The Burris AR-332 is a popular alternative for people who don’t want to spend 1000 dollars on expensive Aimpoints or EOtechs. But still, need a reliable sight that can suffice for comparable performance. Some people consider it an affordable alternative, whereas some consider it a ‘smart’ alternative to those expensive red dots. Let’s check out what it really fits into.
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Burris AR-332 3x32mm Prism
Pros
Cons
Burris AR-332 Specs
Before we begin the review, let’s take a look at the specifications of the AR-332 sight.
Eye Relief: 2.5 inches
Adjustment Options (Parallax, windage, elevation): W/E settings. Parallax set at 100 yards
Type of Reticle: Ballistic CQ™ / Ballistic 3X™
Magnification: 3x fixed
Focal Plane: Second Focal Plane
Objective Lens: 32 mm
Field of View: 32 feet at 100 yards
Weight: 14.2 oz.
Pros
The Burris AR-332 features an impeccable construction and has been meticulously designed to suit some specific purposes. Now we’ll look at some prominent features of this sight and how they’ll be helpful for the user.
Clarity
The AR-332 produces exceptional clarity and a crisp image in most lighting conditions. The 32 mm objective lets enough light to The prism-based design also helps people with astigmatism. Which is quite not possible when using normal multicoated lenses. It works great for an old pair of eyes and facilitates quick sighting-in.
Easy Mounting and Adjustments
Mounting the sight is a breeze if you use the right tool and screw it as specified in the manual. The adjustments for the turrets are crisp and not mushy. The caps of the turrets have been tethered to prevent them from being lost. Which in fact is a big problem with hunters. Especially if your turrets are not fingered adjustable.
Extra Rail Space
That’s actually an amazing feature for the AR-332. The sight has three small rails on three sides. The top rail was intended to be used with the Burris Fastfire III red dot sight when the company offered a combo kit. These rails ensure that you have ample space to mount extra sights, lights, or lasers to aid your operation.
Illuminated Reticle
The AR-332 features an illuminated reticle that can change colors from red to green to black and vice versa. The best part is that when not illuminated, the black reticle works as fine as the illuminated one. Obviously, if it's broad daylight. The Ballistic CQ™ reticle offers fast acquisition at close distances due to its circular center. The reticle offers accuracy and trajectory estimations out to 600 yards for 5.56 and 7.63 caliber bullets. The illumination can be adjusted for 10 different settings (5 red 5 green) and the reticle is powered by a CR2032 battery that can provide 200 hours of runtime on maximum brightness setting.
Rugged Design & Warranty
The AR-332 may not be an Aimpoint, but it is still quite rugged for what it is. You shouldn’t be expecting the durability of a $1000 sight from a $400 sight. Or should you? The sight is also covered by the Burris Forever Warranty which backs your purchase even more strongly.
Cons
After learning about the advantages and points-of-excellence for the AR-332. Let’s learn about some noteworthy drawbacks and considerations for using the sight.
Turrets
The turrets on this sight are capped, not finger adjustable. Plus, they also lack a zero stop. This implies that you have to unscrew the caps and use a quarter or another tool to set the windage and elevation. The lack of a zero stop can be acceptable for most applications. Given that the sight has fixed magnification. Additionally, the sight also lacks parallax adjustment.
Short Eye Relief
The sight has to be mounted close to the rear end of the receiver because of the short 2.5-inch eye relief. That’s quite short when you compare it with other red dot sights on the market. Especially the higher end Aimpoints that offer unlimited eye relief. Short eye relief means lesser positioning options on the rail.
Heavier & Non-Variable
This sight weighs about 14 oz. That's quite uncommon for a sight of this specification. The sight weighs close to a pound and the fact that it doesn’t have variable magnification also limits its use to some extent. But eventually, the sight wasn’t designed to be a variable sight anyway. So it’ll be a good choice as long as you respect its limitations.
Best Uses For the Burris AR-332
Burris’ motive was clear behind designing this optic. It was to help law enforcement, military, and competitive shooters get a reliable sight to suit their trades. With that said, the AR-332 works best for close-quarter combat. Due to the fast acquisition eyepiece and fixed magnification. Moving further, the reticle has estimation dots to sight targets accurately up to 600 yards. Making it suitable for medium-range precision shooting.
The sight offers crisp and bright images and can be used for hunting fast-moving varmints like hogs. Another great use for this sight is 3-gun competitions since it offers quick target acquisition and can be used with both eyes open. Yeah, that’s an expensive feature in a mildly priced sight.
While the sight has reticle marks for targets as far as 600 yards. The practical range is only 200-300 yards. This shall easily let you determine if this sight will suit your intended application or not.
