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A Computer-based Smart Rifle With Incredible Accuracy, Now On Sale
WheezyJoe writes "A story on NPR reports that the TrackingPoint rifle went on sale today, and can enable a 'novice' to hit a target 500 yards away on the first try. The rifle's scope features a sophisticated color graphics display (video). The shooter locks a laser on the target by pushing a small button by the trigger... But here's where it's different: You pull the trigger but the gun decides when to shoot. It fires only when the weapon has been pointed in exactly the right place, taking into account dozens of variables, including wind, shake and distance to the target. The rifle has a built-in laser range finder, a ballistics computer and a Wi-Fi transmitter to stream live video and audio to a nearby iPad. Every shot is recorded so it can be replayed, or posted to YouTube or Facebook."
A gun that decides when to fire is nothing new. Battle Ship main guns did this before WWII. The target was locked in, and the firing computers (Mostly mechanical) fired when the pitch and roll of the ship allowed a hit. And they didn't have an abort.
But the big problem that the summery overlooks is that its just about as hard to put a laser range finder on a target as it is to put a bullet on target.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
But the big problem that the summery overlooks is that its just about as hard to put a laser range finder on a target as it is to put a bullet on target.
Not really. With a laser range finder you don't have to worry about wind. You don't have to worry about range (by definition). You don't have to worry about the smooth trigger pull since laser range finders don't usually have a multiple pounds of pressure activation button. You also don't have to worry about properly absorbing the recoil to avoid jerking the round off target.
Reading code is like reading the dictionary - you have to read half of it before you can go back and understand it.
Such hunting isn't much easier. When you hunt birds it should take one 1 shot, maybe 2, to take it out of the sky. A "tame" bird has to fly away, just like a wild bird, in order to be shot. It's not like it walks up to you. They're not really tame, just farmed, just as a chicken on a chicken farm isn't tame.
What those ranches provide is time. When you hunt wild birds there's lots of waiting. Either you're walking and waiting for some random bird to be flushed, or you're waiting for them to leave or return (happens only twice a day for ducks).
If the farmed birds flock and you're pumping out shots like a crazy man then, sure, you're just an idiot.
You can argue authenticity all you want, but at the end of the day shooting a small bird flying away with a single shot is actually pretty hard, whether "tame" or not. And unless you're subsistence hunting and doing it on a regular basis, you have to learn somehow. Clay pigeons don't exactly zig-zag.
I understand that some people fish for the heck of it, but when I'm bothered enough to do it, it's because I want some fresh fish to eat. I'd use dynamite a heartbeat if it were legal and I had a big group to feed.
Dynamite is indiscriminate, it kills a whole lot of other animals that you don't eat, explosives can harm species like whales that are important apex predators and who rely upon hearing for hunting, if the explosive sinks low enough it can ruin the features on the lake/ocean bottom that are important fish habitat which has already happened through the over-use of ocean bottom trolling nets in many places and it has ruined fisheries to the point where people have begun to sink artificial reefs to try and restore stocks, basically the list over why this is a bad idea goes on ... and on ... and on. Fishing with dynamite is about as intelligent as slaughtering your cows with an RPG.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
It's called persistence hunting, basically you (marathon) run down your prey, humans are superbly adapted for doing it barefoot on warm dry plains.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.