all. I think this would be a great accessory on a short-barreled, tactical-style, home defense shotgun allowing the shooter to keep both eyes open, maintaining peripheral vision and it would provide for rapid target acquisition in this scenario as well. All-in-all, the great versatility is just one more feather in the cap of this already great optic.
I recently purchased a Burris FastFire III for my Ruger 22/45 pistol. I was keeping a sort of diary of the process on another forum (RugerForum.net) and decided that I would compile the information into one post and share it with you all here. This is definitely lengthy but lines up all of my thoughts and includes a handful of images for you to see my particular application.
Enjoy and feel free to shoot me any questions or comments.
First Impressions - 10/6/12
I received the FastFire III yesterday. Unfortunately, I can't mount it to the gun because the idiots I purchased the Ruger Dovetail Mount from shipped it UPS Innovations (which is probably the least innovative shipping method ever created in the history of logistics). It will be here next week sometime. Grrr.
BUT! I did pull the FFIII out of the packaging to check for function and to give it a once over and my initial impressions were as follows:
1. This thing is SMALL! (That's what she said.)
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.
I'll get to the range next weekend for sure, get it sighted in and run it through its paces. I'm very excited to use it and will update this thread as soon as I have a chance to take it out and shoot with it.
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Initial Images - 10/8/12
Since there's been some interest in this thread so far, I thought I would throw up some images of the optic before I put it on the pistol for anyone interested in seeing it in a little more detail with its various components.
Front:
This is a decent view of the lens coatings, which are said to be superb.
Rear:
Here you can see the Power Button on the left-hand side, as well as the adjustment markings, which are new to the FFIII. You can also see the top-mounted battery cover.
Cover:
This shows the optic with the cover attached. Note: It took a little pit of panicked shaking and smacking to get the optic out of the cover without it being attached to anything. Don't put the optic in the cover without it fastened to a firearm.
Cover - Viewing Angle:
This shows the optic with the cover attached. The cover is see-through which allows you to use the optic while it's protected.
Optic/Cover Comparison:
This shows you just how large the cover is. Notice that it is roughly double the size of the naked optic. Again, in a tactical situation, this might be ideal as the optic would be both protected and still usable under the cover. But for a target application where the gun will be used in more controlled environments, this cover is definitely overkill. I would have much preferred something significantly smaller.
Picatinny Mount:
This shows the optic with the provided picatinny - or Weaver - Mount attached to it. It's still extremely compact even with this baseplate and screw attached. I'm not using this setup because I wanted the dovetail mount for a tighter, more compact total package, but my unit came with the picatinny baseplate at no additional charge. Note: The picatinny mount doesn't come included unless specified. You can buy the FFIII in several configurations including the mounting base for your particular firearm. Be sure and check which one you are getting. The various mounts are listed on the Burris website and you can purchase whichever one you need to meet your specific needs.
I'll update tomorrow evening (hopefully) with the optic attached to my 22/45. Stay tuned...
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Mounting - 10/9/12
I received the mounting plate today at work and put it on the pistol during my lunch break (it sure is nice to work at a place where I can go into a conference room and mount a scope or an optic or swap out a stock during lunch). I'll post pictures of it tonight when I get home and have a chance to take some.
First impressions on the gun are superb, though. It's small, lightweight and tough. The mounting was a little tedious as the curvature of the Ruger receiver doesn't allow for a perfectly even surface to make sure the dot is mounted squarely, but I did eyeball it and it's good enough for me. The mounting setup on this thing is rock solid. The instructions didn't completely apply to my particular mount as they were generic and applied to other mounts so I had to sort through the information to get what I needed. A quick Google search led me to an old archived thread on another forum where I got some good information as well. Once locked down, though, this thing fit rather nicely.
I'm considering removing the front sight from my gun at this point as it sticks up pretty high. I'll take it to the range this weekend and see if the dot and the front site blade correspond. If they don't, I'm removing the front sight and I'll just put a blank in to fill the hole.
Stay tuned for photos of the mounted setup soon...
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Mounted Photos - 10/10/12
Finally got some photos of the FastFire III on my 22/45 Hunter (5.5" Barrel). It really does fit well and doesn't change the balance of the gun a bit. The 5.5" barrel really helps to even everything out on the front end. I've got a plain black sight coming from Ruger to replace that HiViz sight as I find the extra red dot a bit distracting. It shows in the viewing window just a little bit and when shooting both eyes open, I get a weird ghost image because one eye is seeing the fiber optics while the other is seeing the red dot. Weird. I figure a lower profile black front sight will serve the purpose of filling the hole (couldn't get a screw blank for the front sight) while staying out of the way enough to keep me from getting distracted.
Hitting the farm this weekend to sight it in and see how it shoots (hopefully).
Here are the images:
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Final Thoughts - 10/14/12
Okay people... I had a chance to get the FastFire out yesterday and again today (briefly both days). 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.
Yesterday evening, I got the lower front sight from Ruger and put it on. I hit the range this afternoon for 100 rounds or so and it was MUCH better. I didn't get the double vision problems that I was having and this sight blade is significantly lower. When I spoke to Ruger on the phone, the woman was insistent that the front sight 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 again today 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 today and I had no trouble finding and keeping my sight picture with the dot. However, yesterday's outing was perfectly sunny with a deep blue sky and no humidity and I found the dot just a little bit hard to see, even when setting it at the highest brightness setting 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 about 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 pu 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. chase. 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.
In closing, I wholeheartedly recommend the Burris FastFire system as a standalone optic for your target pistol, or as a lightweight alternative to an optic on a lightweight rifle. It is small enough to not command a large amount of real estate on your receiver or slide and seated above your grip frame, it won't change the balance of the firearm, which is a big plus for maintaining consistent sight picture and good shooting ergonomics. I find that it would make an equally useful secondary optic for close-quarters combat and target acquisition when paired with a longer optic. Due to it's incredibly low weight, high build quality and unobtrusive size, it could easily be added to any AR build without changing the balance or weight significantly at all. I think this would be a great accessory on a short-barreled, tactical-style, home defense shotgun allowing the shooter to keep both eyes open, maintaining peripheral vision and it would provide for rapid target acquisition in this scenario as well. All-in-all, the great versatility is just one more feather in the cap of this already great optic.
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