Products I wish someone made...

[GreenScoutII]

Ok. I had a couple of thoughts about two inventions which I would buy in a heartbeat if somebody could actually build them. For all of you engineer types here, feel free to develop these. I don't require any payment other than you have to give me a working proto type..

1. I like to shoot prarie dogs. It is fun as hell to try to hit such a small target, particularly at ridiculously long distances. Unfortunately, one thing I'm really bad at is estimating distance. Yes, I know there are good laser rangefinders available, but prarie dogs seldom sit still long enough to use one. Even if they did, a guy might still have to adjust his scope to compensate for bullet drop. And then, what about wind? A guy has to figure for that too....

So.... Go ahead and call me lazy, but what if there was a riflescope with a laser range finder and a small computer built in. Also, there would need to be a battery pack and some small servo motors. The way this would work is, a guy would connect a cable from his computer into the rifle scope and download ballistics for the caliber he is shooting. Then, he would put an object in his crosshairs and press a small button adjacent to the trigger. The computer would range the object and automatically adjust for bullet drop based on the ballistics which were previously downloaded.

What about wind now? Well, I know light is affected by gravity maybe it is also affected in some small way by wind as well? I don't know for sure, but maybe the laser could measure that as well and adjust for it as well.

That would be the ultimate varmint/sniper scope.....

2. As I mentioned, I like to shoot prarie dogs. Unfortunately, PDs frequently live where livestock are present. A lot of times there will be a herd of cattle who wander into one's line of fire. They might be 600-800 yards out behind the PD I'm trying to hit at 350. I can't take that shot. I know that a thin skinned light varmint bullet will likely break up as soon as it hits the dirt, but what if it doesn't? I can't take the risk of injuring or killing some rancher's livestock ...

So, what if there was a type of bullet which would only travel a certain distance or number of revolutions before breaking up? I noticed that sometimes varmint bullets bill overspin and break up if shot from a barrel with a tight twist. Maybe some brilliant engineer could find a way to control this effect and come up with a bullet that will break up in a predictable consistant way. These bullets could be constructed to self destruct at regular yardages. Say, 200, 300, 400, etc. That way, in the scenario I mentioned above, if I had a PD at 350 and cattle behind it at 600, I could select the bullet which would come apart at 400... This may have applications for law enforcement as well...

So, what do you guys think? I'd really like to hear everyone's thoughts on this, but I'd particularly like to hear what SA Friday and Hoser think. I bounced this off of my pops, a gunsmith with 50 years experience. He thinks the scope might be doable. The bullets, not so much...

Discuss.

[BigBear]

My thoughts:

1. The technology is here, however it is too costly and would weigh too much for "practical" use. Plus, it wouldn't be worth manufacturing as only a handful of people would in the correct market for such items. Unfortunately, this is one case where "tried and true" measure still wins.

2. They do have fragnible bullets, etc. There is technology such as those on our systems that can send self destruct orders to missles... Again, for something the size of a .22lr, the technology is there, but the cost would be way too much for everyday use. They do have soft bullets that break up on contact and theoretically, with enough "push" the bullet could get a kill strike... but once again, the tried and true will probably stay.

My .02 cents. I am not an enginneer, but I like the tech stuff.

A product I would like to see is a eletronic tracer round that collects data along it's flight path. Much like the sensors they use in tornado testing.

[TFOGGER]

I'd like to have a remote airbag activator to use on asshats in traffic. Kind of a point-and-poof device.

"Fargin' Jackass....cut me off, will ya? *FOOM* Muahahahahaha...."

[Zundfolge]

1. http://www.barrett.net/optics/bors ?

[Troublco]

Okay, I'll agree the motorized elevation/azimuth changing sounds lazy. But I will admit that I like to limit the things that can break in my systems. But since they already make scopes with built-in laser rangefinders, and Barrett has their Optical Ranging System, it would be possible (although I'm sure it would be so expensive as to make a U.S. Optics custom scope seem cheap) to design a scope that would integrate the laser rangefinding function with the ballistics computer like a Barrett ORS and set up a couple stepper motors to adjust the crosshairs from their zero point. The wind component, I'm not sure how you could functionally integrate into the scope but my thought would be to take one of the wind meters that High Power shooters use, rig it with threaded boss like a spotting scope and then stick it on a tripod or small stake for that purpose (you could make all sorts of mounts), and have a thin cable a couple meters long to connect it to the scope. Or, I suppose if cost and battery life were no object you could do a bluetooth connection or something. The laser rangefinder/computer/lazy motors should be able to use 123 cells with a decent battery life, if the wind meter was set up the same way for commonality you could just take some spare 123's and go. And hey, if you're doing all that just have a battery meter in the scope so you can monitor battery life. I think I'd want rechargeable batteries and some sort of small solar array and maybe a little crank generator to be able to recharge them when out and about.

While you're at it, it should also have range, wind, angle, and temperature readouts in the scope view (I'm thinking along the lines of a heads-up display), and an anti-tilt indicator too. And if it's got all this, why not stuff a GPS into it too? Give you position and altitude info. The computer could use it all. You could probably work that into the wind meter/thermometer component. Set this up to take an add-on night scope and you'd have everything covered.

Order now for just 360 easy payments of only $99.95!

[GreenScoutII]

1. http://www.barrett.net/optics/bors ?

Cool.. Didn't know that existed.... Bastards! They beat me to the punch!

[GreenScoutII]

While you're at it, it should also have range, wind, angle, and temperature readouts in the scope view (I'm thinking along the lines of a heads-up display), and an anti-tilt indicator too. And if it's got all this, why not stuff a GPS into it too? Give you position and altitude info. The computer could use it all. You could probably work that into the wind meter/thermometer component. Set this up to take an add-on night scope and you'd have everything covered.

Order now for just 360 easy payments of only $99.95!

Troublco, I like the way you think. You just might be onto something. Maybe we could advertise it on ManFlix???

[TFOGGER]

Troublco, I like the way you think. You just might be onto something. Maybe we could advertise it on ManFlix???

Needs BlueTooth connectivity.....

[BigBear]

Its great and all, but part of the thrill for me (and the skill for true professionals) is the feild craft. "Snipers" and other operators do not want to be lugging all that equipment around, plus the eletronic field that would be present could give you away to some sort thermal scouting or electronic signal monitering (if the opponent is as well armed technilogically as you). Plus the "point and click" feature could get a ot of people in trouble with the level of immaturity and anger aggression prevalent in our society, lol.

On the other hand, that BORS is pretty nifty.... lol

[Irving]

Sounds like you want to spend thousands more dollars on equipment and expensive ammo to hax prairie dogs and take all the fun out of it. What you are asking for is basically an auto aim hack. I think it'd be cool at first, but if you always hit the dogs, then it will become boring (and you'll run out of prairie dogs. Might I suggest that you purchase a video game console and a game like Modern Warfare 2 that has awesome sniper stages? Will save you a lot of money and it's never cold and you aren't looked down on when you drink heavily at the same time.

When I want to blast the crap out of stuff, I turn on my Wii and go hunting or play Link's Crossbow Training. :cheers: