Elcans and Tritium

[Rugerman]

I am looking for a good, used Elcan. In my quest for one I often run across references to the level of tritium left on the reticle: tritium depleted, tritium all but gone, no tritium left, etc.

Can someone answer the following: How long does the tritium normally last? How important is it for BCRA type shoots to have tritium? Is it necesssary for most functions of the scope or is it just for lowlight, combat situations? Any light shed on this, radioactive or otherwise, would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Ceska]

The half life of tritium is 12.32 years

 

[Hungry]

Rugerman:

In all the years I've been shooting and running Svc Rifle matches, I've never ever run across anyone concerned with the level of tritium in their Elcans. It's not important to our matches. Now, you might be interested in low light matches if anybody ever decides to run them out in BC.

All of our matches are run in the middle of the day. So far anyways.....

You still might be concerned with the re-sale value of your ELCAN several years from now. One never knows when they might have to liquidate their hardware.

Hope this helps,
Barney

 

[Longshot]

Yeah Barney is bang on.No one cares if thier tritium lights up.I wouldn't worry about it at all.

 

[Rugerman]

Liquidate?

Rugerman:
You still might be concerned with the re-sale value of your ELCAN several years from now. One never knows when they might have to liquidate their hardware.

Hope this helps,
Barney

Not exactly sure what you meant by that, Barney. "They" being Elcan? Liquidating because they are going out of business? Sorry, I don't quite get that statement. Can you elaborate, please?

 

[hr]

i think the "THEY" refrer to you rugerman, you never know when you might need cash for another project and have to sell your elcan (if you had bought one) and when you sell it, the buyers will be concerned /w the tritium brightness....

having said that, i've previously read that you can send your elcan scopes back to Armament Technologies to do a refurb, that replaces the Tritium too..????

 

[Rugerman]

i think the "THEY" refrer to you rugerman, you never know when you might need cash for another project and have to sell your elcan (if you had bought one) and when you sell it, the buyers will be concerned /w the tritium brightness....

Gawd, I better stay off of CGN for the rest of the week. Thanks, I get it now. On the other hand, if the tritium isn't really an issue, as suggested by a number of CGNer's, I guess it doesn't matter. And I don't want to get into another thread about the best scope for service rifle . . .

 

[IDPACONVERT]

Some ELCAN's were made without Tririum, for the US & European Market, and they were'nt cheaper either.

 

[NavyShooter]

If you find an Elcan with the Tritium element gone, there's a good chance that it's one of the surplus scope tubes that went on the market as crown assets disposal in the late '90s.

The tubes were Beyond Economical Repair, and were stripped down to nothing so as to allow them to be disposed of.

Some unethical people have bought those tubes, acquired mounts and rubber shields, and have re-sold them.

Not worth buying if you ask me. I've been hands on with a couple of those tubes, and there's a reason they were BLR'd.

I don't know about the scopes that were sold with no tritium inserts for international export, though that does make sense since the tritium is a radioactive source. Check before you buy, and get a 3 day return policy.

On another note, I was hands on with the new Elcan Spectre DR this past weekend, and was rather impressed. I like it, the illuminated reticle is quite nice, and the change lever from 1X to 4X worked really well. Overall, very nice product.

NavyShooter