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Posted: 6/13/2003 3:07:48 PM EDT
[#1]
They will replace the tritium lamp. It won't be cheap. Do you really need it (to glow)? It's still a damn fine optic- just limited to daytime...
[8D] |
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Posted: 6/13/2003 3:16:50 PM EDT
[#2]
Last time I checked, about six months ago, the cost to replace TA01 tritium was $250.00 with a four week turnaround.
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Posted: 6/13/2003 4:24:39 PM EDT
[#3]
Quoted: Last time I checked, about six months ago, the cost to replace TA01 tritium was $250.00 with a four week turnaround. Thanks XM777, That is what I needed to know. Grock, You are right about it being a fine little scope, instead of spending $250 to get the lamp replaced I think I will reserve it for daytime use. While I take the $250 and save for a TA31A.[naughty] Mack |
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Posted: 6/13/2003 4:31:28 PM EDT
[#4]
I have a 31a. You won't be disappointed! [8d]
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Posted: 6/13/2003 9:46:24 PM EDT
[#5]
The tritium is gauranteed to glow for a specific number of years if Im not mistaken. Your ACOG should have a serial number. Call trijicon and find out when it was made and see if it is within the warranty. Because the scope is so old, it might not be. But its worth looking into. Let us know what they say!
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Posted: 6/13/2003 11:05:27 PM EDT
[#6]
This is one reason I have been reluctant to embrace the TA31. We are exactly one democrat congress and president away from having no more guns and maybe no more radioactive material (like in some parts of Europe). All I need is my CQB optic to not work at night and not be able to get it fixed. I instead use a TA01nsn (which I wish the tritium would go dead on) and a Docter optics red dot sight on top. The Docter's batteries last for years and I can replace them Myself for $1.95.
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Posted: 6/14/2003 7:33:32 AM EDT
[#7]
Quoted: The Docter's batteries last for years and I can replace them Myself for $1.95. Wonder how long the Docter's "electronics" will last? [:D] |
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Posted: 6/14/2003 1:13:10 PM EDT
[#8]
inkaybee, it won't be a democratic president/congress which will put our guns underground, it will be the current group.
"Fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is a merger of state and corporate power." --Benito Mussolini "This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" Adolph Hitler |
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Posted: 6/16/2003 12:34:44 PM EDT
[#9]
Quoted: inkaybee, it won't be a democratic president/congress which will put our guns underground, it will be the current group. "Fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is a merger of state and corporate power." --Benito Mussolini "This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" Adolph Hitler Didn't hitler also like Blondes? Does that mean Blondes are facist. |
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Posted: 6/16/2003 12:53:46 PM EDT
[#10]
Someone needs to read up on the term "halflife". If your tritium is dead, you have owned it for hundreds of years.
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Posted: 6/16/2003 6:32:45 PM EDT
[#11]
Quoted: Someone needs to read up on the term "halflife". If your tritium is dead, you have owned it for hundreds of years. You are wrong on this one. The half life of tritium is only 12.3 years. That means that after about 37 years there is only 6% left (not visible on your sights). I imagine it becomes unusable around 30% of orginal which is only after about 20-25 years. I have a set of pistol tritium sights from 1996 that are quite dimmed compared to original. |
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Posted: 6/16/2003 6:46:15 PM EDT
[#12]
You can talk about half life untill your blue in the face. I have had night sights burn out in 3 years. It happens. I have read more than once of relativly new ACOGS burning out. I don't know if they develope a leak or what.
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Posted: 6/17/2003 5:16:22 AM EDT
[#13]
Tritium (notice the H3 on your night sights?) is just a radioactive isotope of Hydrogen and is usually found as a gas - so if whatever holds the tritium develops a small crack, your gas will leak out and your sight will be unilluminated.
On night sights, it is a pretty small vial that holds the gas and I've seen them crack before. I don't know where the illumination source is on an ACOG and I can't fathom how you would ever crack it; but I guess it is possible (assuming they use a tritium gas). |
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Posted: 6/17/2003 7:49:46 AM EDT
[#14]
Sorry bugjuice, I'm not wrong. What I wrote is quite accurate.
