New Sniper Rifle

Being able to hit the mark at long distances means holding very still while you are squeezing the trigger. People being built the way they are with finger bones connected to hand bones connected to arm bones, and muscles likewise, squeezing the trigger means your whole body is moving. The motion might be imperceptible, but an imperceptible movement can still throw your aim off enough to cause you to miss your target. Moving the tip of the barrel one thousandth of an inch translates to one inch at 500 yards. This gun is crazy. The scope is full of computerized video gear. Making a shot takes two steps. The first step is to "mark" the target. Basically, you tell the computer what you want to hit by selecting a spot on a video image. The second step is to make the shot, basically just like you would without all the fancy electronic gizmos. You try and hold the cross hairs on the target and you squeeze the trigger. For a human operated gun, the cross hairs are going to be bobbing and weaving all over the place. With a regular gun, you just keep squeezing the trigger and hope that when it goes off the crosshairs are on the target. With this gun, you squeeze the trigger and when the crosshairs coincide with the spot you previously marked, the gun goes off.
Story on ars technica dot com.