What if you missed? The shot is 350 yards, across a small river. Should you risk the shot?
New smart gun technology may be saving hunters from this dilemma as well other common problems. Smart gun technology improves hunter accuracy, safety and allows for remote gun control.
What Is Smart Gun Technology
Similar to what you might expect from a Sci-Fi story, smart gun technology has the ability to identify a gun owner, allowing only that individual to fire the weapon. There's plenty of information on identification technology found in the pdfs on National Shooting Sports Foundation's website.
Other technology, such as smart gun scopes can to turn a novice shooter into a sniper through the same target-locking technology used in fighter jets. Remote control technology is also available for firearms, allowing some features to be managed from all over the world. Remote firing capabilities have been used by some hunters to shoot game from a computer screen, allowing paraplegic sportsmen to partake in hunts.
Smart Gun Safety
In May, 2013, YardArm Technologies announced new safety measures for firearms that would allow a gun’s owner to disengage or engage the safety on their weapon from anywhere in the world. This technology includes real-time alerts to the owner via a smart phone app if somebody is handling the gun while the owner is away.
This extra measure could help keep hunters’ firearms safe while in storage, but hunter’s firearms aren’t the only thing receiving an upgrade with new technology. For decades, hunter safety education courses have taught sportsmen vital safety techniques. Now hunters can receive the same education online, through sites like huntercourse.com.
Though not available in all U.S. states, over 30 states allow hunters to begin their education online, and then require in-person checks upon completion of the course. These post-course reviews vary between states. For instance, in Georgia, hunters educated through huntercourse.com are required to attend a two hour review class with an instructor, and then take the Georgia Hunter Education exam before receiving their certificate.
Smart Gun Scopes
A recently available gun from TrackingPoint can allow an untrained user to consistently hit their target at 1,000 yards or more, according to a report by CNNmoney.com. The ‘supergun’ also includes video recording, so that a hunter can download or even stream to a playback device to review any shooting sequence.
A hunter in the initial situation would simply push a button on the side of his rifle to lock onto the buck, and then the scope goes to work, running an algorithm to adjust the shot for temperature, pressure, spin-drift, and other factors affecting long range shots. All except wind speed, which the hunter still needs to manually adjust for.
Recommended Rifle Resources
Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Rifles
I guess this is a good thing for people who can’t hunt, but just want to kill something. It requires no skills or ability. It is really sad to even contemplate such a thing in the woods. I can see it as a military weapon sight, but not for “hunting.”