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Rifle Scopes ACOG fiber optic top "stripe" visible to the "enemy"?

Nomad0001

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Feb 16, 2012
104
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Greenville, SC
Just got my first and only ACOG. Took it into a dark room to check out the Tritium. Noticed the whole "stripe" on the top of it glowing a nice green.

I'm no commando, and it doesn't affect me, but given this is primarily a military scope, I was surprised to see this... Sure would give away your position...

What say ye?
 
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Another use for duct tape.

Good common sense solution. Thing is, you are in Afghanistan, wind is blowing sand on your duct tape while you put it on, stays on for a while, but a while later it gets snagged on a branch and falls off while you are crawling around at night. Taliban sees your green neon advertisement. You get shot.

No trying to be smart here, just thought military testing was very comprehensive, and would have anticipated the above scenario. Could be oil, could be gun cleaning solvents etc. that make your little piece of tape fall off, and cost you your life.

To me it still seems like a chink in the armor of this model ACOG.
 
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The duct tape does not come off that easily trust me on that. Also most (perhaps all) of the mil issue ACOG's I've seen have the red tube and I have not seen any "glow" at night.
 
Issued acogs with the red light bar don't glow at night. Never heard of that before.

I believe you. I'll take mine into a pitch black room, and try to take a picture. The green tritium glow seems to back feed into the fiber optic tube.

The ACOG is brand new. Got it from a reliable merchant. Has all the verifiable marks on it. No sign it's a knockoff, or anything like that...
 
Thing is, you are in Afghanistan, wind is blowing sand on your duct tape while you put it on, stays on for a while, but a while later it gets snagged on a branch and falls off while you are crawling around at night. Taliban sees your green neon advertisement. You get shot.
It's not obvious. Besides, you are overthinking it: First of all, find me even one branch. Second, find me an excuse to crawl around. Third, as if all the vehicles, airplanes, and friends with guns aren't enough of an advertisement. Fourth, try to hit a firefly with an RPG. In sum, it's not an issue.
 
Others beat me to it, but I was going to say the red fiber optic bar on my ACOG doesn't show up at all in the dark. The only reason to put tape on it "might" be for in broad daylight, when some might feel like the reticle is a little too bright (I don't, though).
 
Tried to a take photo of the green stripe in a pitch black room. The image did not register on the camera. I could see the full length of the tube glowing a little, but you guys are probably right, it really is very faint and you would probably not get detected unless they were right on top of you.
 
The red bar on my ACOG never was visible from the night and I cannot recall seeing the green visible in the dark on my friend's.
 
It would be visible with any modern night vision device.

The questions is, to what degree does it matter?
 
I got out my TA11 with green horse shoe and put it in a dark room and could see it--not much, but could. Got out my night vision and went from not being able to see the rifle at all to being able to see it well and could not see the fiber optic on top. So I don't see it as being a problem.
 
never noticed the light bar thing to glow, i did use tape however, but only to make the illumination less sharp...
 
Its not an issue, as others have said, it doesn't give your position away, its a piece of fiber optic, it gathers ambient light. Know that if you do place tape over it, it will effectively lower or turn down the seen illumination in the reticle. This is helpful in bright daylight conditions when the reticle is too bright and or appears too big. Cover just a small portion of the fiber optic, no need to cover the whole thing.
 
Good common sense solution. Thing is, you are in Afghanistan, wind is blowing sand on your duct tape while you put it on, stays on for a while, but a while later it gets snagged on a branch and falls off while you are crawling around at night. Taliban sees your green neon advertisement. You get shot.

No trying to be smart here, just thought military testing was very comprehensive, and would have anticipated the above scenario. Could be oil, could be gun cleaning solvents etc. that make your little piece of tape fall off, and cost you your life.

To me it still seems like a chink in the armor of this model ACOG.

im 9 months into a 12 month deployment. My duct tape is still holding strong... and yes its the same tape i put on it at the very beginning.
 
ACOG fiber optic top "stripe" visible to the "enemy"?

It's not obvious. Besides, you are overthinking it: First of all, find me even one branch. Second, find me an excuse to crawl around. Third, as if all the vehicles, airplanes, and friends with guns aren't enough of an advertisement. Fourth, try to hit a firefly with an RPG. In sum, it's not an issue.

Fifth, all Taliban have cataracts from desert living with no lense crafters around the corner so they can't see shit at night anyway


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Good common sense solution. Thing is, you are in Afghanistan, wind is blowing sand on your duct tape while you put it on, stays on for a while, but a while later it gets snagged on a branch and falls off while you are crawling around at night. Taliban sees your green neon advertisement. You get shot.

You've obviously spent enough time in Afghanistan engaged in firefights to have formed this opinion.
 
What you can see with your naked eye will look like a torch in night vision. Maybe that's why the military does not use the green?