Pushing the five month mark here so I wanted to update.
I purposefully kept the SCS out of the light to see how long it remained charged. It lasted about three months but alas, one day it no worky-worky.
I put it in the sun for about an hour and it came back to life. But it also went dead again shortly after.
I left it in the sun for about eight hours, it came back to life for about three weeks, and died once more.
I think it's a good optic with a lot of great features but the lack of replaceable battery when one needs it, is a big shortcoming. And I think if the battery truly goes out, it takes a lot of doing to get it back to full charge.
I live in an area with a whooooooole lot of sunshine and daylight too. I can see the darkness of a northern state winter being a real problem with the SCS.
Caveat to all this is that it is a sample of one and I could just have a defective battery or solar panel or whatever other witchcraft this requires to work. But as of right now I see myself moving to a RMR.
