Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Thoughts on a Red Dot for my Ruger

I have a Ruger Mark II with fixed sights. That, combined with some aging eyes, is telling me it's time for a red dot reflex sight. I'd appreciate some insight on two issues:

First, I'm leaning towards a Burris FastFire 3. Any experience, yay or nay, with the FastFire?

Secondly, it appears there are two options for mounts. One will require having my 'smith drill and tap three holes for the base. I know that will give a solid hold on the sight. The second option merely requires drifting the current rear sight out of its dovetail, inserting the new mount into that dovetail, then tightening some tension screws against the top of the receiver. Supposedly, this gives a very solid base, but I don't know. Any experience with this set-up?

I have a Ruger MK2 set up this way for several years. It works great, holds its zero and is very accurate. My only complaint is that the lens on the FastFire gets some blow back on it after a while. Easily cleaned off.

If you're talking about the Burris mount, that's the option I've used to mount Burris FF 3's on five Ruger Mark II, III and IV .22 pistols. It works very well and I prefer it over a rail or standard scope mount since it's cleaner and the sight sits a bit lower - and you don't have to drill and tap anything.

As to the sight itself, there might be tougher models or some with more features but for a .22 pistol Burris is as good as any. At least they've never given me a reason to want something else. The pistol doesn't put a lot of stress on the sight or the mount so they've never come loose, although I always put some blue Loctite on the mounting screws for any red dot sight on any handgun as standard procedure.


You'll really like that combo, the red dot sight makes a huge difference.

My only experience with a dot sight is the Burris Fastfire on a 460 S&W…….no issues and very happy with it so far. It should do quite well on the Ruger! memtb

SS336, that's the look i want for my Ruger. What mount did you use to hold the sight, and did you need to remove the front sight for a clearer picture?

Jim, yes, the Burris no-drill mount is what I was referring to. It's great to hear that that mount has not given you any trouble. That's probably the direction to which I'm leaning.

Just a quick tip, when you tighten the two mounting screws turn them a bit at time and alternate back and forth while keeping the sight centered and straight up and down. It's not a big deal but if you crank one down completely before the other it could cause the sight to cant just a bit.

Also, no need to remove the front sight unless you want to, the dot will appear well above it.

Yes Burris mount. Very easy to install and low on the pistol. The front sight will not interfere with the sight picture as Jim said. I just like it better without it. Got an Allen set screw to fill the hole.
The FastFire red dot has been absolutely trouble free and I have one on a S&W .44 magnum too.

I'd say those are a couple of testaments to the apparent hardiness of the FastFire. Very interesting.

In the interests of honesty I have had a Burris Fastfire 3 break. The small prism in front of the emitter flew off one day, it was mounted on a S&W M&P 2.0 9mm. Burris stood behind it, I sent it back and they gave me a brand new one post haste.

That's the only problem with one in some 14 or more years of using them on several centerfire rifles and handguns. Still like them a lot since I have 10 of them; part of that is because Burris in their kindness makes mounts to fit all kinds of firearms, including Ruger proprietary scope bases.


Fwiw, even after the focusing prism came off, the sight was still useful for self defense. The dot was just as visible on the lens although it was more of a 10 MOA blob. Since I was already at the range I kept shooting and it provided a plenty good enough aiming point to keep making good hits out to 15 or 20 yards.

I have Holosun 507K and 2, 507c's one red ad one green they have perform flawlessly