"Sam Lambert, CEO and founder of the Prineville-based Ochoco Arms, describes his multilaser-sighting system at the Bend Venture Conference on Oct. 18. Lambert's idea garnered a $10,000 prize in the concept-stage division of the competition." (courtesy bendbulletin.com)

Sam Harris’s staff aren’t at the beard-pulling celebratory stage yet. Ochoco Arms’ patented multi-laser shotgun sight doesn’t have a military or law enforcement buyer and it’s not available to you, Joe Q. Public. But it’s a pretty good idea: using a lot o’ lasers to see where all the pellets will go when you unleash the dogs of war via scattergun. And it’s starting to pay off. “On Oct. 18, Ochoco Arms won the concept-stage competition at the Bend Venture Conference and received a $10,000 prize,” bendbulletin.com. “Lambert said the money will go toward acquiring an international patent and travel expenses to meet with U.S. military officials to discuss designs. ‘We don’t have engineering done yet,’ Lambert said about the laser system. ‘We don’t want to build a shoe and look for a foot that fits it.'” Sensible man. Watch this space.

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29 COMMENTS

  1. One of the terrible laser companies already makes this except all the lasers are the same color on the other one. This version seems more useful in a world where both are still useless.

    • Laserlyte CM-15. I have one on my KSG, and I actually really like it, *but* its uses are very few and very specific.

      Outside, the lasers are too small and “dim” to see at any appreciable distance or in non-smooth terrain (trees, grass, etc). Beyond 5 yards or so it’s simply hard to track. It’s a waste of time for anything outdoors, IMO.

      Inside it shows up bright and visible on any surface in the house and provides a clear indication of shot size and placement without the need for a proper cheek weld. Furthermore, the refractive lens that creates the ring o’ dots also causes a soft diffuse green glow around the gun, which is just bright enough to navigate by in a dark house. So, I like the Laserlyte for (certain) bump-in-the-night investigation scenarios because I can keep my head up (instead of looking down the sights) and still have a good option to react to getting surprised / ambushed.

      I also accept that you could do pretty much the same with a weapon-mounted light, and the light is probably better for target identification. But the laser is 8x more fun for the cats. 🙂

  2. I’m not psyched until they come out with one of the Predator sights. And that shoulder thingy that goes up.

  3. Very cool toy and I’d love to have one to play with. However I’m not sure what it actually does for the shot gunner. If you pattern your weapon/load combination at various distances you already pretty much know what you’re going to get, and more accurately that the laser could possibly predict (every load and gun being different).

    I happened to have been patterning a new load over the weekend and found that my latest favorite is much tighter than what I’d been using in my gun, so tight in fact that it’s sub-optimal under 30 feet.

    With so many variables I can’t imagine how this device could predict the spread with anything other than a wild guess, but I’m interested in seeing what they have come up with.

    I like to use an adjustable flashlight as a pattern gauge for low light work. If you sync the focus of the flashlight to your pattern spread you end up with a beam that presents a rough estimate of the spread of a given load/gun combo. Using a sharpie to mark the pattern limits on the lens will provide a shadow that can be used as a reference point for spread as well. It takes a little doing but it’s low cost and fairly effective at household distances.

    • Low cost and effective works for me. But the tacticool crowd are the one’s that keep the gadget companies in business.

      • Agreed, and they do sometimes come up with cool gadgets. In fairness to this device, I can see where it may have considerable deterrence factor. If one laser tells the BG where the bullet is going to hit him, a bunch of lasers indicating all the hits he’s going to take if you pull the trigger ought to help him decide to do the right thing.

  5. I’m sorry, how can a patent be issued on this? This is hardly an innovation, and barely an evolution of an existing concept. Hell, a flashlight will do the same damn thing. I’ve got a laser cat-toy that has a lens that will do something very similar. Another bogus patent, *sigh.

  7. I can’t imagine any information more useful that a bunch of dots around my aim point.
    Got some Flight Control Wad shells in the tube? Simple. Just switch sights mid-tube.
    “Hold on, pal… can’t see my pattern. Just a sec’…OK, move on in.
    Nope, too close. Got no spread. That’s it pal, just back up a bit…..OK, good… say ‘cheese’.”

    The margins on this cr@p must be terrific. Ardent got me thinking, and I just submitted a patent application for my new “Peel a Picture Gun Light Stickies.” My trial version simulates Gotham’s Batman Signal-in-the-Sky. You just put the translucent plastic image over your SureStream© light. Sufficiently accurate within thirty feet with non-buffered lead buck. My next invention? A SureStream© Gun Lite LCD NetFlix viewer, when you need to tag a very slow-moving perp. SWAT discounts apply. Use code 00HUH?

  8. I apologize for being a wet blanket … I think the multi-laser idea is a no-go.

    For one thing it can be extremely difficult to see lasers in real world conditions. Now add a little smoke or debris as members of the military may encounter in combat and the lasers become useless. Furthermore, I don’t see the military using large numbers of shotguns any more.

    Another, much larger problem: the human eye is not going to be able to track multiple dots on uneven, multi-colored, and multi-textured real world surfaces of varying reflectivity and illumination (everything from pitch dark to bright, direct sunlight and everything in between including targets partly in bright sunlight and partly in deep shadow) during the stress of combat. We all know that people suffer from tunnel vision and auditory exclusion during the stress of combat. Heck, uniformed police officers often shoot plain clothed officers even though the plain clothed officers had they badges highly visible around their neck. There is no way that someone is going to aim their shotgun and track all those dots.

    I am all for technology upgrades. Sometimes, however, there is no replacement for practice and skill. The human brain is one of the most powerful computers the world has ever or will ever see. Our brains are fully capable of estimating distances and knowing about how large a shot pattern will be at those distances … and our military should take full advantage of it. Any application that requires a more precisely predicted pattern needs a rifle.

    • Good point – hadn’t thought about the disruptive effect clothing folds/textures would have on the pattern. It would end up being as hard to look at as those ghost hunter’s movement lasers.

      They’d be better off with a powerful laser with an adjustable focus – it would work like a daylight visible flashlight with a sharply defined edge.

  9. Hmmm… I think a shottie is plenty frightening without any gadgets at all.

    Within a reasonable range, the nine .30″ balls in a 12/00 shell would be similar to being shot with 4-5 Mosins at once.

    Yes, I evaluate most weapons in terms of their level of Mosin-ness.

    Ouch.

  12. Too simple. lol. A typical 64 MOA circle (EOTech, for example) provides an 8 inch target at 12.5 yards,
    or a 4 inches at 6 yards, which is about what you can expect with standard buffered plated buckshot.

  13. For the military or LE it might be a useful tool to avoid collateral damage, a measure to get them to not take the shot. I don’t really think it would be useful because in those moments such gadgets are usually forgotten about, but it might give a few PDs something to spend their budget on to try to make people think they have the upper hand over criminals and are looking to reduce collateral damage.

  15. “I have a big red beard and I am very serious about this laser beam shit, so stop laughing!”

    Visible laser beams as aiming devices are essentially obsolete outside of very compact, defensive handgun applications.

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