A few months back we covered a new 'TrackingPoint' rifle sight that "turns every shooter into a sniper," and recently they presented their weapons and sights at the massive techie gathering CES.
The verdict: its even cooler than we anticipated.
Lee Hutchinson (who actually got to pull the trigger!) of ArsTechnica gave TrackingPoint a sweet write up that everyone should read — but in short:
- You can Wifi the sight to an iPad through a TrackingPoint iOS app, so spotters can help shooters get on target using Apple's tablet.
- The Linux operating system powers the scope
- The scope doesn't project an image, it records a video, which is then screened before the eye.
- That video can then be posted up on YouTube (yes, that prize Alaskan Bear kill will be immortalized without use of a taxidermist)
And finally, squeezing the trigger, from ArsTechnica:
TrackingPoint is quick to emphasize the rifle doesn't fire "by itself," but rather the trigger's pull force is dynamically raised to be very high until the reticule and pip coincide, at which point the pull force is reset to its default.
In the mockups the company had on display for the press to experiment with, the action appeared to be the same—I pulled the trigger and lined up the dots and the blue plastic toy gun went click.
Simply awesome.
Not so awesome — price point: $17,000.
Well I won't be buying one soon, but I can always live vicariously through Hutchinson, who noted that the company downplayed any military application. TrackingPoint, aware of the proximity of the Sandy Hook shootings, noted that their three models are for 'bolt action' hunting rifles, not semi-automatic weapons.
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