Hey all! Love this place. OK first post. I own various AR's and recently ordered two ACOGs which just arrived. First came a TRTA31 with a full time bright donut reticle. In love. Two weeks later a TRTA01 landed with the full red line reticle. This reticle is black in daylight and glows a dull orange in low light/darkness. The reticle is MUCH less bright than my donut. Is this normal? Is this dull reticle to preserve my night vision? I am just very suprised at the difference . Specs say that they have the same 100 microcuries of illumination. Help me here.

Also forgive me for not sifting through the mountains of posts. Even with search it's a lot. Loved the photos of all the reticles but I did not see the TRTA01 full red line among them. Thanks in advance. ARDog out.

TRTA31 and TRTA01?  Those sound like retail names from the place you got the scopes, not the actual Trijicon brand-names.  I'm going to guess you have a TA31 and a TA01.

OK, now to your question: yes, it's normal for the donut to be brighter than the reticle: the donut concentrates more light in a smaller area while the reticle is a thin line stretched out over a broader distance.   Sit with the two for a half-hour or so, howerver, and your eyes will become accustomed to the dark and the difference may not seem as great.

BTW, congratulations on the purchase.

Thanks. Yes they are the supply house part numbers, my bad. I had a suspicion that might be the case about the illuminated surface area, the black day reticle may be superimposed also?, It's a lot of difference though. I also read something about an amber reticle. Wasn't sure if I had the right product. Stuck a laser boresite .223 round in the chamber for a quick site-in. Now to the range.

The donut is also brighter than the TA01 because the donut uses the fiber optic on top of the scope to supplement the tritium illumination with ambient light. The TA01 does not have this feature so it has to rely solely on the tritium for illumination and turns black during the day. If you shoot the TA31 from a dark area (say an unlit indoor firing lane) to a brighter area (a white paper target illuminated by a spotlight), you will see the same thing since there is no ambient light at your firing location to supplement the tritium.