We get there and go straight to the optics section and there are a few SpecterDR scopes sitting in the display case, at the new pricing.  Martin hears me grumble about the price as he's digging around for a PST for Alex.  I ask him out of morbid curiosity about the IOP and the price increase, and he tells me that he thinks he has one still at the old price.

I'm thinking shit, why did I ask this question, I wasn't prepared to spend that kind of money at that moment, but he did say maybe, and just maybe he didn't actually have any left at the old price.  My buddy Hermes from Reliable Gun told me about one he had in the shop a few days ago, and it was literally gone in seconds.  Well, no such luck, Martin says he's got one one left, in FDE.  Fuck.  

I've been bit by the clone building bug and it's an expensive undertaking to say the least.  I've slapped together passable clones of the Mk18 Mod 0 or CQBR, and most recently did a Mk12 Mod 1 clone (sort of), but when I was collecting parts for my Mk18 Mod 0, I had it in the back of my mind how cool it would be to do up a Mk18 Block II which could be topped with an Elcan SpecterDR as an option.  

The Elcan C79 on our C7s is not too bad an optic, considering it's a fixed 3.4x.  I was able to make hits at 500m, so I ended up getting one for my C7A2 clone (my SA20), albeit with spent tritium.  The SpecterDR is light years ahead of the C79.  They've improved the mounting system, installed adjustable metal BUIS (looks like you can position them at the 10 o'clock, 12, o'clock, and 2 o'clock positions), and added illumination so now you have to replenish a battery instead of the tritium.  The new reticle also accounts for bullet drop at different ranges, and best of all, they've added the option of 1x magnification or 4x magnification with a flip of a switch.  

Anyways, back to Martin grinning back at me knowing I'm going to walk out of the store with it, I bite the bullet and grab it.  Let's just say the old pricing isn't the old pricing of a few years ago, but what I paid tax in is still better than today's IOP before tax.

So, there have been tons of reviews of these scopes, in the field, real world accounts, youtube reivews etc.  This is just a simple unboxing from the point of view from a guy who has little experience or knowledge of a very expensive toy he just bought, lol!

The box is plain cardboard, no special graphics on the box, nothing fancy at all.  Basically, it's all business.  The Elcan came with an in depth instruction manual and a battery, and that's about it, lol!

It looks like Elcan carried over that spring they used between the C79 and the C79A2 bases, supposedly locking the scope down and preventing the loss of zero as with older models of the C79.  I also like the A.R.M.S. mounts over the original wingnut design on the C79s and C79A2s.  

So, after I got home, I opened the box again to take these pics and I noticed that my scope somehow looked different than most SpecterDr scopes that I've seen online.  The battery compartment on mine looked slimmer than ones I'd seen before, so I did some research and it turns out that this was a new design for 2017, utilizing a commonly found CR2032 battery.  The new illumination system supposedly doubles the previous battery life, providing 600hrs of the illuminated center dot, or 6,000hrs of the whole reticle on low setting.

As you can see from a stock photo grabbed online, the previous gen's battery compartment is quite a different design:

The new battery compartment makes for an overall slimmer profile of the optic.  So, for owners of 2016 Elcans that are upset about not getting in on the newer design, send your Elcan back and for $100, they will upgrade your batter compartment.  For SpecterDRs produced prior to a year ago, but still within the last 5 years, the upgrade will cost you $200, and models older than that are not upgrade-able because the internals are apparently too different to modify.  

Anyways, I'll have to figure out what the hell I'm going to mount this thing on.  I'll be damned if I end up starting a Mk18 Block II build, that ought to seal the deal on a swift divorce, lol!