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This is another PSO scope variation but is made in Romania for the PSL sniper rifle and designated LPS 4x6° TIP2. These scopes are manufactured by IOR and have high quality lenses. This scope has an illuminated reticle which is powered by tritium. Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years and emits a very weak beta particle. This means that every 12.3 years the tritium loses half its brightness. If your scope was made in 1999 then in 2011 it would be 50% as bright. Then in 2023 it would be 50% as bright as it was in 2011 and so forth. Because there is no battery housing and switch to illuminate the reticle, these scopes are lighter than the Russian and Chinese versions. |
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For the majority
of these LPS scopes, the tritium elements are dead and the reticle does
not light up. Many people have wondered if they could "recharge"
or replace the tritium inserts in their scope to make it glow again. The
following was written by someone who attempted to insert new tritium elements: "I have tritium in hand and have dissasembled my scope as far as I feel comfortable and no glow. I removed the square plate on the side, had heard that that was where the element goes but no dice, that is the stop for the windage and elevation knobs.(I am kinda obsessing about this and wondering if the trit COULD be put there). I removed the three tiny lock screws around the scope and removed the rear half of the scope body. You can see the reticle in there (it`s tiny by the way) and I tried holding the tritium vial close to it and even directly on it and it wouldnt illuminate. I believe the tritium needs to be placed on the edge of the reticle, as it is etched glass I assume if the tritium element is placed on the edge, the reticle will glow. Major dissasembly was going to be needed to get to the edge of the reticle and at this point I did not feel comfortable going any further, so I put the scope back together. I just got the rifle and I did not want to destroy the scope before I had a chance to shoot it. If the rifle turns out to be a good shooter I will invest in a POSP 8X scope, then I will not have qualms about digging into the romy scope further." |
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Update: Here
is a post by someone who has had success in identifying the tritium
elements: "I got the reticle carrier out nicely and dissasembled it, what I thought was the tritium was not. But I did find the tritium and it is HUGE! and consists of two glass semi circles encompassing the reticle. The good news is that the scope is really simple, you do not have to monkey with the elevation and windage mechanisms to get the tritium carrier out, and re-aligning everything is easy. Bossman" Photos: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 The reticle is etched into the glass. The numbers are larger in size compared the the numbers in the Russian and Chinese reticle versions. The range finder is calibrated to the "combloc" military standard of 1.7 meters. |
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This LPS scope has the original Romanian writing on the windage and elevation turrets. These have been coming on the PSL's built up from demilled military parts kits here in the US. |
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Windage drum indicating "Left" and "Right". |
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Another variation of this Romanian scope is this early example desingated LPS 4x6. These scopes came on a batch of imported PSL rifles in 2008. This is the first generation military scope and features the infra-red detector. It also has a battery-powered illuminated reticle, though the type of battery they used is not known. |
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In this photo you can see the bulb screwed into the bottom of the scope body, something you will not find on the later "tip 2" version which uses tritium to light the reticle. |
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A crudely installed switch is used to turn the reticle bulb on. Note the low serial number and early date. |
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You can clearly see the IR detector charging screen on the top of the scope. Also note the elevation drum is labelled "JOS" (Down) and "SUS" (Up). |
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Another early LPS scope, this one features a disk welded to the front of the scope. The user of the scope would remove the rubber front cover from the scope and mount it on the disk to keep it stored and secure. |
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At left is a very rare Type 78 North Korean sniper scope. This one is not battery powered but it's unkown if the reticle is illuminated by tritium like the Romanian version. The design is almost identical to the Romanian LPS scope. This scope is evidence that the North Koreans use the SVD or PSL-type sniper rifle, though it's not known if they make their own or buy them. |
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