I posted this to the Tacpoint FAQ but I'm posting it here too. A little while ago I went to pull my tacpoint that I beat to shit torture testing and thought I had killed from the QRP mount. I decided since all the water was evaporated out of the tube finaly I'd toss in a battery and see if it would fire up, and I'll be damned it did.  After I did the submersion test the thing died, the tube had filled completly with water and it would not work after that for months. I wrote it off as dead and the torture test complete. The lenses are filthy on the inside but you can still see through the optic and the dot is just as strong as ever. There is even mold on the inside of the tube from what it looks like! I don't know what to do. Should I start back up with some more torture testing? Or should I retire it to a .22lr like I planed to do if it made it through the testing? I just can't believe thast this thing is still working....

Here are the pics, not the way I was hoping they'd turn out but I'll have to paly with them in PS to lighten them up a bit or something. Damn I wish I had a macro lens for my D60. I had to use a PHD camera with a macro setting, they work for now.


execpt for the smuges on the lens all that crap you see is inside the tube. In the top right corner you can see some of the rust build up and just general grime.


I have to get a new one of this, it doesn't show how the dot actually looks, I couldn't get the damn camera to focus well enough, but that red blob in the middle is the dot. It actually looks just like it should in person though. I'll get a better pic tomarrow.


In this one you can actually see the red from where the dot is emitted from. All that stuff along the walls of the scope tube is just giome and what looks to be a little mold.


If you look a t the tube wall at the 3 o clock you can make out what appears to be a growth of some type, it's either mold or perhaps some build up from the chemicals that were in the pool water. I don't know. I'll see what I can do about clearing it up a bit tomarrow.

Kill it. Do whatever it takes. I'd be interested to see what that will be.

Send it to MisterPX.

He's on his way to the sandbox, and if anyone can kill a firearm part, it's him.  

ETA: If it makes it back from OIF, I will personally put up any dough required to place it under glass, and permanently install it at the (new and improved) block house at RCLRC.  It will deserve to be retired, IF it makes it back.

Quoted: Send it to MisterPX. He's on his way to the sandbox, and if anyone can kill a firearm part, it's him.   ETA: If it makes it back from OIF, I will personally put up any dough required to place it under glass, and permanently install it at the (new and improved) block house at RCLRC.  It will deserve to be retired, IF it makes it back.

Sounds like a plan. I'll email him tonight/tomarow some time and see if he'll take it with. I'm picking up my memory card from work right now(thats where I'm posting from) and I'll get "proof of life" up sometime tonight. I still can't believe it still works.

I guess that says it all don't it?? Most folks are quick to write off these knock-offs as worthless...
photoman....After following the abuse you have been giving the tacpoint and spot scopes I think they can't be written off as junk. Seems to me to be the best answer to someone like me who is short on cash to get a decent scope without breaking the bank....thanks for that......keep it up.....mack

Quoted: I guess that says it all don't it?? Most folks are quick to write off these knock-offs as worthless... photoman....After following the abuse you have been giving the tacpoint and spot scopes I think they can't be written off as junk. Seems to me to be the best answer to someone like me who is short on cash to get a decent scope without breaking the bank....thanks for that......keep it up.....mack

Well this thing went down for a good while after it was submerged in water for 24 hours. It took like two months or so before all the water in the tube finaly evaperated out, and even after that it still didn't work. Why it's working now I have no clue.

I still think it's a good little optic for someone who wants the look but doesn't want to pay the price for an Aimpoint if it's for a rifle thats not going to see anything but range use maybe some hunting.

But yer right people wanted to write them off as junk and not tough or able to take hard use, this thing was used pretty hard, harder then most people will ever use an optic so I think it very much proves that while it may be cheap it is not near as bad as detractors would make it out to be, but remember I'm in no way saying that this thing could/should be used as a combat optic or duty optic.  

Was it still zeroed after it was tortured? That's what I'm most interested in. Whether it stays on or not is moot if you can't hit what you're aiming at.

"Well this thing went down for a good while after it was submerged in water for 24 hours. It took like two months or so before all the water in the tube finaly evaperated out, and even after that it still didn't work. Why it's working now I have no clue"

I used to have a platoon sgt that was scuba qualified and liked the water, and he would take us on ruck marches along riverbeds for a mile or so and did it quite a few times.  

I've been in the military for five years and in all that time my rifle has only been partially submerged once.  I had a 60lb ruck on and sunk in duck crap and mud up to my waist and half my M4 and M203 barrel went under the water.  A lot of times that water was chest high or higher.  

That's just me saying submerging the weapon is a rare occurrance of course when it happens it's nice to know the sight will be OK-- of course it'll probably be for a couple seconds if you aren't on an underwater mission and that rifle will be back out.  

My PSG in Iraq lost his rifle in the Tigris on a mission out trying to find Rocket launch sites and he immediately mentioned how he lost one in the Corps and it cost him $600 and he went diving body armor and all after it and found and recovered it in a couple minutes and it was no longer submerged-- he of course was scuba qualified too.  <crazy how that stuff happens (what are the odds of two seperate scuba qualified PSG's in the National Guard?)

Black Widow in a Jar?

The rheostat on mine broke off after a couple of range trips.  I tried to contact Hakko,  [email protected] for warranty work, but never heard anthing back.  Never going cheap again, I consider it a $100 lesson.

Since it already "failed" it is dead.  Forget any future testing - which is meaningless.

Those things are POS's and belong on .22's.  Mine (on my father's AR) dies every time we take it to the range now.... have to clean the battery compartment, somehow get it running again, but then it just goes out erratically again.

Quoted: Since it already "failed" it is dead.  Forget any future testing - which is meaningless.

It "failed" a test it was never warrantied for, intended for, or most likely even dreamed of by the manufacturer (24 hours submerged).  EVERY other abuse photoman's TP was subjected to ('twas an awful lot) it took and wanted more.

At this point, it's about seeing just how much the thing can take otherwise (we know it's not waterproof).  Sending it to MrPX to kick it around in the sand might just do the trick (and he'll have fun doing it.

Those things are POS's ...

Not all of them.  Yes, quality seems to be hit or miss. No, it's not a "mil-spec" optic.  Photoman's unit has done pretty well, considering.  My second unit (actually one of the Japanese non-blue ring TP's) has been just fine with "normal" abuse.  It even survived where my 1911 gathered rust (blasphemy, I know).

As far as repairs/replacements; I got my warranty on paper, and returned the defective unit (bad rehostat) to the retailer.  They replaced the unit with no hassle.