TrackingPoint shows off the “Mile Maker,” a rifle with 1,800-yard range | Hacker News Reader

TrackingPoint shows off the “Mile Maker,” a rifle with 1,800-yard range

arstechnica.com

20 pointslelf14 comments

Tracking scope which allows you to tag targets, recommends how to take the shot and streams video live (as well as upload to youtube etc after the shot).

Looks to be one step away from allowing a remote operator to pull the trigger, which doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies.

We already have remote drone operators "pulling the trigger" every day.

Attach them to CCTVs and let the Google decide who's been a bad boy.

The shooter still needs to physically point the weapon and pull the trigger; it's not on any kind of tracking/stabilization platform that could make it independent of a human being. It does however do a marvelous job of computing all of the ballistic factors on the fly and give you a corrected aiming point. It short circuits the years of training and intuition needed to make those calculations, but being able to align the rifle and squeeze the trigger precisely is still a required skillset.

"but being able to align the rifle, keep it steady!, and squeeze the trigger precisely is still a required skillset"

And for this sort of precision a fairly difficult one to acquire. My personal example of the "do it 10,000 times" thing, about the number of rounds I fired in my high school rifle team and prior to that to get perhaps this good. Absent special talent, assume a few months full time with a "growing up shooting" foundation like myself. Without, I have no idea.

> it's not on any kind of tracking/stabilization platform that could make it independent of a human being

Maybe not out of the box, but mounting it on a motorized gimbal seems like an elementary exercise to me.

From what I understand, the difference between this and "click your mouse on a video screen, and it will acquire the target and hit it" is for a considerable part psychological. You do the clicking through a gun scope, and the gun more or less expects you to not hold it stable, then fires itself at the moment that you accidentally point it the right way. That makes it feel more like you do the shooting than a video-game like experience, but from a technical point of view, the difference isn't that large.

CROWS are already remotely operated and implemented in war zones. You're years behind the curve.

It's a sweet rifle. That is, when judged against other rifles, it performs in unexpectedly pleasant and interesting ways. At roughly 1200fps, we're talking about delivering a round that's flying for several seconds before it hits the target. It must be extremely impressive to watch tracers from this thing.

Having said that, yes, you are correct. Make it all remote; mount it on a drone. This thing is very close to being a particularly nasty piece of gear. Nasty in the sense that when we think of a "rifle", it's a guy with a small cannon and a long barrel pulling a trigger to attack something that he can easily see (and can see him). It's not a semi-autonomous weapon system reaching out from places unknown controlled by a person or computer yet somewhere else.

Eh? That's not even .45-70 ballistics, it would result in a trajectory more like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45-70#mediaviewer/File:.45-70...

And a much greater environmental effect on the bullet, probably precluding the accuracy promised.

The 388TP is based on the .338 Lapua Magnum, I'd assume it's pushing 3,000 fps like the parent cartridge unless I hear otherwise. After spending some quality time with Google just now I couldn't find anything on the 338TP's velocity.

> The weapon at least for now is built around an enormous, enormously heavy, custom-milled steel barrel

How do you mill a barrel? I was under the impression that barrels were turned, bored and then rifled.

http://www.firearmsid.com/feature%20articles/rifledbarrelman...

You might be able to mill some bits out of the exterior but I really wonder how a mill could be part of the machining of the business bits of a barrel.

Probably using the term more along the lines of custom-built.

"Caution: Shooting without the eye guard could cause injury".

Hrm. It seems the intelligence of the user base isn't high if warnings like these ("Caution, cup of coffee is hot") are printed on the expensive toy?

CHANGED: it uses a laser to keep the gun sighted in, looking at the barrel end. So there's a variety of ways that laser light could make it to your eyes, and you need protection from that.

That said, I can't see any sign they're at the Shot Show right now this year (the trade show in this field, it's run by the real gun manufacturer's lobby, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, NSSF, and Tracking Point was there last year), and they are at CES....

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