Glock 19 MOS with Burris Fastfire 3 Review

    Glock 19 MOS with Burris Fastfire 3 Review

    I have been shooting Glocks for a long time. My first Glock was a Generation 2 G22 in .40 that was my father's duty pistol when he made the switch from revolver to semi auto. The gun was made in about 1993 if I remember correctly and now has about 15,000 rounds through it and is still going strong. That said, I am not a pro shooter. Though I have shot pistols at different points most of my life I have just now really decided to dedicate more time to pistol shooting.

   I have had many different Glock models through out the years including the 22, 27, 26, 17, 31, 21 and the 19. Some I have kept and some I have traded for other things throughout the years.

My original Glock 22 will be a gun that I keep forever though.

   Recently with Glock making pistols designed for the Modular Optic System (MOS) I have been dying to try these out. The gun I planned to try out in the MOS was the Glock 34 MOS. I have searched for months now but have yet to be able to find one in my area which is a real bummer.

What I did happen upon one day while at the gun shop was a Generation 4 Glock 19 MOS. I decided that I had to have it and so I bought it that day. While at the gun shop I decided to pick up the Burris Fastfire 3 as my test sight.

   Never having had a Red Dot on a pistol before I could not justify paying twice as much for a Trijicon RMR, although I am sure they are worth every penny.

   The Burris Fastfire 3 is a 3moa sight and comes with a no questions asked "Forever Warranty" so if anything ever happens they will fix or repair it free of charge.

Here is the Glock 19 MOS and Burris Fastfire 3 together.



Here is the Gen 4 G19 MOS with my Standard Gen 4 G19.

For comparison I will include a few photos of the Gen 4 19 MOS along side the Standard Gen 4 19

After taking a few family photos of the two Gen 4 Glocks together I mounted the Burris Fastfire3 using plate number one that came with the Glock. Everything mounted nicely and fit well. It was a very easy install.

Now for some range time.

   My first trip to the range with the MOS system was actually not bad. I was shooting at 15 feet which is not far but I wanted to get used to this pistol and sight. Also, I am used to having a slightly lighter trigger on my pistols so the stock trigger was something to get used too also.

Here is my first actual grouping with the pistol. It is a 5 shot group. I felt that last shot pull low as soon as it fired.

Here is another 5 shot group I shot. My shots kept tending to print to the left of point of aim but for grouping purposing this was okay. For this day I was just getting used to the pistol and sight.  

   I found that I could keep a good group but sometimes they would shoot to the left of the point of aim and some times I would shoot them low as seen in this next 5 shot group which all hit lower than the red diamond I was aiming at. Some of this can be attributed to movement as I am aiming and some of this can be attributed to me not placing the red dot in the same place in the sight when I am shooting.

(note: The 5 shot group does not include the far left hole. That was from another string)

Here is a 10 Shot group that I shot just for fun.

(Again with me pulling the final shot in the string)

Over all I was pleased with my first outing with the Glock 19 MOS with Burris Fastfire 3. It grouped well for me when taking slower shots for grouping purposes.

Extended Use And Final Thoughts

Over the past couple of months I have shot this pistol/sight combo a bunch putting well over 1,000 rounds through it. While over all I have enjoyed the combo, I have found a couple of things that I don't like in addition to the things that I do like.

Things I don't like;

1: I am still trying to adjust to the red dot sight. It is good for quick acquisition of your intended target although sometimes when I am rushing to shoot I have a hard time finding the dot in the sight. I am sure this is just shooter error as I am starting to get better and putting it up and quickly finding the dot. Not as quickly as I would like though. Sometimes I have to move the pistol around in order to find the dot. More time on the range will hopefully help me to get better at this.

 2: Sometimes when I hit the button on the Fastfire three the dot does not come on right away. I find myself having to push the button two or three times in order for the dot to actually come on. It has one button controls that turn on, bighting/dim the dot and also turn off the dot. It is not a real problem but a more positive button of some sort would be a nice feature. (Edit; The first pressing of the button puts the sight in Auto which automatically adjusts the brightness level. I thought that it was just not coming on but I now think that it was, just not as bright at the moment.) 

3: This sight takes a real beating from brass being ejected. I have shot some slow motion video of the gun being fired and many times the brass is ejected straight back into the sight.

You can see in the following photo that the brass ejected straight into the sight. It is a little more exaggerated in this photo due to the one handed/ off hand grip. It does it even with a good firm grip also.  

(Please excuse the grip in this particular shot. Was trying to shoot left handed so I could film it in slow motion)

The sight appears to take the brass hitting it well. There are some slight dings in the glass but overall it does not effect the sight picture. The frame of the sight has some nicks in the metal where the paint has been chipped off due to the brass hitting the frame.

Here you can see the places on the frame of the sight window where the brass has been hitting.      This was after about 1,000 rounds.

The things I do like;

1: Price. At around half the price of the Trijicon RMR sight I found it to be perfect for someone who is wanting to try out a red dot pistol on their semi auto pistol.

2: It was easy to sight in. It has very easy adjustments that can be turned with a dime, knife tip or some other type of small flat tool that you may have.

3: It can obviously take a beating from the brass hitting it. The rim has some slight nicks but the glass is surprisingly well off. It has some very slight scratches or nicks in the glass but overall it appears to be a hard glass and takes the hits well.

4: The battery is located on top of the sight (unlike some) which makes it easy to change and you don't have to take the sight off to change it.

5: The sight has held its original zero through over 1,000 rounds.

6: Warranty. Burris offers a "Forever" warranty with no questions asked. That seems hard to beat.

   All in all I think this combo is a great pair. The MOS system offered by Glock is great. The cover plate looks allows you to not run a red dot if you don't want. If you mill out your slide on a non MOS gun you may not have that cover plate. That and the fact that you get four plates designed to accommodate the different popular red dots out there make it well worth the extra money in my opinion.

I am still planning on getting the 34 MOS pistol when I find one. Until then, I will continue to shoot the heck out of this 19 MOS.

Thank you for taking the time to read this review. I hope that you found it interesting enough to read it all the way through.

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