Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Fast fire three problems

Has anybody experienced any problems with their FF-3's or am I the only one? I love it since losing the vision in my right shooting eye it has really helped me get on birds better than my scoped or open sight Turkey guns. It started acting up this last week. My Granddaughters husband shot a tom and when the shot went off the FF went blank. No red dot. Started it up again and it seem fine but it was hard to change the dot sizes. Had to push it in 3 or 4 times to get a different dot. Another problem is to activate it, it has to be pushed in 2 or three times to bring a dot up. Putting a new battery in it but I never activate it until I have a bird working. Called Burris and they said to send it in which I will do as soon as the season is over. Daughter wants one on her 11-87 but I'm a little gunshy at this point.

Turn it on and leave it on. I would not mess with it at this point. If the battery is fairly new, it will last 10,000 hours according to the pamphlet that came with the one I bought for my son. You can verify by going to the Burris site. With that kind of longevity, a 60 day season is under 1500 hours.

The last thing you want to do is dick with the button when you are working a bird.

Burris will probably just mail you another one. One thing for sure, I would not swap one out and expect the dot to remain zeroed. You will have to sight in again.

I love my FF II. Had it for many years on my Benelli SBE, and bought a FF III for my son's SBE. Lifetime warranty too.

Mine has started having to be pushed several times to come on. I have not had it go blank but after season is over, off it is going.

Wondering how old the units are that you guys have? I realize that the FF III has only been out a few years.

I got mine just before the season last year so I assume it was pretty new. It does bother me having to push it several times to get it started and to change dots. Burris said to change batteries anyway and it would not effect thee point od impact of the shot.

The battery change will be fine, I meant swap out the entire FF III

I bought a new battery for mine but have not put it in yet. My FFIII is about 2 or 3 years old. I got it about 6 months or so after they first came out but never took it out of the box until just a few months ago.
I have FF's on all my turkey guns so I am just hunting with another one right now.

Well, that's it. Sucker went out on me again. Couldn't get it to start up yesterday and it cost me a good bird. Started up first thing in the morning so I thought everything was alright. Even put a new battery in it. Have no faith in it.

Sorry to hear that, mine cost me a year ago in TX.
As a side note, they do have good customer service.

Sell it to me if you are tired of dealing with it. I'd be happy to take it off your hands. You do know that the first setting when you push the button is "self adjusting" and will get brighter or dimmer based on the amount of ambient light? Sometime mine can get pretty dim when it's low light so I just push the button again and set it on the "bright" setting.

Just a thought.

Lee

Hey Lee, I know about the setting and adjust them accordingly to the conditions. It worked great last year and I was happy with it but its now going back to Burris. Really like it when its working correct but it did cost me a good bird yesterday which sucks as our birds are really shutting down big time.

Mine did the exact same thing prior to the season while sighting in and patterning. First issue was insufficient elevation adjustment after having the gun drilled for the Marlin 336 base. Was mounted on a 20 ga Rem 870. Then it started shutting off when fired. At first it would come back on then do the same. I did all of the usual troubleshooting, including cleaning the battery connection, new battery, etc. Came back on one last time and shut off again for good.

Sent it back to Burris a few weeks ago. Gave it a few days and called them to check on the status. It is being replaced with a new unit as soon as they get more in stock. Great service, but my confidence it shot. I hate it because I built this particular rig to use with that setup as a back up gun for myself and something new hunters could easily shoot. I still think the concept is great but I invest too much time, energy and money into chasing turkeys to take another chance.

I know what you mean. I have lost confidence in it but I love it when its working right. I lost the vision in my right eye so it really helps me get on a Tom with my left eye. I took a scope of my shotgun to try this. We do a lot of hunting in heavy wooded areas so it is perfect for that. Sending it in and hopefully it will be replaced with a working one. Customer service isn't worth a hoot if a ten plus comes in and no dot comes on.

Not to sound like a smart ass, but what's wrong with the front bead on your shotgun?

I've toyed with getting a FF several times and keep coming back to the fact that I can see fine at 40 yards and under to pop the bird with the bead. And, I have horrible eyesight.

But the reasons you're listing is what's keeping me from going to this type of sight. I'm not having issues with eyesight.

No offence taken. I have two shotguns for Turkey's that use regular bead sights. Two problems. Besides bad eye sight I now have to shoot left handed due to loss of vision in my right eye a couple of years ago. With the FF as long as I can get the bead on it especially in some of the heavy timbered areas we hunt I have a chance at him. This is especially important to me if a Tom comes in and I have to take him from an awkward position. Just getting the bead on him even if it is not centered in the lens allows me to get the shot. Having to shoot left handed after 60 some odd years right handed has to say the least somewhat of a challenge. Just remembering to mount the rifle or shotgun to the left shoulder has been my downfall a couple of times on Deer and Turkeys. To each his own but I do like the concept and the advantage I see in it.

Just an update. Got a brand new unit in the shrink wrapped plastic from Burris yesterday. So if it's any consolidation, I think they'll take care of you.

Another update, Burris has had it for two weeks and it looks like another 4 to 6 weeks before anything happens. Good thing I had back-up guns so I wouldn't have to pull the rail from my 930 and use bead sights.

Is there another sight you'd be interested in?

I have a scope for it but I think I will just use my Beretta turkey gun with bead sights.

Burris told me the same thing and the new one showed up on my doorstep in a few days. Hopefully you won't have to wait that long.

A buddy has a new one that wouldn't hold POI. It was all over the place. Back to Burris it goes.