I was noticing the recent trend of illuminated reticles amongst the various manufacturers and it got me to thinking. How reliable are they and what would the serviceable lifespan be? Many of us shoot with scopes that are 20- 30 years old or more. Would you expect that with an illuminated scope? If the illumination fails, is the scope still useable or is it now a paperweight? Anyone have one fail at a crappy time?
How about batteries leaking from sitting unused? I think most use the coin style batteries, so not sure if it's an issue with that type.
My only experience with an illuminated scope is the Trijicon Accupoint that uses fiber/tritium. I've had it about 10 years now and it's still bright, but I understand it's pricey to get them repowered. I just bought a second one in 1-6 x 24 and expect it to serve me just as well, but it got me to thinking about scopes with electronics.
Any scope with an etched or wire reticle shouldn't care if the battery is installed or not - only the added feature of illumination.
As commented several times above, I've never seen a coin battery leak. I'm pretty sure the battery in my old Millet RDS is about 15 years old, and still worked last week when I checked it.
I didn't notice anyone above commenting on fully-illuminated vs. partially-illuminated reticles, but I have a STRONG preference for only having a center dot or small crosshair illuminated. Anything more tends to get distracting in the low-light conditions where they're most useful.
