Remebering the Future.

[proudhon]

I've been reading and thinking about this.
What design items really make one air gun more accurate than another
These are my ideas as to what's important, and where i think we are going

Please comment and correct me if you think I'm way off base

first I would have to think the Barrel the quality and fit to the receiver. (CNC and laser measuring has really changed all that)
With the new computer modeling done
we may see some radical rethinking of barrel design.
If you can test out what a rifling ect are going to do without having to
build the barrel...(modeling is getting better all the time..) Its only a matter of time till the "counter intueative"
ideas come out... Yes the barrel we have used till now have been fine tuned
and have worked for years... But experiment with various rifling
ect is expensive and the air rifle community hasn't had the unlimited
budgeting of the MIC to test "radical" ideas. The Military could afford
to test every hair brain idea and some of them worked.. Computers 3d printing and CNC machining puts so much of that into the hands of
"Innovators" at a really reasonable cost..

I also think CNC will lead to a new machining method for
rifling soon., ie laser cutting... or Chemical forming and hardening and coatings could work wonders... 3d printing may move to metals soon and the new metals out there are amazing... There is a new alloy of alum. out there that.

treated properly may work better for barrels soon. NASA hasn't released
all the details yet they are still trying to get some of their other
stuff out there

Carbon fiber "alloys" may be coming for barrels
(Ie the Carbon Carbon brakes now used on performance cars
they take a while to heat up but work great for their application.)


Then I would think smoothness of the action while firing
Pcp and co2 have made designing in so little "reaction" to firing
so much beter than the older spring actions that I believe though this
important to the basic design has changed so that most quality rifles
have this design down pat. Though I believe the Electronic solenoid
will be the next step to cure a problem that s not really there.
I remember in F! car racing years ago they had "electronic" suspensions.
I have to believe that an electronic "compensator" could be built for
to read both the reaction of the gun and "compensate for it"
(Electronic suspension was "banned" in F1 though it would be hard to ban air rifles. I would think)

Third I would think consistence of firing.. getting the same m/sec
would be next in importance
Pcp and regulators have seemed to removed most of this problem
Though I think we will see electronic valves (rather than soleniods) eventually
They could instant measure the volicity of a pellet anywhere in a barrel
an adjust any additional air release for it..

Even adjust for pellet weight difference

I believe we will see electronic regulator rather than mechanic ones soon
a chip and a "electronic valve" is so much cheaper to produce and tune than
a mechanical device


then I believe its trigger. Hard to be consistent without the same
feel every time...) I realize there are electronic triggers out there..
But there is soooo much room for refinement.


I'm wondering when electronic trigger will be the"big thing" in target rifle shooting. with no "real" valves I would
think that a chip that integrates the whole gun would be fairly easy to
produce.

Luckily we are limited to regular sights... The army has tanks that
keep a target in its sights while moving at speed over rough terrain
and only fire when its Adjusted to the hit.. It may delay the shot
a millisecond or to ... To adjust for the speed movement ect
for a gun and only let it fire when the computer "knows" the
placement would be a piece of cake.

Programming a chip off you pc to shoot your gun...
I believe its coming, The crosman rogue getting to it.
but how about an an IRIFLE for your Iphone.
I wonder if they will let you change batteries between shots? grin
Solar powered rifles......
Mini pumps that don't to store the air in a tube but recharge the
pressure between shots? It all seems fantastic.. but given the Tech
available its all so do able
Lets cut the Military budget and put all those weapon designers out into
the real world.. Hate to say it when Russia did that
there productivity jumped and the quality of their goods increased
(getting rid of a planned economy was a fantastic boost don't get me wrong
but all those clever designers had to go out a compete in the real world
When oil prices level off I'm looking for some great ideas out of Russia.
Their designers weren't stupid.


