Tracking Point

What the heck is it? At SHOTShow 2015 I got my first real look and a down and dirty tutorial. We’ve all seen the photos on the big optic with three lenses mounted on what would be described as a military style rifle. We’ve heard about how the system makes an extreme long range shooter out of just about anyone. But just how does it do that.

The first thing to understand (and I only understand some of it) is this is a weapon system. This is not an optic mounted on just any weapon. Tracking point is a very sophisticated price of hardware with even more sophisticated software. First, let’s talk optics. The scope is a very long range optic with a built in rangefinder and computer that calculates wind, spin drift, temperature, trajectory, barometric pressure and more. The rifle I saw is a precision bolt action in a .338 caliber (though not lapua) that is specificity tailored to the weapon. 

So I had the chance to fire the Tracking Point system in a 1 mile shot simulation. Using this weapon is akin to dogfighting in a fight jet. It’s absolutely mind boggling. You first have to locate your target. Once found, line up the shot and press a red button in front of the trigger. This paints the target and shows a red dot on the exact placement of where the shot will eventually go. If you don’t like the placement simply line up a better shot and push the red button a second time for a new dot to appear on target. Now you pull the trigger and the darnedest thing happens, your crosshairs plummet and your target rises. You’ve just armed the system. This is the point where the computer uses all its current data to adjust the crosshairs to the necessary hold for this particular shot. The crosshairs dropped to force the shooter to raise the angle of the weapon to compensate for bullet drop (at a mile in this case). While holding down the trigger you raise the weapon and search out your target once again. Then you do your best to realign the shot. While you twitch and bounce and see the effects of your breathing on a 1 mile shot your crosshairs momentary manage to line up on the red dot of your painted target. While you wouldn’t have been able to hold that aim and squeeze off the shot before falling hopelessly off target again, it doesn’t matter. Because while you were struggling with your own body Tracking Point’s rifle fired the shot the moment the crosshairs touched the targeting lock dot. The shot is gone. The target is down. You, Mr Shaky McGee, just took an elk down a mile away.

For me, the time from painting the target to placing the round exactly where it was wanted was about 8 seconds. There was a contest going on and while my time sound good to me the leader board at the time was showing a shot made in just over 2 seconds. This system is incredible and ineligible for export to any other country including our allies. I think I’m ok with that.

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