flightsimmer
Member
A Weaver, Micro-red dot reflex sight reveiw.
I've been looking for a small red dot sight that I could mount on my Ruger 22/45 Lite.
I've seen several brands including the Burris Fast fire 3 and a JPoint that I found interesting but they are over $200.00. So when I came across the Weaver brand I took a closer look because of the name recognition.
Now I don't know and didn't bother to research to see if it is actually made (by) or made (for) Weaver. So for $70 on Amazon to $80 at Optics planet both with free shipping, I took a chance and ordered one. That was on the 22nd.of August.
It finally arrived on the 3rd. of September, some kind of shipping snafu they said plus it went from Chicago to Ohio and back to Indy but it did arrive safely. Chicago to Indy is only about 200 miles.
OK, so let's get it mounted up, and that part went very well. I mounted the Picatinney rail that came with my Ruger and then mounted the sight, it was just that simple and easy.
I have a laser bore sighting tool that I used to get the Weaver sight lined up and on paper with and that went quick and easy.
So next day I was off to the range where I work part-time. My first shot was 1/4" left and about 1/4" down from the B-2 bullseye at 7 yards, so I moved it on out to 25 yards and fired 4 more shots. WOW! I'm done already and it only took 5 shots and less than 5 minutes.
So I set up a new target to fire 10 more shots for my record keeping which was just the beginning of my problems. Those 10 ten shots were not what I'm used to seeing from this Ruger Lite which is 1" groups or less at 25 yards with iron sights. So I tried a different ammo that is used for suppressed rifles/pistols and is subsonic.
What the heck, they all shot to the right by about 2". What is going on here, I knew it couldn't be the ammo so I rechecked the sight for looseness, that's when I discovered that the two allen head screws holding the sight to the Weaver mount were loose and I hadn't brought the supplied allen wrench with me so that ended my session for the day.
That evening I tried to tighten the mount with the allen wrench that came with it but the wrench didn't want to fit the screws so I used one of my own metric wrenches and the screws were in fact loose. It turns out that there were burrs on the end of the supplied wrench that kept it from going in so I stoned them off enough to get it to fit.
By the way, to change the 2032 lithium button battery (you get a spare with it) you have to remove the two allen screws that hold the sight to the mount base and it's under the sight. I know, it's a bummer and I have know idea how much it might effect accuracy.
The supplied screw driver caused me some problems because as I found out the hard way the shaft was turning in the handle and was not locking down the adjustments that I had just made but I fixed that.
I also checked the other mounting fasteners and they were all OK.
The Weaver mount has a fast mount/dismount thumb nut which can be unscrewed without fear of loosing it because it will not come all the way off.
So I rechecked the sight alignment with my laser bore tool and it was now off quite a bit so I realigned it and headed back to the range.
I fired 5 shots and they were close but not good enough so I loosened the two locking screws at the back and tried to readjust it, that's when I discovered that there is quite a bit of slop in the adjustment screws and you cannot just turn them a little, you have to turn them untill you feel resistance before it actually moves the adjustment and then retighten the locking screws. It's not a click adjustment like most scopes.
Well I did get it adjusted to suit me, it's dead on at 50 feet, a tad low at 7 yards and a tad high at 25 yards. That's because the bullet is still rising and with the exception of two flyers (aren't there always?) they pretty well matched what I know the pistol is capable of.
The red dot is adjustable with 5 settings, the brightest is very bright and the lowest is very small, about, I'm guessing 3 MOA. You change them by pressing the button on the front untill you get what you want then if you want to turn it off, just hold it in for about 2 seconds and it goes off. Now when you turn it back on, it will be on the last setting you had when you turned it off.
There is also a plastic hood that covers it when not in use but the rest of the sight is made of metal, aluminum I think with a steel base for mounting. You lift the front of the hood with your finger tip and it pops right off.
I would have taken pictures but that takes more time.
Am I sorry I bought it? No, it does seem to do a good job once it is adjusted but..............
I'm still looking at the Burris Fast Fire 3.
