Rifle Scopes Bad impulse buy?

[HSNARC]

Short story even shorter: friend of mine is having a baby, offers me his ACOG (4x32 red chevron reticle .223) for 500.00 bucks. I looked it over to make sure it wasn't a fake and handed him the cash.

I get home after dark and get to looking through it only to find that the tritium is very dim, like so dim that in complete darkness my eyes have to adjust for like 20 seconds to even detect a faint hint of red.

Am I screwed here? I know it will work fine as a day/low light scope, but if i want to sell this thing in the future will any other idiot pay 500 for an ACOG with dead radioactive gas?

Is the cost of having the lamp replaced by Trijicon cost prohibitive? Will they honor their warranty for secondhand owners?

 

[Rogue111]

What's your friend have to say about it?

 

[HSNARC]

I dont think he knows enough about them to know that it should glow at night. He had it for about 4 years and never shot it with it to my knowledge.

 

[One-Eyed Jack]

Tritium has a half-life of 12 years, that's nature and not your friend's fault. I believe Trijicon will recharge an ACOG with tritium, but don't know the cost. If you use it only during the day (and most people would) then you got an real bargain. Frankly I don't think you'll have a problem selling it to someone who doesn't care about whether the reticle is lit at night.

 

[HSNARC]

Really i could care less if it glows in the dark, I dont anticipate needing to have a rifle battle in complete darkness anytime soon. I think it will work fine for my current incarnation of AR. My only concern is thinking in the future when I build this current gun into a little bit heavier SDM type rifle will i be able to get a decent return on my investment in order to partially fund a variable scope like a vortex 1-6 or something similar.

 

[seanh]

Just call Trijicon and see what they have to say. It's been a while since I've dealt with them but they were always good in the past.

 

[locobob]

I've heard Trijicon charges a lot to replace the tritium... like around $300 if I recall correctly. If you don't need it then don't waste your money - new tritium won't increase the scopes value by enough to make the investment worthwhile. I'd say you did fine at $500 for this scope and you should be able to get your money back out of it for the foreseeable future.

 

[tsavo303]

I did the same thing
They wanted like 500 for a new lamp
That coupled with the crappy eye relief landed it in my for sale pile

 

[hk dave]

If its in decent condition, I'm happy to buy it off you. Been looking for a used ACOG with red chevron.

 

[HSNARC]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Ive been looking through this thing all day and im starting to like it more and more. I think if i can find a load to match the bdc in this thing that will stay moa out to about 350 Im just going to keep it. If the time comes when I decide to get rid of it then ill decide if lamp replacement is worth it or not.

Anybody have any idea where to find data on how to tailor a load to suit these out of shorter flat top guns? Most of what im reading is saying these are calibrated for m855, and even in good times I dont know of a good source for quality 62gr bullets. I would like to be able to find a 55gr load that will correspond well with the reticle I have.

 

[TV66]

Shoot it with your favorite 55gr load and figure out the yardage for each mark. Any BDC will work with any cartridge/load,might not be 200yds, might be 217yds, just have to shoot it to find out.

 

[jwb47]

I have a ta 31f on a colt 6940 , it has been a great optic I have toasted a couple of ground hogs out to 200 yds and a few coyotes from 25 yds out to around 250 yds . I can keep the shots center of mass at 300 yds on a b-27 target pretty easy. I cant speak of any farther distance since where I live that is not an option . more often than not due to terrain and vegitation under 100 yds is about it. if your looking for a tack driver move on while you should be able to shoot 1.5 -2 moa out past a couple hundred yds your 6x18 target scope it is not nor will be. I can say that any type of ambient light at all will illuminate the fiber optic even in early morning or late in the evening .one more thing if your the type who on occasion drops his rifle or falls on it then fear not this optic is built like a tank , I dropped mine on a huge boulder and never even came close to losing zero.

I should mention my favorite loads are 64 grain winchester power points and barnes 70 grain tsx.