Origanalist
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A new company in Texas is selling a precision rifle with a unique technology that allows even an inexperienced shooter to hit a target 10 football fields away. The price tag is a staggering $27,500.
Tracking Point describes the weapon as a smartgun, with a trigger wired to the scope so that the gun won't fire until it's locked on the target that's been tagged.
"There are a number of people who say the gun shoots itself," said Chief Executive Officer Jason Schauble, a former Marine captain who was wounded in Iraq. "It doesn't. The shooter is always in the loop."
The TrackingPoint rifles, which are Wi-Fi enabled and have a color display so users can post videos of their shots on Facebook or YouTube, started shipping in May. Schauble said his company is on track to sell as many as 500 of them this year, to clients that he describes as "high net worth hunters" who want to kill big game at long range.
TrackingPoint claims that the gun took down a South African wildebeest at 1,103 yards, a company record.
The company also has a deal to sell about 1,000 of the guns to Remington, which is Schauble's former employer. But the Remington model will be less expensive, running about $5,000 each. TrackingPoint's total sales for the year are expected to be about $10 million.
Lifelong hunter and construction executive Bob Ellis is one client who raves about the rifle. "I have not shot anything like it ever," he said in an email to CNNMoney. "The distance and accuracy of the rifle is a big WOW!"
Founder and chairman John McHale is a serial entrepreneur who's started several companies that were ultimately sold to Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500), 3Com and Compaq, which was later bought by HP (HPQ, Fortune 500). Early in his career he worked on weapons accuracy systems for tanks. The idea for TrackingPoint came to McHale while he was on African safari and frustrated by his inability to shoot a gazelle at 300 yards.
Schauble is well aware of the damage that guns can do. His right hand is partially paralyzed after he was shot with an AK-47 during combat in Iraq. He wears black "kill bracelets" commemorating dead friends. He admitted that TrackingPoint's technology is "controversial."
Government agencies contacted the company last year for a demonstration of the weapon at a shooting range at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. But Schauble says that the Department of Homeland Security didn't express any concerns that TrackingPoint's weapon is more of a threat than existing firearm systems.
continued at...
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/11/news/companies/trackingpoint-gun/
Has this been discussed? It's not something new so I assume it was. The reason I bring it up is apparently the military is taking a interest.
Tracking Point describes the weapon as a smartgun, with a trigger wired to the scope so that the gun won't fire until it's locked on the target that's been tagged.
"There are a number of people who say the gun shoots itself," said Chief Executive Officer Jason Schauble, a former Marine captain who was wounded in Iraq. "It doesn't. The shooter is always in the loop."
The TrackingPoint rifles, which are Wi-Fi enabled and have a color display so users can post videos of their shots on Facebook or YouTube, started shipping in May. Schauble said his company is on track to sell as many as 500 of them this year, to clients that he describes as "high net worth hunters" who want to kill big game at long range.
TrackingPoint claims that the gun took down a South African wildebeest at 1,103 yards, a company record.
The company also has a deal to sell about 1,000 of the guns to Remington, which is Schauble's former employer. But the Remington model will be less expensive, running about $5,000 each. TrackingPoint's total sales for the year are expected to be about $10 million.
Lifelong hunter and construction executive Bob Ellis is one client who raves about the rifle. "I have not shot anything like it ever," he said in an email to CNNMoney. "The distance and accuracy of the rifle is a big WOW!"
Founder and chairman John McHale is a serial entrepreneur who's started several companies that were ultimately sold to Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500), 3Com and Compaq, which was later bought by HP (HPQ, Fortune 500). Early in his career he worked on weapons accuracy systems for tanks. The idea for TrackingPoint came to McHale while he was on African safari and frustrated by his inability to shoot a gazelle at 300 yards.
Schauble is well aware of the damage that guns can do. His right hand is partially paralyzed after he was shot with an AK-47 during combat in Iraq. He wears black "kill bracelets" commemorating dead friends. He admitted that TrackingPoint's technology is "controversial."
Government agencies contacted the company last year for a demonstration of the weapon at a shooting range at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. But Schauble says that the Department of Homeland Security didn't express any concerns that TrackingPoint's weapon is more of a threat than existing firearm systems.
continued at...
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/11/news/companies/trackingpoint-gun/
Has this been discussed? It's not something new so I assume it was. The reason I bring it up is apparently the military is taking a interest.
