Posted on 01/14/2013 8:44:13 AM PST by billorites
It all goes back to "Top Gun." In the heads-up display on Maverick's Tomcat, you can see a computer compensate for human aim with precision laser guidance and careful calculations. How long before that technology made its way to to a conventional hunting rifle? It's here now, with a price tag of $17,000 to $21,000.
We came to Las Vegas the first week of January, the way we always do, for the Consumer Electronics Show. The vast trade show features over 3,300 exhibitors, and covers 1.9 million square feet. But there are no shooting ranges at CES. To check out TrackingPoint, we had to drive out to the hills outside of tow
As someone who not only isn't a marksman but pretty much avoids guns altogether, I approached the TrackingPoint rifle a bit gingerly. However, when the company's president, Jason Schauble, walked me through it, I realized that as long as I paid attention (and observed the basic safety rules of firearms), I would be able to hit that target without trouble. Not 15 minutes later, I did — at a distance of nearly seven football fields.
How does it work? A laser rangefinder identifies the target, and tells the gun where to aim to hit it, given conditions such as humidity, wind, and the typical ballistic drop you'd expect from a bullet shot from a gun at such a distance.
You pick your target by dropping a pin on it using the camcorder-like zoom lens. When you want to shoot that target, you line up crosshairs inside the scope with the pin you dropped. The weirdest thing is, when you squeeze the trigger, it doesn't fire. You have to squeeze the trigger and line up the crosshairs with your mark. When you do, the gun goes boom, and the target takes a bullet.
No matter where you are on the gun debate, the technology used is an impressive system. The rifle will be available soon from TrackingPoint. Watch the video above for the whole story.
Chey-tac M-200 Intervention has had networked optics for a while now. This just incorporates a laser range finder.
Not sure it’s worth the extra $5-7 grand.
This makes the AR-type rifles pretty much in the same category as air rifles or crossbows.
The aiming capabilities puts this device in the class of a great assassination mechanism. I can see its distribution and application subject to some very serious limitations.
But the principles and the proven possibility it CAN be constructed, means that somebody else, somewhere, can replicate the design, or a similar line of engineering could result in the same outcome.
Some garage tinkerer somewhere could be in the business of constructing these appliances for private operators.
And THAT should scare the pants off the social engineers who want to “fundamentally change” the United States.
Anything tried before the computer age needs to be tried again! I recall when I was a kid that drones (model airplanes) worked much better with a string!
At that range your heartbeat is a factor.
The weapon doesn’t fire when you pull the trigger. The weapon fires when the trigger is pressed AND the cross hairs are lined up with the laser marker.
I predict another liberal freak out.
If we were using it just once ~ until the rounds ran out ~ we could probably make the tubes from heat resistant plastic. You could also simply poke the tube in the ground and find cover before you started using it.
Your target people would definitely need to resort to some high ticket computerization to track back that launchpath, so this would provide more protection to any soldier using the devices.
For personal stopping power you might want to carry an old fashioned 1911 .45 ~ but that's for situations where you might actually come into direct contact with the enemy.
I'm figuring that with remote fire control capability you wouldn't need to have rounds with a range much beyond maybe 100 meters. Fly the tubes into the killing zone by drone, and begin pattern firing by remote.
LOL!!! “Spray and pray” works pretty well when you’re spraying with a min gun. IF you aren’t paying for (or reloading your own) ammo.
Hey, just what ya see pal.
I quote: “It all goes back to “Top Gun.” In the heads-up display on Maverick’s Tomcat, you can see a computer compensate for human aim with precision laser guidance and careful calculations.”
BLOODY FREDDING EXCUSE ME!
ONCE AGAIN, A TALKING MUFFINHEAD HAS NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT!
As an F-4 McDonnell Douglas Phantom radar maintenance assistant shop chief, I will tell you. The ‘heads-up display’ (HUD), was “not to compensate for human aim”, at all. The weapons control system, that tracks and locks onto another aircraft, launches a missle to intercept that aircraft, computes and drops bombs onto ground targets, and acts as an aiming device, using the locked on radar, is an autonomous electronic package. All the information of navigation, and the weapons control system, is relayed to the pilot, through the HUD.
PEON NEWSCASTER!
It appears this author thinks the origination of HUD was the movie. Idiot.
Now all you have to do is keep the laser designator steady on the target. Still at 700 yards a heartbeat in a 12X scope is a big jump.
Reminds me of the time some MSM b!tch was interviewing a sniper out of Iraq of whom they’d caught some pixels ‘misting’ an ‘insurgent’.....
She asked, “How did it feel when you shot him?”
“Just a slight recoil, ma’am.”
Let’s not let facts get in the way of a good story.
Good thing I stocked up on these when they were cheap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkFU7o3IAaM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Gotta remember to open that front door flap. Me LIKE it!!
A Linux-powered scope! That’s worthy of a thread right there. How long before the MS crowd shows up to debunk it?
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