Now you're a sharpshooter: The smart rifle arrives

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Novice shooter Dara Kerr sights in with of one of Tracking Point's precision-guided rifles.

(Credit: August Crocker)

AUSTIN, Texas -- As Hillman Bailey studied the flat, white target through his rifle's magnified scope, he spotted a brown, six-legged stinkbug, about the size of a dime, crawling across the target. He leaned into the rifle, hot from the sweltering Texas sun, and said to himself, "Let's see what happens." The target was 98 yards away. He steadied the gun, lined the crosshairs over the insect, and pulled the trigger.
The stinkbug was no more.

A photo of Hillman Bailey's stinkbug shot is tacked on the wall at Tracking Point's offices.

(Credit: Dara Kerr/CNET)

Bailey isn't a marksman, but he certainly knows his way around a high-powered firearm. He's an engineer for Tracking Point, the manufacturer of the tech-heavy gun responsible for the stinkbug's demise. For the last three-and-a-half years, Tracking Point's team has labored in a nondescript office park in the flats of north Austin, Texas, with one mission in mind: create a "smart rifle" that lets almost anyone hit targets up to 1,000 yards away with near 100 percent accuracy. That's right: Ten football fields. Want one? You need to wait. Tracking Point, which started shipping these rifles in May, plans to make 400 to 500 this year. But it's already sold out, and the company is telling new customers the back order is six months. The price: around $25,000 apiece.
While Bailey knows how to use a massive firearm, I have only picked up a gun twice in my life -- and those were modest 20-gauge shotguns to shoot clay pigeons. Curious to see what it was like for a novice to fire a Tracking Point rifle, I got a guide from the company to drive me out to a firing range near Austin.

On target: The $25,000 smart rifle (pictures)

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As I scanned the dusty shooting range, I could barely make out my intended target 250 yards away. But through the gun's scope, I could clearly see the square piece of white steel and the red bull's-eye. I gripped the gun, heavy enough that it requires a bipod, aimed, fired and -- bam! -- bull's-eye. Next, I upped the challenge, going for a target 750 yards -- nearly half a mile -- away. Same thing. First try. A regular Annie Oakley. Tracking Point's rifles are the first type of gun like this on the market, but that's about to change. Already a few companies are working on other types of smart firearms, gun-centric apps, and tech-infused scopes. Just as gunpowder sparked the onset of firearms, technology is now igniting a new era of weaponry.