Posted on 06/12/2013 4:43:47 AM PDT by servo1969
Now everyone can shoot like a trained marksman. For a price.
A Texas-based applied technology firm has launched new smartgun technology that gives novice shooters the chance to participate in “extreme distance hunting.”
TrackingPoint’s new precision guided firearm technology, XactSystem, allows the shooter to lock onto a target before allowing the gun to fire upon the intended target, much like a fighter jet’s “lock-and-launch” technology.
And the firearm can consistently hit a target from over 1,000 yards away, the maker says.
“Think of it like a smart rifle. You have a smart car; you got a smartphone; well, now we have a smart rifle,” CEO Jason Schauble told CNNMoney.
The rifles fitted with the XactSystem technology can accurately shoot from over 1,000 yards, and TrackingPoint claims the company record is shooting a South African wildebeest at 1,103 yards.
The system and bolt-action rifles run from $22,500 to $27,500.
The rifles are WiFi equipped to allow the shooter to record their shot and immediately send it to a tablet or smartphone to view and upload to social media sites.
Schauble told CNN Money this is the first technology of its kind, even within the military, and that his company is planning on selling 500 TrackingPoint rifles this year, mainly to clients who want to hunt big game from long ranges.
With the technology, the shooter “tags” a target using a red button on the trigger guard. After the tag is set, the shooter aims the gun and holds down the trigger. Once the tag and the crosshairs of the scope line up, the gun fires.
“There are a number of people who say the gun shoots itself,” Schauble said. “It doesn’t. The shooter is always in the loop.”
The network tracking scope’s technology takes environmental factors, such as temperature, wind speeds, and gravity, into account to ensure a clean shot.
Some in the security sector, however, have reservations about the long-range rifle.
“There are a handful of snipers who can hit a target at 1,000 yards. But now, anybody can do it,” Rommel Dionisio, a gun industry analyst for Wedbush Securities told CNN Money. “You can put some tremendous capability in the hands of just about anybody, even an untrained shooter.”
***who had a huge gun he named Milamore.***
Reminds me of the bird that lives in the swamps of Louisiana.
This is NOT hunting, but target practice.
Unethical shot placement regardless of stating what is ethical in stone age Africa.
With barrels made by Hammerli or SIG and maintained in accordance with Swiss military training, these rifles are absolutely capable of serious long-range accuracy as issued.
Fair doesn't necessarily have to mean equal. Even the Maasai adulthood ceremonies, which involved lion hunting with a spear, wasn't fair - there was more than one Maasai but only one lion. However, it is about whether it is sporting.
Now, let's take big game hunting. Two weeks ago I was at a park in Mt Kenya, where I took a guided walk through the thickets along pathways that were created by cape buffalo (one of the meaner critters one can come across), and with the trails leading to a waterhole. There were elephants in the area, said buffalo, and leopards. My guide was fortunately armed with a G3. Interesting thing is that we never came across any large game - apparently they heard us approaching and left, but at night, in the safety of the lodge, we saw many of them. Now, imagining the days of yore when people would hunt big game, following a wounded cape buffalo into the thicket was often a fatal adventure (they have a habit of circling around you). Same can be said about following a wounded leopard, which was arguably one of the more dangerous things that could be done at night. My simple two hour walk had my blood pumping and senses strained trying to locate even the smallest movement or hear the slightest sound ...I can only imagine what it would be if I was following the bloody spoor of some beast. That is hunting.
Let's go down a bit. 'Normal' hunting. Say you take your rifle (or bow or large handgun) and are out for boar (or deer, etc). You are tracking the deer. Maybe calling out for them. Hours pass. You are tracking them, before spotting a good stag. Then, all that boils down to one moment where your shot better be true. That is hunting.
Let's go down even further. You have your shotgun and you are out for geese or quail. Maybe you have a fowler's dog for the quail. Maybe you are simply just mucking about in the marsh with a duck whistle. The birds fly, you take a lead, and pull the trigger. Skill is involved, since if your lead is off, even with shot, you will miss. That is hunting.
What is not hunting?
Well, there are caged 'hunts,' where in South Africa they will lock up a lion in a cage and have some 'brave' hunter put some holes in it. I am certain all those 'hunters' say how they followed the lion for hours on end across thorny underbrush, when in essence all they did is shoot something in a manner that was easier than brushing teeth.
Or that invention of a few years back where a remote controlled gun, that could be controlled via the computer, was shot at caged animals. More shooting.
And finally, this smartgun. Shooting an animal that is browsing from a 1,000 yards is an amazing level of skill ....if one is using their own shooting ability. If someone is using a computerized shooting system that is not hunting, and it is not skillful. Obama could replicate those shots based on what I have seen in the YouTube video.
Anyways, I would definitely want that shooting system. I am sure at least a fifth of the guns sold will be re-sold to foreign governments who want the targeting systems. It is a nice gun, and in terms of military applications it can be amazing since it takes what would require EXCEPTIONAL level of skill and makes it a commodity only limited by financial wherewithal. However, as a hunting tool that it is not.
