Gobbler Nation

I have a FF II that just finished its third season on the original battery. I also have a FF III that just finished its second season. Both were exhibiting strange behavior that did not seem to be battery related. I assumed that a battery going bad would present as a dim dot.

The dot in the FF II would sometimes not appear when switched on. I could tap the sight sharply and the light would come on fully bright and work fine. I assumed the switch was going bad.

The FF III dot would come on, but would occasionally blink off and then back on. It usually happened if I touched the sight or even touched the trigger on the gun. I was getting ready to box them both up and send back to Burris, but decided to pull the old batteries, check the voltage, and replace.

Both batteries showed 2.8 volts on my voltmeter (nominal 3 volt batteries). I replaced them both and both sights now function normally. Moral of the story, if your FF is doing anything weird, change the battery and see if that corrects the problem before sending it back to Burris, duh.

Good advise. I carry an extra battery in my vest for my FF111.

The original battery in my FF III was going on 2 years when I noticed the dot would flicker or go out suddenly. It was the battery door being loose and not making consistent contact. I decided to replace the battery. The new battery only lasted half a season ! It is a no name brand I bought just to throw in my pocket as a back up. I put a new name brand in and will see if it will last longer like the original.

Yep, my buddy Brent down in AL, told me a story about his batts getting low.
He said, when they start getting low, the dot starts blinking on and off.
He was working a turkey one morn, when it started doing that, so he turned it off until he was ready to shoot.
When the moment of truth finally came, the dang thing didn't come on at all,...lol!
He was a little miffed to say the least.

It's probably a good practice to replace the battery each year regardless of mfg's claim of life. I had an Aimpoint on my SBE from 1998 until I traded it away this past fall. Back then, the battery life was measured in hundreds of hours not tens of thousands. Whether it needed to be replaced or not, I did so at the beginning of each season. I recall reading where Gadget's early edition Docters, similiar to the FFI, seemed to work best (light levels) with a drained battery. Apparently the circuitry was such that it continued working but the dot only grew dimmer. He preferred run down batteries to fresh ones. Apparently that's not the case with the Burris series. Good thing about the FFIII compared with the earlier versions is that the battery can be removed and replaced without taking the system off mount.
Spur, I'd ask Burris for a clarification about your issue. It might not supposed to be that way.

The new fastfire 3 is suppose to have a low battery indicator.

d.winsor wrote:The new fastfire 3 is suppose to have a low battery indicator.

Isn't that the "blinking"?

Mine didn't blink as far as I know unless you have to keep staring at it to catch it L.O.L. It just stopped ! That's why I carry a small screw driver and battery in my vest like Gobbler just in case ! If I look at it and its out just open the door and pop in a new battery. Ah the joys of technology and getting old. I also would change it every year but the last one didn't make it to the end of the season so that didn't work !

Mine did the want always come on thing in TX this year with a new battery but Ronny saved my butt by letting me borrow one of his guns and Burris made it right with a new sight.

I didn't think it was a big deal, but I guess I'm gonna have to teach all of you to learn how to sight down the side of the barrel!
If I can hit a dang 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with a rifle at a hundred, I know dang well you guys can hit a turkey at 40 with a 20" pattern!!!

You are gonna eat those words when your eyes go.

Johndoe wrote:You are gonna eat those words when your eyes go.

That's what Wes keeps tellin me!!!

Yall must keep your fastfires on a lot more than me

gaswamp wrote:Yall must keep your fastfires on a lot more than me

On when I leave the house in the morning and off when I return. Never had to replace a battery for failure but still do it before each season.

GLS wrote:

d.winsor wrote:The new fastfire 3 is suppose to have a low battery indicator.

Isn't that the "blinking"?

My FF III is exactly two years old. No mention in the supplied literature about a low battery indicator.

Shooter wrote:I didn't think it was a big deal, but I guess I'm gonna have to teach all of you to learn how to sight down the side of the barrel!
If I can hit a dang 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with a rifle at a hundred, I know dang well you guys can hit a turkey at 40 with a 20" pattern!!!

Was going to do the sight down the side of the barrel thing, but the birds did not want to stay around long enough for that to happen....

Shooter wrote:I didn't think it was a big deal, but I guess I'm gonna have to teach all of you to learn how to sight down the side of the barrel!
If I can hit a dang 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with a rifle at a hundred, I know dang well you guys can hit a turkey at 40 with a 20" pattern!!!

Tommy, we used to do tie breakers in IHMSA competition by shooting from Creedmore position at a metal chicken at 200 meters with 10" TC's and adjustable sights. A favored round was 7 mm TCU, a wildcat load of a 7mm 162 grain BT Sierra out of 5.56mm brass necked up. These were considered production guns and were tack drivers capable of 5 round sub half inch groups shot off sand bags with a 6x ER scope at 100 yards. (Not by me, but by a buddy. My groups were a little worse.) This was 30 years ago when the eyeballs were much better. Don't think the old eyeballs could do it any more, hence the red dots on all my turkey guns. The red dot doesn't come with a "no miss" guarantee, however. Gil

My FFIII arrived this morning. I can't wait for its first battery failure. I need a new excuse.

I think/guess mine is II? I put it on in 2010, I forget to turn it off a good bit, esp them first couple years, 4-7 states a year and it is still going strong I keep expecting it to not work, but like has been said I can use that excuse...

the fastfireII I got with on my Remington had a battery that was used for three seasons. I replaced it before I went to Ky this year

I only turn on to check it before going hunting and then only turn it on if I am on a gobbler.

The fastfire 3 has a low battery indicator which is, The dot blinks twice every 5 seconds, it is suppose to mean you have approximately 4 hours of battery life left.

For me, the blinking meant that I had less than 1 minute left. I turned it off to be on the safe side and it wouldn't come back on at all