Red Dot batteries: don't depend on old spares

[GLS]

The night before opening morning my buddy’s red dot wouldn’t turn on. We had checked zero the week before and all was fine. I had a spare battery. The FFIII didn’t turn on even with the “fresh” spare battery. Damn. I told him that Burris would make it good Monday. When we got home I tested the old battery and it had less than 1 volt as measured by my Fluke multimeter. As an afterthought, I pulled the spare out of his FFIII and the spare battery measured .05 volts. Both batteries were deader than doornails. The spare had been removed from its bubble pack but was over 5 years old. He bought a new battery and the unit worked fine. So the moral of the story is that not only should the battery in the red dot be changed at the beginning of the season or at least every other season, don’t depend on the shelf life of a spare battery in your pack exceeding 3 years. According to google search, 3-5 years is the shelf life of an unused coin battery. Eveready advertises 10 years shelf life. I expect some folks will say their batteries last much longer. However, a battery will last until it doesn’t. You just don’t know when “doesn’t” is. Better to err on early replacement than err on borrowed time. Gil

[Samm4770]

always good to check your batteries! I will have to check my spares tonight

[Hoobilly]

Sage advice

[Prospector]

New to the red dot/ FF3 world. THIS confirms for me a new battery before every season hopefully before the down range check. Thanks for helping hammer it home so to speak.

[pullit]

Most of the time I throw away the batteries that come with the red dot and start fresh as 1) you don't know how good of a quality the factory battery is 2) you don't know how long the sight has set on the shelf before you bought it.
Most quality batteries have a date on the package when you buy them as to when they were made and or how long they are good.

[decoykrvr]

A few years ago, I had to replace a battery while working a gobbling bird. As I raised my gun to my eye the dim red dot disappeared.
It ended well, but has made me extremely anal about the batteries. I usually change out my seasons "new" fresh battery about half way through spring based upon my estimation of how many hours that it has been on during the season, since I usually hunt hard for @ 21/2 months.

[GLS]

I took delivery of 10 lithium batteries and sold by Amazon. The nominal voltage of the 1632 used in the FF series is 3 volts. Testing them with a multimeter shows 3.34 volts which is typical of the series. I tested batteries currently in two guns and one was 2.995 volts, the other 3.05. I had changed them out last year. Gil

[RBMTDJager]

I have been using red dots on mine and my sons turkey guns for 3 years now. My rule is before the first days hunt of the year I install a brand new made that year Duracell battery in all my red dots. Red dot batteries are so cheap and we're only talking three batteries 3x a year it would be foolish of me not to. I also carry with me in my turkey vest three of the same replacement batteries also made that year along with what ever tool (if needed) required to change said battery. In the case of my Truglo Gobble Dot scope no tool is needed to change the battery and a spare battery is stored in a compartment inside the battery cap.

I often find myself for these vary reasons wanting to revert back to using my VariX-II shotgun scopes.

[youngoutdoors]

I have rifle sights on my turkey gun along with a red dot sight. I can see the rifle sights in the bottom of the red dot scope just encase the battery does go dead. It is a good way to visually check to make sure the sights and scope are both in alignment with each other. I switch the barrel and remove scope every year for other seasons.

God Bless, Louis