Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Where is the next jump in technology going to come from?

I know this is a gross oversimplification, but it seems that there was a major jump in the performance of firearms when twist rifling became common, allowing for the use of conical bullets. There was also a big jump after the advent of smokeless powders, but where is the next big jump going to come from?

It seems that given the parameters set now we need to work within the 65K PSI pressure limit for safe firing in modern weapons. I've read a bit about "self contained" cartridges that have no brass case, but I cannot see how that would be applicable in a sporting arm since the brass case serves not only to hold the powder but also to seal off the chamber from gas. What is the feasability of creating a breech loading sporting action that would reliably and repeatably seal off a chamber with 100% effectiveness?

Obviously projectiles have made great strides in recent years, but they still fall within the same parameters, i.e. they are copper/lead/alloy and of the same weight range.

Arms themselves are made of better materials, but still operate in much the same manner as they have for 100 years. Some of the best barrels are made using centuries old methods.

The area that I think will yield the biggest gains in performance will be propellants. There is a point at which modern propellants can no longer push a bullet faster since there is a limit to the rate at which gases can expand.

Given the restraints of weight and size for a sporting arm, where will technology take us in the future?

One big "recent" leap in technology has been in bullet construction. Better bullets have allowed the use of smaller calibers and light-for-caliber bullets to be used effectively on big game. It certainly doesn't mean bullets of traditional construction are not effective.....just that there are other options.

I hunted whitetail with a 100g Partition with my 260 AI this fall. The load crono'd 3,340 fps. I certainly would not have used this combination with a typical copper-jacketed bullet but was comfortable with the Partition at those speeds.

I've read here where posters have had good luck with elk size game using 25 cal and up with a good, premium bullet. The new bonded core Hornady bullets may end up being a very good whitetail bullet.

HogWild

I'm wanting to see bore coating technology,reach the upper echelon. Would love nothing more than to have a barrel of incredible interior smoothness,that defiantly resisted wear.

I think it's close..................

Bullet technology marches on as does powder and other componants. New and different cartridge designs are being developed, the most since the early to mid 1950's. Major technology will come very slowly to the civilian firearms industry....any one try Remingtons recent flop the eletronic wizz bang thing I believe it was called something like the Etoxic or some such nonsence. The real field to make changes in is Caliber like Rugers .204 and the Hornady 17 or Ruger 480. Simple change to fill a void that really has not exisited until some one made it. The fire arms industry will move slow, optics on the other hand can change dramaticly in a matter of months if there was a true demand. I also see the next jump in Technology going backwards, men going back to the old favorites the Win 94 Marlin 336 iron sights antique single shots with black powder. Men learning to stalk and hunt not just shoot from the hoods of their trucks. Technology will go both directions Super wizzbang and smoke and stalk. It's all good for the sport.

www.uspto.gov

patent number: 5,788,178

Guided bullet

Abstract
A small caliber laser-guided bullet having a self-contained guidance system is disclosed including on-board laser sensors and navigational circuits capable of detecting a laser target signature, determining the deviation of the bullet from an optimum projectory along which the bullet would impact a hostile target, and generating an electrical signal to piezo electric steering control surfaces to effect a change in the course of the bullet. The guided bullet utilizes a plurality of symmetrically-arranged laser sensor elements which are positioned about a longitudinal axis of the bullet. The laser sensor elements function to transmit optical radiation from the laser target beam to photo detector elements housed within the bullet. The electrical signals from the photo detector elements are then amplified and processed by semiconductor logic circuits to produce the functions required by the steering control surfaces to translate the bullet to the optimum trajectory. Electrical power for the guidance system is provided by a miniature lithium-polymer battery which is interconnected with the navigational circuits to produce the functions of the system. The guided bullet is fired from a precision, smooth bore weapon using a conventional expanding gas cartridge and is effective at ranges up to 3,000 meters and beyond.

Model 710 E-tronix? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Kecatt "Model 710 E-tronix" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Good one. You could just through the gun away when the batteries run out.

Stick, give Doug at Fit-4-duty a call about the bore coating. I stopped by his shop today and fondled a new ceramic(sp) that was so thin it looked as if the steel had just been bead blasted and left nekked. Doug said the coating could be applied to the interior of a bore, in fact he had a 870 that had 500 rounds down the tube and looked like it just had some gun case lint in the barrel. Give him a ring and pick his brain.
I may be taking a couple of my rifles down to him for ceramic coating of the bore.

Lots of COOL colors too, just don't let him sell you on the Tactical Teal <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.

Darkside

One direction that has "room for development" is the use of sabots. The larger base area will extract
more energy from the gas. And the smaller diameter bullet can have a better BC.
Good Luck!

