http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfpZjTOyiFA
The technology behind the Tracking Point rifle really is pretty amazing, but at the same time, if you can reliably do this all day long, wouldn’t it get a little monotonous after the initial giggle factor wore off? Where’s the sense of accomplishment, like when I put 9 rounds (with one flyer) in a four inch circle at 200 yards in a crossbreeze with a .22LR? It’s neat to watch her go 4 for 4 out to 1000 yards, but if the technology is that reliably accurate, then is it good, or just expected? . . .
The wharrgarbl machine was in full effect shortly after California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed several of the anti-liberty bills on his desk this afternoon. The Courage Campaign (Who?) said “Governor Brown choose [sic] to put craven political considerations above the safety and well-being of California’s more than 38 million residents.” They went on to wave the bloody shirt of Newtown a bit before concluding with “This is the kind of cowardly behavior we expect from out NRA-owned elected officials in Washington, not from a California democrat who should know better.” That’s right, know your place, Governor. And consider the source.
The Mako Group will be the exclusive U.S. distributor of Meprolight Self-Illuminated Sights starting November 1. Mako has been distributing Meprolight products since 2011. The change to exclusive distributor status means Meprolight products will no longer be available from Kimber USA as of that date. Meprolight, headquartered in Or-Akiva, Israel, develops, manufactures, and markets aiming and sighting systems and devices for military, homeland security, law enforcement, and civilian applications. These products include Electro Optic sights, un-cooled thermal sights and devices, night vision devices, fire control systems, laser rangefinders, handheld rangefinders, and tritium night sights.
A “no guns” clause in the new Minnesota Vikings stadium lease has the landlord scrambling to explain the reasons behind it. The Vikings current stadium lease has no such clause. State lawmakers are concerned that the clause could prevent gun-related groups from scheduling events at the venue during the offseason. A rep for the Minn. Sports Facilities Authority said the clause was inserted to ensure that any retail shops in the stadium would not be gun-related, and that outdoor-type shows would be considered on a case-by-case basis. “We did not intend to make a policy one way or another to allow it or restrict it,” she said. Then why is it in there?
The public hearing where embattled Gilberton, PA police chief Mark Kessler was fighting to save his job was halted abruptly Thursday night when a handgun belonging to one of his supporters slid out of its holster and crashed to the concrete floor. The gun did not go off, but officials were concerned about the safety of everyone in the crowded meeting room and elected to postpone the hearing. It will be rescheduled at the nearby courthouse, where guns are prohibited. The hearing is the last opportunity for Chief Kessler to rebut the charges leveled by the council, which he says were trumped up to conceal the council’s desire to fire him over the inflammatory videos he made in which he rails about the Second Amendment and against liberals.
From their website: “The Mako Group is a Registered Contractor to the US Department of Defense based in Farmingdale, NY.”
Buy American. And what’s the deal with the tritium sights? Aren’t we getting enough from Fukushima?
Tritium ain’t THAT radioactive you’d have to eat a lot of em to get a meaningful dose of rads.
If you are walking around outside on a sunny day with your tritium sight pistol in a holster you will be getting way more rads from the sun than you will from the tritium. You might still get more from the sun on a cloudy day.
Actually, tritium decays to helium three by beta emission — an electron is emmited by the nucleus as a neutron becomes a proton.
The electron is stopped by the phosphor, which glows — just like the coating in a CRT, FVD et cetera.
In any event, the electron cannot pass through the glass envelope of the tube — or much more than a sheet of paper, for that matter.
Net effect: zero rads — ever — even if one had the thing surgically implanted at birth and left there for a lifetime.
Zero absorbed radiation, I shoud say; rad applies only to ionizing radiation, which beta isn’t.
I am tempted to buy one of these…. except there is only one 1000 yard range within driving distance and it is one hell of an expensive toy.
The Courage Campaign? Is that what they’re calling hoplophobes today?
“Its for the children” Has become the new most courageous phrase anyone can say. Jeez Ralph don’t you watch MSNBC.
Ralph don’t you watch MSNBC
No. Never. Which is why I’m still sane.
That explains my padded rooms and cool white jacket that makes me hug myself… too much msnbc back when I was married to a liberal anti gun nut.
The Minnesota Vikings are a bunch of pussies anyway…
I get your point about taking the fun out of making long shots but there are shooters who think using a scope is too, not to mention those muzzle loading fans. Shooting enthusiasts have a big tent, there’s room for another sub-group.
Heck, in a few more years, you won’t even have to waste all your free time shooting to develop marksmanship skills. Just send your robot to the range to ring those 1000-yard gongs for you, and you can watch the footage later on your phone.
The fun will be in hooking up various tacticool gadgets to teh robot. And for the more advanced audience, programming it.
Hm… can we try to extend 2A to cover drones with Hellfires?
“…when a handgun belonging to one of his supporters slid out of its holster and crashed to the concrete floor…”
Just says it all, doesn’t it? Another person who probably shouldn’t be let out in public makes people worry about people walking around with guns akimbo. Thanks for giving a bad image of gun owners…
“…when a handgun belonging to one of his supporters slid out of its holster”
You mean it didn’t jump out?
it was making a break for it.
Great story, occurs to me you could use this technology on a tank cannon instead of powered gyro stabilisation, reduce weight more accuracy and cheaper, much like JDAMs technology improvement has done for your airforce.
