Gun Review: How The TrackingPoint Rifle Works, Will It Make Shooting Skills Obsolete?

 Every time someone mentioned the TrackingPoint Rifle System, I couldn’t help but hear the distant rhythmic *clink clink clink* of John Henry’s hammer.

If you’re not familiar with the legend of John Henry, its the classic man vs. machine fable. Deep in the railroad tunnels under the mountains,  this strong man –the best in his field– was pitted against a steam powered hammer– a machine that promised to make him and his advanced talents obsolete.

 They bitterly waged a battle between flesh and metal, past and future.

When the dust settled at the end of the race, the lantern lights of the tunnel glistened off the sweat studded skin of a victorious John Henry. Yet his chest did not move. John Henry died in a victory he could never really win.

So, will all marksman, snipers, and even people who just love shooting, suffer the same fate as John Henry? Will our skills fade into the past — the antique?

Now comes the little smile. The answer is no. But not a resounding no. Let me explain…

 As Fate would have it, one day while I shot on the Best of the West Range, the TrackingPoint technical team rolled up in their blacked-out SUV. With my curiosity sky high and the kindness of the team to match it, I soon sat behind the trigger of the TrackingPoint’s Precision Guided Firearm, the .300 Win Mag XS-2 (see video at the end of this article).

Does it work as well as they say? Yep. But completely different than  traditional shooting. Here’s how:

You adjust for wind, locate the target and “tag” it. Once the target’s tagged, the crosshairs dip down automatically. You hold down the trigger and bring the crosshairs back up to the tagged point. Once the crosshairs and the tag point intersect the gun fires itself. It truly is a surprise break.

But there’s a trick to it.

Once you tag the target and the crosshairs drop, you have to move the rifle up smoothly. You’re trying to get the reticle to the tag point within a specified time—before the reticle settles for too long in the bottom of your sight picture. If you don’t “dance” with the system smoothly and quickly, it “de-tags.” You have to start the process all over again. If you adjust the rifle—for example to get a better shoulder position—you may move the reticle too far out of the kill zone (their words not mine). Again, you have to start over.

The TrackingPoint system feels awkward for the experienced marksman

With a standard rifle, you never fully squeeze the trigger before the reticle’s exactly where you want it to be. Also, when you line up the reticle with the tag point, you expect the TrackingPoint gun to fire. It doesn’t. It fires when it’s ready. You kind of have to jiggle it around and let it go off when it darn well pleases. That’s completely counter to traditional rifle skills where you want to be as still as humanly possible.

This is not a gun for a newbie looking to learn how to fire a rifle without a TrackingPoint system.

By the same token, a more experienced marksman could pick-up bad habits from using the XS-2. Handling the trigger before fully ready to shoot, excessive movement acceptance at aim point, etc. However, as long as the technology is up and running, does it work? Heck yes, and it’s pretty fascinating how it does. But its technology. I’d bet it works most of the time. But I’d like to have a fail-safe option in my back pocket. Because…

     If the system fails in a high stakes situation, you better hope you’ve brushed up on your pre-robocop marksmanship skills.

By the same token, even with a perfectly performing system,  you still need a mission-critical human element: judging the wind. If you input the wrong wind speed or direction into the system the bullet isn’t going to go where you want it to. As the day progressed, so did our distance and the wind. It was a great day shooting the rifle up to 1000 yards. But as the wind picked up, the true test of man (woman) vs. machine unfurled. Plus one for advanced marksmanship wind reading skill.

There are other elements the TrackingPoint claims that I’d like to test myself, like its moving target capabilities and movement compensation. Overall its an interesting piece of technology that serves its function well. And frankly, it’s excellent for people who can’t stand ballistic calculations, prefer to play video games, and aren’t that interested in mastering traditional rifle skills. Personally, I’m impressed with the technological achievement but…

There’s no substitute for the fun, challenge, and joy of pure shooting marksmanship.

So, John Henry. We’ve learned that machines, just like humans, have strengths and weaknesses. Markmanship enjoyment and skill isn’t obsolete and there won’t be any legendary man vs. machine tunnel races today. Though shooting through a tunnel is a pretty good time …

What do you think? Would you rather shoot a traditional rifle or a TrackingPoint rifle system? Let me know in the comments!

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