If the SHTF and stays that way for awhile, what I'm worried about is AIMPOINT battery life vs ACOG's Tritium life.  

If my batteries die, I won't be able to run down to the local store or get on line and and purchase new Lithium batteries for the AIMPOINT.  

In a worst case senario, I buy my ACOG or AIMPOINT and 12 to 20 years later, the SHTF, he tritium source is quite weak and I have to toss the ACOG because I'm not able to send it to Trijicon for recharging.  Or my batteries shelf life has expired, are dead and, same thing!  In the trash they go.

What's the shelf life of the AIMPOINT's batteries.  If it's decent, then a good supply, keep in with the SHTF ammo should do.

Big Al

SHTF?  


USE IRONS!

The lithium batteries have a practically unlimited shelf-life.

As for the ACOG, only the Reflex sights would be totally affected by tritium loss. All of the other ACOGs have etched reticles and you still have a reticle even without illumination. In addition, many of them use fiber optic to spport the tritium illumination - so you might still have a degraded but illuminated reticle even with no tritium.

Lithium batteries have a 10 year shelf life.  About half of the Tritium lamp.

However the Trijicon will still glow during the day (its got the light gathering rod on top).  At night it would be just like any other optic.

BTW if you are really worried about it buy an EO Tech 552 and a bunch of NiMH rechargables, and a solar charger (something you should have anyway if you've got kids with electric toys).

The NiMH batteries on a full charge will power a 552 for 250 hours (about 10 days of constant on).  They can be recharged about 1000 times.  That should give you roughly 27.4 years of usage for the batteries.  If you consider you'll need at least 2 sets (one recharging while the other is being used) then that should extend usable life to almost 55 years.  NiMH can be stored for a long time if you don't keep a charge in them.

Damn, Forest, you got tyhis battery charging down to a science.  I am impressed. [:D]

The ten year figure on the tritium bulbs is for the half-life, and correspondingly (assuming no phosphour degredation) they're half as bright. Another 10 years, and they're .25 the original brightness. Theoretically it's asymptotic, and it'll never go out!!!

But in seriousness, I've got a Reflex that I think will still be functional at half or quarter brightness. I know many people aren't fans of them, but they still do have the fiber optic aspect for the daytime (supplementable with cyalume sticks), and if things get terribly bad, they're still useable as an OEG. At nighttime just wait until your eyes are dark adapted enough before you wander out.

As for NiMHs, it's a bit optimistic to believe they'll last that long. Usable lifetime for NiMHs in my digital camera is about a year before internal electrolyte degredation takes it to a point where they're no longer usable. With a low-draw device like an EOTech, I could see an extra 4 or 5 years of usable time, but don't think of batteries as infinitely usable. The solar chargers also are hard on batteries; voltage regulation is kind of flaky.

If I had an electronic sight, I would keep around some lithiums in a cool place (btw, don't ever refrigerate batteries; the cold crystallizes the paste electrolyte). NiCads are terrible for any of this.

I wouldn't worry about it, because when the great alien invasion happens, we will all be enslaved and we can't overcome their mind control anyways! [:D]

alien invasion WTF
mexicans don't have mind control...

maybe with the way our borders have been left open they already have control of our minds.

10-15 years??  heck, if i don't get things back to normal in a month I would be in trouble. [;)]

Yeah right.  If they were the best for SHTF then they would be best for combat.

Try shooting at night with only irons and see how well you do.  I just finished a carbine course where most of it was held at night - the guy with only irons was the one with the most accuraccy issues at night.


I have something similar.  The one I have isn't made anymore IIRC - I got it from a catalog (the company is in CA and specializes in solar power and 'eco' friendly crap).  It can charge up to 6 Ni-cad AA or AAA batteries at a time.  The newer ones should be better with the NiMH batteries.

I always wondered about what would happen if laws were past that forced us go underground with our guns.  Then we could not just stick our Acogs in the mail to have them recharged.  It would be better to have an optic that uses common  batteries that no one would suspect you were buying for your outlawed weapon sight.  Also many European countries have banned tritium based on its hazardous nature.  It couild easily happen here.

Seems to me that one could adapt common batteries by putting them in a battery holder, and running 2 wires to the sight. Sure, it'd be a ghetto rig, and probably not as reliable as a proper battery, but it'd work in a pinch.

The lithium batteries, I believe, are good for up to 10 years shelf life. Generally.

The NiMH batteries look like a good backup plan, if you can get several sets, and an AC/DC charger. Solar would be last resort, I think.

What's Trijicon's price for recharging?

Trijicon charges $250 to recharge the ACOGs, a lot less for the older sights like the OEG.

Cycle life and overall battery life for NiMH batteries are sensitive to

- Temp during charge and discharge (room temp operation is best; high temps can cause cell venting, separator deterioration, etc; low temps make the cells more sensitive to overcharge)
- Depth of discharge (shallower discharges increase cycle life)
- Charge and discharge current
- Charge control
- Exposure to overcharge and overdischarge
- Storage conditions and length of storage

Basically, avoid operation/storage at extreme temperatures, overcharging, cell venting, and general abuse.

Li/MnO2 based batteries like the Duracell DL123A typically show a shelf life of less than 1% capacity loss per year at 20 C storage.

Weber's Law, with its limits of applicability, suggestst that human vision sensitivity to luminance is logarithmic.

von