Is the Burris AR-332 Compatible With Any Rifle?
The Burris AR-332 was specifically designed for 5.56 and 7.62 caliber rifles. Since that’s what it’s reticles are calibrated for. This sight works best with AR and AK style rifles due to its quick acquisition, illuminated red dot, and rail-assisted design.
It is definitely not suited for bolt actions as it doesn’t have the range and is also a bit bulky for them.
You’ll find this sight best suited for AR rifles with 16-inch barrels. It mounts only on Picatinny rails, so look out for one on the rifle.
What Do I Need to Know About Mounting the Burris AR-332?
Mounting the AR-332 requires a Torx wrench and a torque calculator. The sight has to be mounted with a torque of 65-inch pounds. No more and no less, or you’ll end up with a canted reticle and waste your time ringing and writing to the warranty department.
As already mentioned, this sight works only with Picatinny rails and not weaver rails. It comes with a pre-mounted base so you don’t have to spend extra time and money scouring the markets for the right fit. However, you may still use your own mount if desired.
Coming to the mount position, remember that this sight has a short eye relief of 2.5 inches. So mounting it at a proper position as close to the rear end of the receiver is essential. Also remember that the parallax is non-adjustable and set to 100 yards. So be careful about that when shooting on a longer range.
The sight is weatherproof and will withstand tough conditions. But do not submerge it underwater. Also, remember that the turrets are not fingered adjustable, so always carry an appropriate tool for that.
The bottom rail mount can be removed to mount it on an AR carry handle. For which a screw has been included in the package.
What Makes the Burris AR-332 Stand Out From the Competition?
The Burris AR-332 is a value for money sight. You get the clarity, durability, and performance comparable to a high-end red dot scope at less than half its price. The proprietary reticle is an amazing feature and greatly improves the accuracy of your weapon. Offering quick target acquisition, dots for range estimation, and two-color illumination. The sight can also be used when the battery dies, which is a great plus for an illuminated sight. It also features a better field of view and eyebox compared to its counterparts.
Burris AR-332 vs. Vortex Spitfire - Comparison Overview
Both the AR-332 and Vortex Spitfire are closely comparable since they both feature a fixed 3x magnification and are similar in size and function. Both these sights are suitable for close-quarter combat, defense, law enforcement, and short-range hunting.
Talking about the reticles, both these sights have an illuminated reticle but the Spitfire uses an EBR reticle and the AR-332 uses a proprietary ballistic AR reticle. The EBR is finer and may not be suitable for an old pair of eyes.
Both are prism sights and lack parallax adjustments, which is already set at 100 yards. The AR-332 has a FOV 0.5 feet more than the Vortex. But the latter has a longer eye relief.
One factor on which the Vortex wins by a big margin is the turret adjustment. The Spitfire offers 120 MOA of turret adjustments, compared to the 80 MOA from Burris. However, the click size (½ MOA) is the same. Vortex spitfire is also marginally bigger and bulkier than the AR-332.
Overall, both these scopes have very tiny differences between them. But if you’re looking to save a few dollars, the AR-332 will be a good choice.
Burris 332
Burris 332 vs. 536 - Comparison Overview
The Burris AR-536 can be called the bigger and more powerful version of the AR-332. The 332 has a 3x magnification and 32 mm objective. Whereas the 536 has a 5x magnification and a 36 mm objective.
Both these sights use the exact same illuminated reticle with the same color options and brightness setting levels. The 536 offers a better eye relief of 2.5-3.5 inches compared to the fixed and short 2.5 inches of 332. However, the latter has a better field of view (32 ft) compared to the former (25 ft).
However, when a generalized comparison is made. The differences are pretty obvious when both these scopes are compared in power and size.
Long story short, the AR-536 is for longer range.
Conclusion
The Burris AR-332 is an affordable and high-quality alternative to more expensive red dot sights on the market. It features a fixed 3x magnification and two-color illuminated reticles with 5 brightness settings each and it also works without power. It is best used for close-range combat, hunting, and home defense.
People Also Ask
Not very extensive, but we still have compiled a short FAQ section for the AR-332 prism sight from Burris.
Where is the Burris AR-332 Made?
Most production of Burris has now shifted to its Philippines facility. However, the quality control and assembly (mostly) of all its scopes are still done in the U.S. The AR-332 has been made in the Philippines factory but under strict quality control.
What Battery Does the AR-332 Use?
The Burris AR-332 is powered by a CR2032 battery which provides a maximum illumination lifetime of about 500 hours on the lowest brightness setting.
