Got a Burris Fastfire II in the mail last night and mounted it on my 1894 .45 Colt, a limited edition with a 16" barrel. Hope to get out and shoot this weekend to see how the sight does but thought I would give my first impressions.
Got this for a few reasons:
1. Even a scope as light as a Leupold M8 2.5 messes up the handling. Plus, you can't grasp the rifle around the receiver.
2. With a scope you have to mount your head too high. I wanted to get a lower cheek weld.
3. My eyes just can't use a peep sight anymore, even with a firesight front. I wear progressive lenses and to see the front sight I have to hold my head up and look out the bottom of the lens.
It looks like this Fastfire has solved all three problems.
The dot is right about where the bottom edge of a scope tube is. You can't hold your head quite as low as with a peep, but almost as low. It feels pretty good and is definitely a lot lower cheek weld than with the scope. Plus, I can crawl the stock and keep everything sharp. You can actually hold your head even lower, right where you would with a peep and the dot is still visible in the lower part of the view. I really, really like the "eyebox" of this sight.
The Burris mount is made to fit in the rear holes of a 336. If you do that with an 1894 the rear edge of the sight hangs off the back. Actually that is a very viable option as it only hangs about 1/4" and, while it gets in the way of cocking the hammer, you can still do it. Some folks might prefer this. I mounted it in the front two holes and it works just as well for sighting through, plus I can now grasp the rifle around the receiver at the balance point. It gets in the way just a little, but is worlds beyond how you have to grasp the rifle with a scope mounted.
I can see the 4 MOA dot and targets just fine without my eyeglasses on at all. Was discreetly aiming out the front door last night at stop signs and such. Obviously this doesnt have the target definition of a scope but then neither does a peep.
The whole sight is only 2 ounces. What a difference in handling! That little short rifle just feels alive in the hands now. You wouldn't think removing a mere 11 ounces of scope and mount would make that much difference, but it does.
This is my first experience with any red dot sight so this may be old news to a lot of you, but target acquisition is FAST! With 1X magnification you just throw that baby up and that little dot is sitting right where you want it.
Getting long winded so will try to wrap this up.
I really like this sight. My traditional minded brain is still trying to wrap itself around this high tech little gizmo sitting where a scope or peep sight should sit, but it does exactly what I wanted it to do and that's the bottom line.
For you guys that can't shoot a gnat's butt with peep sights like you used to I think this is worth a look. Gonna let it sit and percolate in my mind for awhile but I can definitely see one on my Ruger MK II 5 1/2" pistol.
