I am ready to buy a mrds as a secondary optic to the primary scope. Both of these fits within my budget. They can use the same mount. However, I've not been able to find much review on Venum as its not out yet but very soon. I compared the specs and they are about the same. Noticeable differences I found are:

Venum
- auto shutoff in 14hrs
- auto shutoff in complete darkness and auto turn on when there is light
- man.l.ual brightness but levels unknown
- 150hrs battery life in highest brightness
- max elevation adjust 130moa
- max wind age adjust 100moa

FF3
- auto shutoff in 8hrs
- auto dim in complete darkness and aunto turn on when there is light
- 3 levels of manual brightness
- unknown battery life in highest brightness
- max elevation adjust 115moa
- max wind age adjust 86moa

Which one would you recommend?

Nevermind.   Not sure if I would trust  auto on, but I have no experience with them.

Motion activation with the Leupold Deltapoint might be better than either.  I have that same thing on a Leupold VX-R Patrol scope and it is fantastic and works flawlessly.  It comes on when you pick up the rifle and shuts off after five full minutes of stillness, then back on when moved, remembering its last intensity setting.  This is Aimpoint type readiness.  No button to push, no knob to turn.  It uses the same mount pattern as the Fastfire, J-Point, Docter and others and, like them is tiny and well under two ounces in weight, including mount.

Leupold is ruggedizing it in the soon to be released Deltapoint Pro, which also moves the battery tray to the top, so the optic does not have to be removed to change out the battery, and will have a true "off" button to use for transport where jostling it around would keep it on.   My VX-R works the same way, and the motion detection has extended battery life enormously.  I am at about 2-1/2 years on the original battery.

The Deltapoint Pro is supposed to come out this summer and street price is claimed to  be about $600.   I want one, and believe it will be worth the wait.

FF3 has a manual off.  I like it for $250 micro red dot it does a good job. Glass has a little distortion to it but not so much that it bothers you. I guess if the question is would I buy it again.... Yes

I am sure Leupold DP Pro is better but it's out of my price range.  Both FF3 and Venum have manual on and off. I found a lot of feedback on FF3 but none on Venum yet.

Still have a FF3 that I bought new, first on a handgun, then a 12ga, and now to an AR. The auto brightness does a great job on the level of lume of the dot and makes changes as you walk through settings with varying levels of light pretty well. I prefer the auto-light mode to manual mode. The battery can be changed without removing from the rail, a big bonus. I like the slip-on plastic hood/shield too, cheap and plasticy, but light weight and protective, and makes for a nice shade-hood.  I do not care for the Burris FF3 mount, to get it high enough to co-witness with BUIS. Its kinda spendy also (the Burris mount with the protective wings and little storage slots built into it).

I bought the spendy FF3 mount, didn't like the extra weight and the bulk, so went with a basic 2.5" long rail riser to mount my FF3 onto an AR receiver (think an FF3, attached to the included low-rise rail mount, then rail mounted to another rail mounted riser to get to a co-witness height on the AR).  ADM does make a QD mount, but its about the same height as the included Burris low-rise non-QD mount.

I think the FF3 would be much better and more popular if a company like ADM would make an Aimpoint H1/T1 type riser in a QD-mount, just to get the FF3 high enough to co-witness (or SOCOM height) with BUIS. So, the FF3 is great, but the mounting options are limited when placing directly on an AR receiver with BUIS (which is my present application, as mentioned).

I have a FastFire III on a 12 ga. shotgun and am very satisfied with it.



My first one went back to Burris for an issue, they had a replacement to me in a week.  Great service.

This may be off topic, but I don't understand why do you need both mrds and BUIS - a backup to a backup?

As of two weeks ago ADM makes a cowitness and socom (lower 1/3) riser mount. I already have mine. Total weight for FF3, QD base and riser is 3.875oz.

Thank you! Just ordered the QD and riser.

I'm not placing my FF3 on a scope, its mounted right on top of the ARpistol receiver/rail. The BUIS are the backup, and folded down anyway. The FF3 is the primary (I know its small, but I'm giving it a shot, so to speak lol). If it takes too long to get a sight picture using just a cheek weld (NFA!), I'll just use a larger RDS since I already have all this stuff.

eta: to be honest, if there's room on the rail, I'd put a BUIS set on it, even if it is a triple back-up lol

Maybe because when the battery fails in the rds, and they will at the most unexpected times, the absence of an aiming point makes them pretty useless.

Exactly.  This is why I keep BUIS on all my guns. Better to have and never need than need and not have