Posted on 11/30/2012 10:59:12 AM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A new Texas-based company is developing a shooting system that could turn even the least skilled marksmen into a sniper-quality shooter.
TrackingPoint calls its system the “world’s first precision guided firearm.”
President Jason Schauble explained in a YouTube demonstration of the technology that what the company did is “put jet fighter lock-and-launch technology into a firing system.”
The system uses a conventional gun and ammunition, but combines them with a Intelligent Digital Tracking Scope and a guided trigger. The technology doesn’t let you fire until the shot is spot on.
“You don’t have to be an experienced shooter,” Schauble said in the video. “You can come and pick this up and within minutes be able to master the tag-track-exact technology that allows you to get on target.”
Here’s how it works:
1. Tag your desired target. 2. Bring the scope’s “firing solution” back onto the tag you’ve established. 3. Squeeze the trigger. Only when the firing solution and the tag are aligned will the gun shoot.
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
It is dependent on the shooter to line up the sights with the indicated firing solution. This still requires marksmanship skills.
you need to still be able to fire if desired, even if you’re not exactly on target. this isn’t an aircraft.
"Gaia it's hot," he muttered.
"Thirty-one Celsius," said the gun. It gave him a wired feeling.The Star Fraction. MacLeod, Ken. 1995.
...and this system calculates windage how?
Effed-up the quotation, sorry. Buy the book, anyway.
Or sniping.
I think I might just revert to doing the first tag with a 5.56 indicator unit by properly manipulating the tag unit, once called a trigger.
When you see the red mist, you know your tag was “dead” on.
One more multi million dollar military industrial complex solution to a non problem.
*
The EXACTO program is far more promising.
Research laser-guided bullets can be precise to find the target but ...
This laser-guided bullet 4 inches long (about 10.16 cm), point 50 caliber ... for the
development of this laser-guided bullets It is EXACTO part of the project, ...
http://www.9abc.net/index.php/archives/73798 - Cached - SimilarSandia National Laboratories | Danger Room | Wired.com
Video: Self-Guided Bullet Spots, Steers and Nails Its Target (UPDATED) ... In
2008, they scored a $14.5 million contract as part of Darpa’s “Exacto” program, ...
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/tag/sandia-national-laboratories/ - Cached - SimilarAttack the System » Rj
In 2008, they scored a $14.5 million contract as part of Darpa’s “Exacto” program,
which sought to ... Each self-guided bullet is around four inches in length.
http://www.attackthesystem.com/author/rjweapon/ - Cached - Similar
well the military gives a range finder to their snipers. it’s called a “spotter”....
So you have to be skilled enough to get your 'tag' on target, but it assumes you aren't skilled enough to hold your scope on target? Interesting concept but it seems it drowns the shooter in the process. Maybe for military applications, but then again, I have a feeling most will be screaming for their traditional scopes and firing systems back.
good thing the govt is sending lotsa domestic target drones for beta testing this rifle sight..
I didn't read the full article, but my guess is that it uses something akin to the ballistic computer in an Abrams tank. The thing at the back of the turret that looks like a periscope is actually a crosswind sensor...
...it reads the speed and direction of the wind at the firing position and extrapolates that all the way to the target in calculating a ballistic solution. Of course it's not perfect, but it is better than nothing, and is, as they say, "good enough for government work."
With a nicely crowned bull barrel, proper breathing, maintaining a consistent eye relief and after months of fine-tuning my own match reloads, I’d have to say that 90+ percent of my error is in my trigger pull. If this thing eliminates that, then sign me up....but at the current 15 to 20k per rifle I think I will just stick with more trigger time. Lot more fun that way anyhow.
LeeLoo multipass?
I see it as a natural progression of the technology. They have had laser rangefinder scopes for quite a while. There are also scopes with bullet drop compensators that need to be dialed up or down by hand. I thought they should combine the two, now they have. Add a wind speed meter like Kestrel makes and add that correction to the mix. I didn’t think up the trigger block until you are on target, that’s a novel idea.
I have a couple of long range specialist friends. Last spring they were shooting rocks on a mountainside. They had the wind meter and an angle meter for measuring the angle of the shot. Might as well add that into the scope with all the other goodies. They had handheld lasers and both brands agreed at 1286 yards. Got everything dialed in and told me to aim right at the rock, I hit it twice right in the middle. I have done plenty of long range shooting, but not that high tech.
This would be completely useless for air rifles and 22LR where “follow through” is critical to accuracy.
It might have some potential for .223 and other very high velocity cartridges with very light bullets that spend very little time in the barrel and thus makes follow through less important.
But it’s completely worthless in a firefight or even in a hunting situation where a snapshot is required.
I think the idea sounds like it has merit.
If I snatch a picture of the wookie on the scope, tag the wookie, and then squeeze the trigger holding the rifle in the general direction of the wookie, semi-auto (or better full-auto)...ZAM...every shot out of the rifle is directed right at the wookie.
I could see how an untrained person could engage targets at a distance (and at full-auto) that would normally be possible only to a very skilled marksman (if even that, under automatic fire).
An even better idea, to me, would be digital image stabilization, like they have in cameras. You look through the scope at the stabilized image, and when you squeeze the trigger, it only fires when the real image in the scope matches the stabilized one. Automatic, no breath-holding. And I can drink all of the coffee that I want to, in the morning. :-)
“I didn’t think up the trigger block until you are on target, that’s a novel idea.”
If you think of it as a technological twist on the old idea of “fire on release” triggers then it’s not so novel an idea.
Those triggers also reduced the amount of trigger and breath control needed by the operator and the electronics should be a lot better at getting the shot off at the right time.
But really, I’d be willing to bet that most shooters would do just as well with an electronic trigger and electric primers as they would do with this fancy scope.
Anything that includes the word “Intelligent” or “Smart” in the name is usually neither.
It uses Kentucky Windage.
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