And just where do you think laser rangefinding and trajectory computers came from? The retrofit of the M-60 in the 1970’s ofc. Its just that only now did computers and lasers become cheap and small enough to fit in a scope housing. The “add on stab” came to the M60 before trajectory compensation did. That is a whole different issue. Gun stabilization has nothing to do with range or trajectory, it is only so that a tank gunner can fire while on the move, without halting in order to fire. Before this the commander could still fire on the move from his cupola, but only by “shoot from the hip”, wherein he just points the cannon and shoots. He couldn’t even see down the gun, it was just a last ditch way to get a round downrange quick, at almost muzzle contact range…
Sure, this system is technically cheating.. but you wouldn’t want to go up against one of these things. Practically speaking, it makes your rounds worth their weight in gold. From a non-fu<king-around standpoint it's worth every penny.
“…but you wouldn’t want to go up against one of these things.”
Oh, absolutely. For warfighting, I could see the value in it, once you got past the “electronic things always break at the worst possible time, and that goes double in combat” problem. But for “recreational use” (including hunting)? Nah.
To draw an analogy, one pilot has all the latest technology in his plane. He hops in, programs his GPS, and is along for the ride as his plane does all the work. Another pilot has 3 instruments in his plane, has to fly low enough to compare landmarks on his map to what he sees out his window to maintain the course he’s drawn on a chart. To some it’s about achieving the goal, to others it’s the process and skills that is the real payoff. Do we eat an ice cream cone to make it disappear, or to enjoy the process of eating the ice cream. Do we hunt with metal sights and use our gut to gauge the variables, or do we mount the hubble telescope and a laptop computer to our gun to take all skill out of the the shot. IMHO
When the batteries fail who’ll get home?
The guy who had spares.
Meprolights has poor customer service. Buy Trijicon.
If you’ve got the money, hey its another toy to play with. But for those guys in the sandbox/boonies of Africa or some other god forsaken hellhole, I remember the following: Was an interview with an ace pilot from the early part of the VietNam war. Was talking about the difference between WWII flying and VN flying. Said all the beeping and bells going off, the heads up display etc were crazy distractions from killing the guy up in the sky with him. “didn’t want the last thing he was looking at to be some display”. Well I also hope the skills of a Carlos Hathcock don’t fade in the corporate military mind. That shooting with irons isn’t a bad thing. Matter of fact I always like to reference the 62 year old guy who owned the record at Camp Perry for 1000yd shots in the black….George Farr….
http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/camp-perry-1921/
Just for the record, this is the actual rifle Farr used. Notice the ladder rear sight. Nothing special about it. Just a rack 03…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnr_gSZ_acE
There are folks who want to make 1000 yard shots and there are folks who NEED to make 1000 yard shots.
There are also folks who want to learn how to make 1000 yard shots the hard way.
I think we got room for all of them in our tent.
Tracking Point: I have to agree with Matt in FL. While this will be fun and a great tool for hunters, (rich hunters) don’t forget to develop rifle skills that still work even if your batteries die.
Jerry Brown: Moonbeam shows he’s a sharp political operator. The California ban had the best chance of being thrown out by the courts (and maybe dragging NY, CT, MA, MD etc with it) of any of them as it banned an entire class of weapons in direct contradiction to the Heller decision. Now the courts will decide if it’s okay just to ban features as in the NY. After all, New York’s ban does not ban any rifles. The NY AG’s office has issued guidance that AKs and AR-15s are perfectly legal and not subject to registration in New York as long as they have no evil features.
Please to note that these promo videos always show a beginner making these hits, with an expert observer at a spotting scope right along side. This “observer’s” job is to estimate the WIND and call clicks(or mils) of CORRECTION to the shooter! At any range the wind, as well as the trajectory of the projectile, must also be corrected for, or a miss results. These “smart scope” systems can correct for drop, but NOT THE WIND! So that “OBSERVER” is absolutely necessary for the beginner to get those hits. Without him to call the wind correction, the beginner will miss the same as with a regular scope. He might be on for elevation, but a miss from windage, is still a miss. All this system does is reduce the number of necessary experts in the team from two to one. Even if they build one with a weather station attached, the wind will STILL be different, and very likely gusty, over a thousand yards, and will STILL require an expert to judge it over the entire range. Its just a cool gadget, but NOT a way to replace an expert marksman, or at best can only replace ONE. There must still be an expert on hand to judge the wind. Its just a tool, nothing more. All the hype over “just beginning”, “expert shooters”, is just that… HYPE.
The worst part about the Track Point system isn’t that it gets boring, it’s that the military will use it.
Tracking Point…it was bound to happen. The Military Industrial Complex(cue sinister music) has this in our fire and forget weapons. Paint the target,…fire. This has now filtered down to the civilian market, and some clever people engineered a new product. Flat-panel, plasma TV’s were $20,000 when they first came out, now anyone can buy a 52″ TV for a little scratch. When this Tracking Point software filters out to others, a better, more affordable version will become available. In time, it will become as ubiquitous as night vision scopes. Is anyone complaining about what an unfair advantage night vision is, and how we should go back to before Starlite technology became available to the civilian sector. If this T-P system becomes available for $10,000, the back-orders will be enormous. Eventually, it’ll be offered as a new scope package upgrade when you buy a rifle. Scoff if you want to, but when this tech is the price of high end, night vision optics, you’ll plunk down your cash to buy one. Gar-ran-teed! Wait a minute….
Isn’t this the perfect SHTF shooting system? When ammo is scarce, and desperate people are roaming about, and you need to put food on the plate, a T-P system will hit what you aim at with the first shot. Ya, knowing the basics is never going to go out of style, but remaining less capable and less efficient for the sake of “good form”…is. Who wouldn’t want a shooting edge in a SHTF scenario? Batteries? Really? Is it now “bad form” or agin’ the law to buy a reserve of replacement batteries? Just save it!
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