With the power chip sets now and the speed I've got to think a fully
intigrated electrnic system is only a few years away.
It's going to be very difficult to legislate the future.
The sporting arms community is conservative and tends to stick with
what has worked... And have not been a driving force for change in the industry. Most of what we use is late 19th century tech.
But then again sports people will use what works (the switch to PCP) was fairly quick... Though look at bulk fill CO2 it was working well in the
late 40's and was "reinvented" 40 years later..
The Chemical and electronics industry are so advanced someone is
going to see how easy it would be to adapt it to our sport
When they do a real "epic" change will come to our sport.


jd
Why waste your time remembering the past
Remember the future!

[Rover]

I'm sure the manufacturers will trickle these refinements down to us a little at a time so they may have the benefits of "planned obsolescence".

If in doubt, check out the switch from CO2 to air.

[WesternGrizzly]

Have you seen the groups that modern air rifles can shoot? My gun can shoot a 108.5+ no problem.
I don't think they need to be improved upon.

But I do agree about laser cutting the bore. Current drilling methods result in a bore that isn't quite straight. You wouldn't even need to cut the whole bore diameter with a laser. You could use a laser to drill a pinhole all the way through the steel rod and then have a wire EDM cut the rest. It might be cheaper this way.
Matt

[proudhon]

I've got to believe with the capacity of the
the current rifles
Your going to see a change in the nature
of the sport.
Either a change in the scoring or a
more basic change in the distance shot.
10 meters is so nice because of the
ease a range can be set up. But it's not written in stone.

The thing about gradually bringing in changes
is that it opens up the market for someone willing to
take a chance on a huge leap in Tech.
Daisy has taken a big chance with the Rogue
The chinese have nothing to lose trying to make a
gun that really changes the whole approach
These people have the resources. (money)
I don't see Daisy actually making the gun
but I could see them subsidizing someone
to build them one.... Then branding it
I don't see crosman doing it but it would
help their "brand"
I could see someone in the Midlands of England doing it
Give the amazing Tech capacities there.

One Great "Leap Forward" could make a relatively small
or unrespected manufacture into an overnight star..
Or in California.
Russia...
I think the big leaps come from obscure places. (Apple out of his garage)
With the amount of talent and new manufacturing tech out
there the established manufactures would have to move quick to
catchup.
The market isn't that large and a quantum leap in tech
with a rifle and a few rule changes and the old school
Would have to learn new tricks. I'm not sure they could react that
fast... They have alot invested in the "old" tech..
Plus with some really compatative pricing because of the new tech
its going to be tough on them to bring volume in on new tech
Depending on how much capital they have....
For the first few years they could do very little in house given their
current structure..
This could be fun to watch
jd

[Spencer]

...Either a change in the scoring or a more basic change in the distance shot.jd

there is a vast investment in 10M ranges around the world that are not readily changed to a longer distance

[Levergun59]

The more apt question is the cost of these changes. I would hate to see be any worst than it is right now. We are pricing ourselves out of a sport. The average Joe can't afford this sport without National help now. You've seen it happen in auto racing, biathlon, or any other sport where pure talent can be beaten by more expensive appratus. Actually the sports that are shining like soccer or football are ones that pretty much shelve the tech aspect as they are fundimentally talent sports by their nature and have millions of participants. Children can play these sports without a huge bankroll, and they follow these sports throughout their adult lives. Hope this doesn't put a damper on the discussion, but if we want to get more participation in this sport, we have to get competitive equipment at a cheaper price.
Chris

[Rover]

We don't see this so much in Pistol shooting. As for Air Rifle, I have watched perfect scores being shot, but damned few.

[Levergun59]

As for boring a straight hole in barrel steel, the inventor of this device will have a beach home in Malibu Beach. The fact is that with current barrel drilling technology, benchresters can send 5 bullets into a hole with less than .010in variance at 100 yds. Boring a straight hole will have a lot of other applications than barrels.
Chris

[2650 Plus]

What I like most about the future? There are no bullet holes in the nine ring. Good Shooting Bill Horton

[2650 Plus]

How great an increase in score will a shooter derive from a half inch groupng pistol when the shooter has an eight ring hold? I don't think the pistol does the scoring . I believe the shooter does. Good Shooting Bill Horton