New Self-Aiming Rifle Would Outshoot Human Snipers

Thankfully, it's not for sale

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TrackingPoint, a company that combines gun tech and software to create super-accurate, easy-to-use rifles, announced yesterday it is developing a new system that would give regular people unprecedented sniping powers at distances greater than humans have ever accurately fired a bullet.

The farthest confirmed deadly sniper shot traveled about 8,000 feet. TrackingPoint claims its new precision-guided rifle would allow amateurs to hit targets from 3,000 yards–that’s 9,000 feet–away, based on improvements in the Xact aiming software its guns currently use.

TrackingPoint rifles compensate for human error by letting a shooter tag the target they see in their scope. The scope itself isn’t a magnified lens like traditional scopes; it’s a camera display screen full of information for the shooter. Once the target is tagged, the gun doesn’t fire until special cross-hairs match up to the tag marker. Computers in the rifle set the cross-hairs to make sure the bullet goes where it’s supposed to.

The new “Super Gun” system promises all that, at a range longer than any human has ever hit a target. The last TrackingPoint rifle went on sale for $22,000, but don’t worry: this new rifle won’t be commercially available. Instead, the company says it will incorporate lessons learned into future precision-guided rifles.