#Helicopter

Shootah (a portmanteau of “shoot” and “Utah”) is an annual range day featuring Utah-based gun businesses. Shootah 2021 was hosted at the Garth Killpack shooting range in Springville, Utah. The range sits at the mouth of Hobble Creek Canyon and has recently undergone an expansion.

Last week was the realization of a dream. This was all thanks to Last Shadow, a Temple, Texas based aviation company that primarily focuses on helicopter hog hunts. However, they are a full service company and entertained my desire to shoot a gun from a helicopter at night using night vision. It was one of the most fun experiences I have ever had with night vision.

There are certain actions in the society that one would think common sense dictates you just do not do those things. Like yelling “fire” in a theater, “bomb” in an airport etc. Unless those things are actually happening. Don’t bring anything gun shaped into a school. You know, common sense. But this Clearwater Florida man is clearly lacking in common sense. He decides to shine a laser at aircraft. In this case, it was a Pinellas County Sheriff’s helicopter.

In today’s episode, we follow Miles to Shot Show 2018 Media Day at the Range and visit the UTAS booth.

Working under contract from the Army’s Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM), AimLock, a subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Scientific Laboratory, developed an actively stabilized weapons chassis for AR-15 rifles. AimLock has been in the news before for their stabilized rifle platform, which was shown off in a presentation at the 2016 National Defense Industry Association conference and subsequently reported on in Futurism and Popular Mechanics, and, of course, here at TFB.

In Norse mythology, the valkyries were angelic female shepherds of the dead slain in battle, who chose from among them the warriors who would prepare for the coming of Ragnarok, and and who would whisk the chosen away through the sky to Valhalla. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, valkyries became reality – after a fashion. Great aluminum machines with whirring blades carried men into battle for the first time, and, when needed, swooped down onto the battlefield to carry off the wounded for treatment. The age of airmobile infantry – the age of the helicopter – had begun.

Priority 1 Air Rescue is a European and U.S. based training company that focuses on training military and civilian flight crews. While at SOFINS 2017 the company introduced their multi-configurable virtual reality gunner/hoist station. The station is essentially a cage that can be produced in different versions (up to 20 different helicopters) to simulate the interior feel of a chopper while a gunner is on their weapon station out the side fuselage. There is an actual (or demilled) machine gun system set up whether that be a M240, or an M134 Minigun connected to a sensor that allows the shooter to manipulate it and fire with their hands from the virtual reality headset. I assume these machine guns are using CO2 compressors or similar reality enhancing equipment to simulate recoil. Everything on the headset is recorded so that after action reviews can be made possible. It appears that different mission configurations can be uploaded to the headset and can be altered to fit whatever the commander or qualification course needs. The CEO mentioned that although the platform is intended for aerial rotary platforms, it can be modified for rigid inflatable boats, ground vehicles, and even C130s (most likely he means the AC130 Gunship).

So we all know that there is a super secret new product from Springfield Armory. No one who knows what it is will talk about it, and there aren’t any clues online.

B.E. Meyers posted this video up on their Facebook Page. The Predator intro sums up one’s feelings of this video. Copious amounts of machismo and testosterone. Also a whole lot of awesomeness.

This video was posted on Twitter about the recent military coup going on in Turkey. We don’t get to see the helicopter and the target is too far away to discern what it was. But you can see the automatic trail of tracers fired down onto the ground. There seem to be some spots in the video that move in sync. Could it be a visible laser targeting system? It seems odd how some of the dots rise up in the air. Perhaps it is bouncing off the particulates in the air?

After the Wednesday round of the 2016 SHOT Show, I sat down for an evening of quiet work, to finish up a few articles I had from the day’s show-trekking. Less than an hour later, I was standing in a crowd at Battlefield Vegas, watching a Chieftain tank crush a sedan.

As my friend pointed out: “This is how you get rid of an invasive species”. I want this guy’s job. He flies around eliminating pesky goats from a park using an AR15 with what looks to be an Aimpoint.

Not something you normally see at the range.

Andy of Florida Gun Supply sent this to us. They torture test an Enfield Rifle Company’s MERC415. They drop it from a helicopter. From the video, it seems they are only a couple hundred feet off the ground. They don’t mention what altitude they are at. It was interesting to see the baseplate of the PMAG fail and the spring popping out.

Reader Beau emailed me this video. It shows a RC Helicopter firing a Springfield 1911 .45 ACP pistol.