So this thing exists, and can be had for $17,000.

 

Trackingpoint's computerized rifle scope and trigger system.

 

First you tag your target in the display. The scope viewer will then range and tag the target with a red dot. The scope will then calculate bullet drop for range (it has all of the rifle and round's ballistics info), it will then wait for you to pull the trigger on a newly formed electronic target reticule. Once you pull the trigger, the scope will then wait for you to line up the shot on the formerly tagged marker before letting the round go via the electronic trigger.

 

They took a new shooter, who never shot a rifle before in his life, and had him hit a plate at 1,000 yards on the first try.

 

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/03/bullseye-from-1000-yards-shooting-the-17000-linux-powered-rifle/

There goes all the fun. On a side note I hear Feinstein wants to add this to her ban list as its an "assault scope".

I'm not a fan of scopes already because it makes things too easy at a 100 yards, then this comes into the equation.

 

I'm sure I would love to buy a very good scope if I wanted to hit something accurately at over 100+ yards. But for now an RDS is more than enough for a 100 yard range.

How practical is it for a moving target

I see there's a "weather station" but I'm not following how it judges wind...?

I imagine in a few years systems like this would be strapped to drones, so instead of a Hellfire missile they can shoot a bullet from a few miles away.

 

In terms of calculating windage, atmospheric scintillation science has been around for a few decades.

 

Computers already beat humans at chess and Jeopardy. Calculating a firing solution is trivial by comparison.

 

Really the $17k is to pay for the first adopter costs. The cost to produce subsequent units are greatly reduced.

 

How practical is it for a moving target

 

The article mentions that once tagged, the scope will keep the pip on a moving target without reranging. Not sure if it adjust the aim point based on target movement or not, though it implies yes.

 

I think windage has to be manually adjusted using a dial on top of the scope

 

The system plays an active part in when the shot gets fired.. according to the author it could be several seconds after the trigger is pulled. I imagine that would be unnerving for most people.

I know nothing about optics so my idea might not work but I always thought it should be possible to have a scope that automatically adjusts for bullet drop based on focal distance.

 

What I mean is:

 

If you focus the scope at 100 yds, the point of aim is automatically adjusted for the bullet drop at 100 yards.

If you focus the scope at 500 yds, the point of aim is automatically adjusted for the bullet drop at 500 yards.

 

All you need to do is rotate the focus ring until your target is in fucus and pull the trigger. Much easier than anything else I've seen and much cheaper than $17,000.

The $17k isn't buying you bullet drop calculations. It is buying windage. Trackingpoint package is specific to a rifle and caliber, so bullet drop and wind coefficient is preconfigured.

 

For a normal scope to know elevation adjustments over distance, it would need to know bullet drop, which means hardcoding bullet grain, powder. Even then it wouldn't be able to adjust for elevation adjustments due to wind.