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Camera Gun Would Let Hunters Get Killer Wildlife Shots
Zothecula writes "Not too long ago, brothers Randy and Michael Gregg were out on a hunting expedition. It was the day after deer season had ended, yet they spied a handsome animal bedded down in the snow. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity, they silently crept up on their quarry, raised their rifle, lined the deer up in the crosshairs ... and then took a picture through the scope with a mobile phone. That photo provided all the proof they needed that they had successfully stalked their prey, without bringing home an illegally-obtained carcass. It also inspired them to create the Kill Shot — a replica hunting rifle, that takes pictures instead of firing bullets." The Kill Shot isn't just for hunters. Think of how great this would be at sporting events or family reunions!
It's too bad they didn't have these in 1963. It would have been nice to have a close-up of Kennedy's awesome hair.
Trolling is a art,
I think a replica rifle is liable to cause some consternation at your average sporting event.
Microsoft leads to Bluescreen; Bluescreen leads to downtime; downtime leads to suffering.
Police will be called out to those events because "there's someone with a gun!" Family reunion becomes a family bloodbath.
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
My aunt and uncle are avid bird watchers in Canada. My uncle built up a spotting scope on a rifle stock that he uses up there all the time. He brought it down here to SoCal and was out at the edge of a lagoon looking at shore birds when all of a sudden a number of police cars showed up, lights flashing, and the officers jumped out and drew their service pistols. Seems a number of folks had reported a lunatic (I'm not dismissing that assessment) with a gun out in the lagoon. Luckily they didn't shoot my uncle, but instead had a bit of a chuckle about the whole thing with the ultimate suggestion that his selection of bird watching paraphernalia could be better ;-) Relatives!
Given the current political climate, this is a good idea gone incredibly wrong. If you come too close to law enforcement with something resembling a rifle, be prepared to be in a very sticky situation. These days even "toy" guns can get you in a ton of trouble. Cops' trigger fingers seem even itchier than ever.
Why not combine the best of both worlds? A rifle that first shoots a bullet and a photograph a split second later.
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/sniper/index.htm
Hooray for the russians!!
The Photo Sniper was initially made for the Russian market. The text on the camera body, on the pistol grip and on the container was in Russian. ÐÐzÐÐz ÐÐÐÐ(TM)ÐYÐÐ means FOTO SNAIPER (Photo Sniper). The container was usually painted in the typical Russian grey hammerite colour.
Didn't even read the summary?
Actually, deer collisions kill hundreds and injure 10s of 1000s every year. They multiply, have fewer predators in more populated areas, eat up all the food, get malnourished, wander to new places looking for food, and cause accidents. They absolutely must be thinned out, and there's no reason anyone who shoots a deer can't eat it. (They should. Venison chili is delicious, and no corporate growth hormones.)
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Too soon, man, too soon.
Needs to be painted bright, NERF yellow and orange to have at least a chance of not getting shot at by a trigger happy cop. Why does it even need a barrel if it's not shooting a bullet? I can understand the stock, trigger and scope part.
--- If the bible proves the existence of God, then Superman comics prove the existence of Superman.
and they don't taste as good either.
As a kid, I would go on hunting trips with my dad, almost every summer. During one of our trips, I was maybe 8, I asked him if they made such a camera, and he thought nothing of it, said no they didn't, and why bother since you can just get a real camera. He then quip that whenever he would carry just a camera he would see more wildlife then when carrying a rifle. It never dawned on me later in life (actually, I had forgotten the event until just reading this article) that it might actually have a market.
Now, take it to the next level. Have these camera gun's all get wifi and can do video (not just freeze frame pictures), and all connect to a central server. Then as "shots" occur, the server has them time stamped, and can do inspection on the images to see where the shot would have landed, and if it would have counted as a kill shot. Then just have the handle of the gun shake if it registers that you have been killed. Afterwards the server could take the feeds from the camera's and give a kill shot run through, perhaps using some video from some of the players who didn't have shaky hands or whatever heuristics you wanted to make... and ta da! You now have The Worlds Most Expensive Laser Tag game with extra video goodness!
It's easier to steady the shot with a rifle mount; for taking shots with a high zoom telephoto lens.
Part of the fun of hunting is physics in action. You have a possibly moving prey X meters away. You need to know the wind, hold the gun steady, lead the prey, and know the drop of a bullet. If you just take a picture, that could be a complete miss from bullet drop. If you just take a picture, you could have missed with a bullet because the prey was moving.
Regulated hunting is good because it keeps the animals from overtaking the environment and being pests as most of the natural predators are gone.
God spoke to me
Huh? It's a mental problem to enjoy doing what is necessary? Is it a mental problem to enjoy going to work? Is it a mental problem to enjoy drinking water? It's called living. And no, it's not a mental problem. Not by any professional classification. Just your own emotionalism. Of course, with "dog" in your username, you are incapable of objective thought with animals. Well-demonstrated by your bigoted comments.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
I think you missed the entire point of the article/summary. The Kill Shot camera is not about actually taking photos of animals you are going to actually kill. It's a camera disguised as a rifle used to take pictures of an animal you stalked well enough that you could have killed. It's basically a modern take on "counting coup". I imagine that it could cause stress in the animal being stalked if it were aware of the "hunter" but this can't get much further from pleasure killings/sport hunting.
