Burris Fastfire III Personal Experiences

Would like to know your personal experiences with Burris Fastfire III. Pros & Cons.

Good value.

I've got a couple and have had zero issues in pretty hard use at weekly club matches. Very popular with a lot of shooters at our club matches. 

I also had a FFII that went flakey. Burris replaced it quickly in accordance with their lifetime warranty.

Smiles,

I have used them but moved to using regular tube type scopes. I liked how light they were and overall was ok with them but had a hard time keeping the mount secure on my range officer. The single set screw hold would always decide to give it up right in the middle of a big match. The one on my conversion was a more standard mount and worked great but when I switched one, I switched both. I sold one and am holding on to the other in case I ever convince my wife to take up the sport.

How is the dot intensity outside on automatic setting, and only two manual settings?

I recall it having three settings plus automatic. I seem also to recall always using mine on automatic but it has been a couple years.

BTW as far as Burris, I did have to send one unit in and they replaced it with no issue. I don't recall what the issue was anymore.

Burris = nice narrow sight, easy secure to the docter style plate, they have one for 1911 that looks flimsy as hell but it has been super sturdy when on the gun and looks great. No need to get the EGW which is not as smooth looking. Typical reflex sight, have to be very conditioned to find dot fast. Dot is pretty bright indoors on auto setting. No idea outdoors, I tested on someone elses gun.

Vortex Venom = exactly same. Bigger window, but that wider window may stick out past sides of the gun. Manul brightness. Higher price. Else everything is same.

Performance: same
Features: Venom > Burris
Concealability: Burris > Venom
Price: Venom > Burris

Compared to micro and tube sights:
Less visual obstruction, but then less visual isolation of the black as well. Lighter, easier to hold, normal slide cycling. Harder to find the dot and requires good conditioning to be able to find it consistently (not a bad thing). Definitely easier to clean the gun. Defiitely harder to keep the "window" clean, especially if you like your gun well lubed.

My FF3 on the RO 9mm 5" has performed really well.  The only complaint I have is when I turn it off the dot is so dim that I need a dark space to ensure it is indeed off.  It's perfect for 25y but marginal at 50y due to the 3 MOA dot.  Since I don't shoot competitively it's more of an annoyance than a funtional issue.

I have a number of FFIII’s on my various pistols along with one Venom, all 3 moa and in EGW mounts. I have had no problems with any of them. They are light enough not to effect the functioning of the pistols they are mounted on. I would say the FF and Venom are equal in performance.

Tripscape wrote:...Harder to find the dot and requires good conditioning to be able to find it consistently (not a bad thing)...

Holosun has a pistol optic with a reticle that helps a user to find their "lost" reticle, it's called the Holosun HS507C-XC pistol red dot sight w/ACSS Vulcan reticle.

This reticle is unique in that it's a chevron, with an addition larger red ring that remains out of view when the chevron is centered in the sight window. Portions of this outer ring only become visible when the chevron is out of view, opposite the location of the chevron reticle, giving an indication of where the reticle is when it's out of the sight window.

Below is a representation of the chevron reticle and the size and location of the larger outer ring in relation to the size of the sight window:


And here's a decent video explaining it:

Currently I have three Burris Fast Fire III sights.  Two have been back to Burris for warranty service.  The first to go back was replaced with a new unit and service was prompt.  The second took weeks as Burris tried to "diagnose" the problem via email.  Finally they agreed to look at the sight.  Both times I paid the shipping to return the sights, and they paid to ship to me.