I'm of the opinion that it is the brass case as CAS mentioned. That is the weak link. That is what lets go first under pressure. Steel cases have their own problems and since an action has to be "loose" enough to work the case and what pressure it will stand is the limiting factor now. What to replace it with? I don't know. Maybe magnetic levitation.

BCR

Someone at AR by the name of Sabot claims to be developing a sabot that will allow an increase in velocity with less recoil and powder. This sabot will not be of an extreme diameter change but just step a .338 perhaps to .308.

There have been no samples offered yet.

Rifle scopes by...Intel?

This technology is already out there, just not within the reach of mere working folks yet.

Combine an electronic scope, a rangefinder, a GPS, and QuickLoad software, and we got a scope that adjusts POA for you. Plug the scope into your computer and you can upload your new load data.

The built-in Doppler for doping the wind will cost a little extra...

nothing "major" has happened since mauser designed the 98 in '98! what can we really do now that could not be done then in regards to hunting?

I don't agree 257Bob. We have had wonderful new fabrics for clothing that will out perform the natural fibers we used to have. We have better bullets than ever before, we have better powder and so many choices it blows ones mind. We have better steels for our actions and better quality barrels. We have better quality scopes. The list goes on and on.

I guess I would say that we stand on the shoulders of giants. If you compare a mass-production rifle of today to let's say a commercial Mauser M98 from a century ago, we have a lot of technology in addition to a rifled barrel and smokeless powder.

First, foremost and mostly not noticed is the manufaturing technology used to make the rifle, sights and ammunition and the resulting cost to produce and distribute.

We are not quite at the stage of designing a rifle in a software program, pressing <enter> and lo and behold a rifle emerges from the "building peripheral". There are some machnies that can do that, but we haven't seen them in the commercial rifle market yet. I expect they will appear in the military market first.

We have a spectrum of cartridges and components, but I like to quote Jeff Cooper when he says "We don't need better cartridges, we need better rifles". What would would the characteristics of a better rifle be?

I would like to see a lighter, faster, lower-recoil rifle with embedded optical sights that also permit modular upgrade. Power level would be selectable for the game.

There has been work done on military assault rifles with caseless ammunition. An interesting finding has emerged: the brass cartridge case also carries heat away from the chamber, and caseless ammo will cook-off in rapid fire mode without heat control.

My opinion is that the .308 Winchester (of 7.62X51mm) with the powders and bullets available today is the best hunting technology around. The .300 bore kills better than the smaller stuff, and the .308 Win of today is the equal of the .300 Magnum of a century ago.

jim dodd

Most everything that's been said so far reiforces my thought that the shooting industry has a very difficult time thinking "Out of the Box". Yeah, we have solid expanding bullets now, and some powders that are tailored to a specific family of cartridges, but we are still operating within the same framework that has existed for 100+ years. Basically all the innovation in the last century has been refinements to existing products (processes, materials) rather than breakthroughs.

The corrollary to this is,........ do we really want or need change? Is the lack of innovation due to lack of need or lack of desire? Who knows? If neccesity is the mother of invention, maybe there is no neccesity.

Heck, maybe what I should be thinking about is using less technology and making the performance jump in my hunting skills.

CAS,

One thing I recommend is to go to Gunsite or one of the good shooting schools and take their rifle course. They will equip you with the skills so that if you see it you can hit it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

jim

My bet is on recoil reduction. Brakes are a nice concept, but too many folks just won't put up with the additional noise (like me) and hate them as a result.

Sooooo, an innovation that significantly lessons felt recoil and does not affect accuracy OR add significant weight.

I think some of this discussion focuses on what we call sport. We consider it sport to hunt. Thus, we desire the animal to have some level of ability to either evade or illude the hunter to keep the activity sporting. We also limit ourselves to certain technology.....no hunting at nights.....no artificial lights......no electronic calls....hunting only on certain days.....you can probably list a few too. Hunting is not just about killing, though, killing is a large part of the sport. If we wanted efficiency, we'd not hunt. We'd just buy all our meat at the supermarket. We have efficiency of meat gathering down pat. You see, our guns were once the primary and often, only way to get meat. A better more efficient way has moved into our lives. Only, efficiency wasn't a new bullet, new steel for the barrel or solid expanding bullets. We see efficiency on Friday nights after work. The hunter-gatherers shuffling around the grocery store being efficient about gathering their food. Hunters are hold-outs of a previous era when hunting was essential. Sadly, hunting isn't essential now to most people and participating in this "sport" on a truly modern basis isn't our goal. We do this for sport, not to be the most modern or to have the most efficient killing tool. If we wanted to be more efficient we would participate in the hunt much like the military conducts its excercises and the "sport" in hunting would be gone.

Jim, I've considered that very things many times, and if my Mexico trip falls through, and it looks as though it will I may be headed that way next year.

Rolly,

Great post.