I get so sick of this sentiment. I am a hunter. I know many, many people who hunt. You don't hunt for the pleasure of killing - you hunt for the "thrill of the hunt". It's a base desire to be a predator. And, yes, part of that fulfillment is when you squeeze the trigger or release the arrow. But, that moment is celebrated for the completion of the hunt - not the act of killing.
To put this in perspective, a common part of hunting is "finishing the kill". This is where you have mortally wounded the animal (eg, a lung shot to a deer), but it is bleeding out still and not entirely dead. Once all threat of the animal getting up and injuring the hunter is removed the hunter will use a knife to quickly finish the kill. I don't know anyone who enjoys this - and that's the actual moment the animal dies. It makes you feel weird having to do it. I can't really express the emotion well with written words, but it's definitely not a good feeling.
TLDR; Hunters are in it for the rush of the hunt, not the actual kill.
Yeah, I'm not big on hunting - largely because I think hunting for "sport" is stupid, if I hunt, I'll hunt because I want to eat what I caught. Considering I have yet to find a place to hunt Angus Beef Stock, and Elk tastes like crap, I won't be hunting anytime soon.
But *THIS* is interesting. I enjoy target shooting, and this would be an activity the difficulty of hunting, without worrying about having to haul/clean/eat something I have no interest in eating.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
I would've said that, but I don't have the balls to post that even as AC, even with and IP that's NP to trace.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
So, processing farm grown meat is *not* defenseless slaughter? What, do they give the cows a fighting chance in your country?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Humans can't live without killing other living things. Until we learn to photosynthesize, that is. You just sound like someone who doesn't want to think about where his dinner came from.
As many have already pointed out, it's not the "killing" that is enjoyed.
On another note: perhaps it's because our modern culture is so far removed from where their steak comes from that we have sentiments like this. If I were an animal, I would much rather be even a starving deer who eventually gets "hunted down" than an assembly-line, live in their own shit, cow. At least I would have had the opportunity to be free. This is one of the first thing that comes to mind when someone says how inhumane it is to go hunting; how it's somehow cruel to the animals. As already pointed out, many times those animals are so over populated they're all half starved to death (like the deer example above).
Sigh, there really is too much stupid in this world. (Sadly, I think I probably fall into that lot.)
As cool as it is to have a gun looking camera, you get much more stability out of a camera on a monopod.
And to prove your hunting skills, you could use shorter and shorter prime lenses, which would force you to get closer to your 'prey.'
A screen filling head shot with a 30mm would be pretty impressive!
That doesn't change the fact that there's something wrong with a person who enjoys killing other living things. Of course, it's necessary, but the enjoyment of the task indicates some serious mental problems.
Vegetables are living things too you monster!
Elk don't live around where I am, but as a deer species they will have musk glands. And if those glands are not cut out ASAP, then the meat will taste a lot more gamey than it would otherwise be.
Rifles that shoot photos instead of bullets were already promoted in the 80's. I remember them in my old man's shooting magazines and on TV documentaries. Food for thought, consider such US patents as 4630911 (app. 1984), 4907022 (app. 1988) and 5845165 (app. 1997), as well as a whole host of others for all sorts of subtle variations on the same theme (such as patents often are).
As far as "ideas" go, there is nothing news worthy in the KillShot. I proffer that this article is nothing more than an advertisement.
Except for varmint shooters (I'm one). That's all for the kill. Gophers/Prairie dogs exploding in a ball of red mist is just amazing.
They make really heavy guns shooting small caliber bullets out of medium cartidges (.204 Ruger/.17 Fireball) for two things: Target (read paper) and Varmint (dead sploded things). The heavy guns let you see the target in scope as it blows up. Without the combination of lighter cartridge and heavy gun the recoil would not allow you to see the action.
The design of the varmint bullets is such that you have a bullet spinning at a couple hundred thousand RPMs that is highly frangible. This is what makes the things go *poof*. There is far more varmint type bullets from commercial manufacturers than there are target bullets in these calibers. That's what people want, and for good reason: it's fun.
Down south some of these critters actually get big enough to be a source of food. Where I live (up north) that's not the case. They are tiny little critters that just annoy ranchers and farmers. The annoyance is in the form of broken legs on cows/horses and crop damage. My fun actually helps things, but I do it for the fun, not out of helping a fellow human down the road.
Just buy a good DSLR and spend the bulk of your money on a fast long lens. A 300mm f2.8 telephoto lens will cost you a lot, but it's worth it for wildlife photography. Either that or just go to the zoo.
And yet, unlike people who eat their beef steak or their hamburgers, hunters actually have the guts to finish the kill themselves. Personally, I think people have something wrong with them if they're willing to eat something they're not willing to kill themselves (whether it be microbe, fruit, vegetable, or animal).
These were quite popular in Soviet Union back when I was growing up (80s), and the name for the hobby of photographing wildlife was actually (fotookhota), literally "photo hunting"...
Paul B.
I can't tell if this is a joke, but a gun that also takes a photograph just before it fires could have very serious uses. If all police, for example, were required to use such a gun, we could have a much better idea whether any shooting they're involved in was justified.