Jan 22, 2009

Digitally Perfect Missing

Our English Cousins report a new gun toy for wannabee deadeyes.

You buy an iPod, buy the program, strap the iPod to your rifle, make sure its battery is up,  and  load the weapon. At that point you're almost ready to shoot -- after you 

"... use the iPod’s touch-screen to tap in details about the wind conditions, ammunition type, distance to the intended target and even the wind speed."

Nothing could be more perfect, assuming the shooter is among those who can accurately estimate distance and  judge mid-range wind, and who is shooting a round whose characteristics he perfectly understands.  (I met such a fellow once and have heard rumors another one exists.)  Then, of course, you need the leisure to "tap it  in."  

Suggestion: Take the IPod and and program money. Spend it on a few boxes of ammunition instead. Use it for practice.  Consult any good ballistics manual and sight your rifle to hit an inch or two high (varies with caliber and loads)  at 100 yards. You dope the wind just  like you would with the gadget -- take a wag, then click accordingly. If your hat blows off, clear your weapon and go for coffee.

The truth as reported by many mossbacks: Bad shots who spend money on gadgets become heavily equipped bad shots.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

To put accuracy another way, "it aint' the arrows--its' the indians." JAGSC

Anonymous said...

Whoa, skipper, you got what Mister FM calls a "bloggy battle honour" - a content warning!
(He, at leasst, posts cheesecake!)

Anonymous said...

Awww, it isn't that I'm above posting a little cheesecake myself, but the porn warn was a simple case of e-klutzery on my part. Messing with the settings, I turned it on to see what would happen and forgot to turn it off.

I'll turn it on again when I start offering pictures of naked guns.

Jim