Hunting is not about giving the game equal footing. If everything is equal that is not hunting ...it is survival. But neither is it shooting a caged beast from 10 feet, or using a computerized shooting robot (which is what this gun is ...it is a shooting robot that controls a gun, with the human interface being simply to align the sights to the general direction of the target, and pressing down on the trigger) to strike down game from 1,000 yards.
Clarification - the Mt Kenya trip wasn’t a hunting expedition. It was a forest walk after a day of viewing animals from a car at another reserve.
Hey, I can hit targets 1000 yards away. Now and then they’re even the ones I’m aiming at.
“:)” usually is taken as “in jest” or “for fun” etc.
As for hunting, I gave that up as a teenager when I used to hunt rabbits and squirrels.
Once when we first met, my son-in-law asked me “what do you have all those guns for - hunting.”
I looked at him dead-eye and told him “I didn’t buy those guns to kill no Bambi.”
If your point for hunting was to obtain food to eat, then it would be “hunting”. I think the distinction is that it isn’t “sporting”.
I was answering Someone who posted to mez it was 50bmg. I did not put quotation marks nor HTML his statement into italics, my fault there b
As for my preferences? .30-06, .30-30, .35 Remington, 7mm Mauser, .300 savage, .308 win. You know, the heavy hitters? Also 12 gauge foster slugs have taken a load of venisonfor me as have .44 rem mag from a Ruger redhawk. Nothing past .200 yds. Most 50yds or less.
Good point and a must for open sight, long range pistol shooting also, hobby of mine.
I would add, if you can't make the shot in under 15 seconds, de-cock, put the pistol down, relax, get into the *zone* again.
I have found the arm muscles will start fighting each other after 15 seconds, for me anyway.
My buddies and I will throw shots at 200 and sometimes 300 yards for bragging rights at the range.
Scopes on pistols are frowned upon, so are Thompson Center Contender pistols, LOL.
Understood, I just included you since you were part of the earlier discussion. I thought y’all might have seen something I missed. I like my 30-06 but thinking of adding a lever 30-30. I don’t take any long shot. My eye ain’t that good. Used to use the 12 slugs growing up.
I was on an Army Combat Pistol Handgun Team about 30 years ago with the 1911A1. We learned to shoot and I stayed in practice. We seldom held the piece up for more than 5 seconds, the exposure was 10 seconds max.
When I qualified for my CCW all 50 rounds were in the 10 ring. The center was blown out. People were impressed.
My friend told me about this system last week after he met one of the owners at a graduation. I looked at the website and the story of the development caught my eye...
“The story of TrackingPoint began in early 2009 when founder John McHale went on an African safari. He personally saw the challenge of moderate- to long-distance hunting while taking several challenging shots in Tanzania.
One particularly difficult shot was a 350-yard attempt to hit a Thompson’s Gazelle, a prized, smaller African game animal. McHale had taken every trophy he was after on the trip, except for the Thompson’s. He had had a chance at a shot, but it had just not been possible to factor in the range, ballistics, stability, and other factors in the time available to convert, on multiple attempts.”
I laughed at that. My working rifles are sighted for 300 yards and hitting running coyotes at 350 takes but a second or two. All those calculations become instinct with a little practice. Although, I don’t think I give stability a single thought after I choose the correct twist when buying a barrel.
I’ve seen the flags on the 1000 yard range blowing left at 200 yards and right at 1000 yards and in your face at 500.
And the videos show the little red designator dot glued right on the heart of the beast at a tremendous range. If the shooter can manage to line up the target and designate the target, why can’t he go the next step and learn to squeeze one off?
I wasn’t really impressed with it but I know how to shoot. It might be nice for a sniper who has a bad guy playing peekaboo in a window or something like that, but snipers can line em up and squeeze em off with the best of them anyway.
Heck, I'm impressed!
As soon as 0’s DARPA figures out how to manufacture mini missiles with guidance systems that can be fired from a gun we’re screwed. I’m sure they’ve already thought of it.
***They sure have. It’s called the EXACTO program for DARPA.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/self-guided-bulle/
by Katie Drummond - in 376 Google+ circles Jan 30, 2012 – The U.S. military has been after self-guided bullets for years. ... In 2008, they scored a $14.5 million contract as part of Darpa’s “Exacto” program, which ... At the tip is an optical sensor, that can detect a laser beam being shone ...
Sorry FRiend ...totally missed the smiley face. :) As for the statement your son-in-law ...I bet he treated your daughter very well after that.
No problem. My son in law has been a good provider.
When I was on the team everyone hit consistently in the 10 ring. The matches were so close that the winning team would sometimes be determined by a single 10X. We fired 1000 rounds a day in practice. After I retired I could only afford 50 rounds a day a couple days a week.
If they advertised it as a sniper weapon that allows you to take out zombies as 1,000 yards, do you think the govt would allow civilians to buy it?
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