I hope this has been of help to you.
I've been looking for a small red dot sight that I could mount on my Ruger 22/45 Lite.
I've seen several brands including the Burris Fast fire 3 and a JPoint that I found interesting but they are over $200.00. So when I came across the Weaver brand I took a closer look because of the name recognition.
Now I don't know and didn't bother to research to see if it is actually made (by) or made (for) Weaver. So for $70 on Amazon to $80 at Optics planet both with free shipping, I took a chance and ordered one. That was on the 22nd.of August.
It finally arrived on the 3rd. of September, some kind of shipping snafu they said plus it went from Chicago to Ohio and back to Indy but it did arrive safely. Chicago to Indy is only about 200 miles.
OK, so let's get it mounted up, and that part went very well. I mounted the Picatinney rail that came with my Ruger and then mounted the sight, it was just that simple and easy.
I have a laser bore sighting tool that I used to get the Weaver sight lined up and on paper with and that went quick and easy.
So next day I was off to the range where I work part-time. My first shot was 1/4" left and about 1/4" down from the B-2 bullseye at 7 yards, so I moved it on out to 25 yards and fired 4 more shots. WOW! I'm done already and it only took 5 shots and less than 5 minutes.
So I set up a new target to fire 10 more shots for my record keeping which was just the beginning of my problems. Those 10 ten shots were not what I'm used to seeing from this Ruger Lite which is 1" groups or less at 25 yards with iron sights. So I tried a different ammo that is used for suppressed rifles/pistols and is subsonic.
What the heck, they all shot to the right by about 2". What is going on here, I knew it couldn't be the ammo so I rechecked the sight for looseness, that's when I discovered that the two allen head screws holding the sight to the Weaver mount were loose and I hadn't brought the supplied allen wrench with me so that ended my session for the day.
That evening I tried to tighten the mount with the allen wrench that came with it but the wrench didn't want to fit the screws so I used one of my own metric wrenches and the screws were in fact loose. It turns out that there were burrs on the end of the supplied wrench that kept it from going in so I stoned them off enough to get it to fit.
By the way, to change the 2032 lithium button battery (you get a spare with it) you have to remove the two allen screws that hold the sight to the mount base and it's under the sight. I know, it's a bummer and I have know idea how much it might effect accuracy.
The supplied screw driver caused me some problems because as I found out the hard way the shaft was turning in the handle and was not locking down the adjustments that I had just made but I fixed that.
I also checked the other mounting fasteners and they were all OK.
The Weaver mount has a fast mount/dismount thumb nut which can be unscrewed without fear of loosing it because it will not come all the way off.
So I rechecked the sight alignment with my laser bore tool and it was now off quite a bit so I realigned it and headed back to the range.
I fired 5 shots and they were close but not good enough so I loosened the two locking screws at the back and tried to readjust it, that's when I discovered that there is quite a bit of slop in the adjustment screws and you cannot just turn them a little, you have to turn them untill you feel resistance before it actually moves the adjustment and then retighten the locking screws. It's not a click adjustment like most scopes.
Well I did get it adjusted to suit me, it's dead on at 50 feet, a tad low at 7 yards and a tad high at 25 yards. That's because the bullet is still rising and with the exception of two flyers (aren't there always?) they pretty well matched what I know the pistol is capable of.
The red dot is adjustable with 5 settings, the brightest is very bright and the lowest is very small, about, I'm guessing 3 MOA. You change them by pressing the button on the front untill you get what you want then if you want to turn it off, just hold it in for about 2 seconds and it goes off. Now when you turn it back on, it will be on the last setting you had when you turned it off.
There is also a plastic hood that covers it when not in use but the rest of the sight is made of metal, aluminum I think with a steel base for mounting. You lift the front of the hood with your finger tip and it pops right off.
I would have taken pictures but that takes more time.
Am I sorry I bought it? No, it does seem to do a good job once it is adjusted but..............
I'm still looking at the Burris Fast Fire 3.
I hope this has been of help to you.