Radioactive decay to the point that the sight is not illuminated in the dark takes longer than the ACOG has been in existance. Thus, an ACOG cannot be "dead" from radioactive decay. If you wish to extend the discussion to all possible permatations and convolutions of chance and happenstance, then perhaps you have made a point. That point is that an ACOG which does not 'glow' is defective, not "worn out". The manufacturer should probably repair the defect without charge. |
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Posted: 6/17/2003 12:08:35 PM EDT
[#15]
MedicJim, your initial comment was that it would take hundreds of years for the tritium to "be dead". That is wrong. I agree that a scope that is only ten years old should still work. But there is no way it will be glowing after a few hundred years when the half life is only 12.3 years so, yeah, you were wrong. An ACOG from 1987 (when they were first produced) will have dimmed significantly. I am not "trying to extend this to all permutations and convolutions" but am simply pointing out the simple facts about this isotope. Tritium has a relatively short half life and will quit effectively running the fluor of a scope after a few decades. By the way it's bigjuice, not bugjuice. I will assume that was a keystroke error.
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Posted: 6/17/2003 12:35:20 PM EDT
[#16]
I am not a nuclear physicist, but I do understand the basics of radiologic decay... after two "half lives" (approx 24-25 years), the tritium will still retain better than 20% of it's original glow.... I take "dead" to be "mean lifetime" of Tritium, which would be measured in either hundreds or thousands of years (I haven't done the actual calculation).
The typo on your alias was not intentional. |
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Posted: 6/17/2003 1:14:48 PM EDT
[#17]
So I guess what this all boils down to is how much radioactivity is enough to keep running the fluor? I don't know. But I would guess that they are gonna be pretty dim around 24 years and really dim around 36. I also agree that these things should not be burning out faster than that (especially for what they cost). What is the length of warranty on the tritium?
I did some quick math and it will take about 100 years to get down to 0.3% tritium. I would imagine the scope would have quit fluorescing long before this. Sorry for all the technical mumbo-jumbo but I used to work with radioactivity a lot and have a fairly good understanding of how it behaves. Fortunately neither of my nuts have withered away yet from it. |
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Posted: 6/17/2003 1:18:43 PM EDT
[#18]
I suspect that at least some of these people experiencing a "dead" ACOG are the victim of a tritium leak.
I purchased my first TA01 in 1988, just about the time they first became available on the market. It is a early model with the ranging marks out to 1000yds rather than the current models which are marked to 800yds. When I checked it several months ago, (now mounted on my son's AR) the reticle appeared to be just as bright as when I first received it 15 years ago. I had inquired to Trijicon about a tritium replacement because I know that sometime down the road it will need it, I just don't know yet when that will be. |
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Posted: 6/17/2003 4:21:13 PM EDT
[#19]
I have a TA01, serial number 186. Yep, thats right, 186. It is glowing almost as brightly as my TA31a which is only a year old. go figure... [8d]
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Posted: 6/17/2003 5:08:21 PM EDT
[#20]
Grock, that gives me some comfort on shelling out the moolah for one of these babies.
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Posted: 6/20/2003 2:31:04 PM EDT
[#21]
You can't count on 2 or 3 half-lives before the luminosity decreases beyond limits of detection...it really depends on how much tritium was encapsulated to begin with, as well as HOW OLD THE TRITIUM WAS when they made the capsules.
Its my understanding that there has been no tritium produced in this country for a number of years, since they closed the Savannah River production reactor, I believe in 1988. The military obviously has first dibs on the supply, and tritium is one of the most expensive commercial commodities around. Recycling from warheads probably accounts for the majority of the supply, and possible some imports. Hence the expense and lack of purity. Some of the capsules, if they contained refined tritium and not the He3 decay product when manufactured, may have been sitting around for a good while before incorporated into the end product. So.....you never know what you are going to get, and how long it will last. |
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Posted: 6/22/2003 5:03:42 AM EDT
[#22]
The bottom line is that ALL of them has a serial # and trijicon keeps a record of when they are made. Call trijicon and ask for Joleen in customer service. She'll be happy to look it up and if its in warranty they will replace the tritium for free even though you're not the original owner. (well except what you pay to ship it to them approx 8.00$)
They've done it for me and another guy on the boards here. Best customer service going I'd say! |
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