Counting range to the target

[GrauGeist]

paintball gunners standing in the sunroof?

[thudthwacker]

They recently (I think it was recent; might just have seen it recently) did a segment on Mythbusters where they rigged up a paintball gun on the hood of one car, and then set it in pursuit of another car to see if it could actually hit anything. It did spectacularly well -- better than anybody on the show expected.

When the gun was fixed to the hood the driver (Adam) was, with a little practice, able to hit the fleeing car no matter how that driver (Jamie) swerved around on the road. Adam was able to match the swerving, and even get good control on the elevation angle of the gun by accelerating/decelerating.

In the second experiment, where Adam had the ability to move the gun with a joystick (and remember, he was driving with his other hand), Jamie never had a chance. Adam could casually smack paintballs into the mudguards on the wheels, the section of the trunk behind the gas tank and, if memory serves, the back of Jamie's head (the back window was missing; part of the experiment was to see if the hood-mounted gun could actually hit the fleeing driver). And remember -- this was all without any kind of targeting scope or other aiming aid.

As my daughter and I both dig driving combat games (we're currently playing a home-grown set of rules with Racer Knights of Falconus cars), we thought this was absolutely the most awesome thing.

[Angrytubist]

Do you happen to recall the episode name or number? I must netflix that.

[GrauGeist]

Originally Posted by thudthwacker

They recently (I think it was recent; might just have seen it recently) did a segment on Mythbusters where they rigged up a paintball gun on the hood of one car, and then set it in pursuit of another car to see if it could actually hit anything. It did spectacularly well -- better than anybody on the show expected.

Mythbusters, 2011 season "Spy Car: The Revenge"

Adam built two different mounts to hold a fully automatic paintball gun on the hood of a car – one for a fixed position, and another that could be aimed with a joystick and camera/monitor system. He and Jamie did a control run, with Adam driving and shooting at a target vehicle with a handheld semiautomatic gun, but only scored one glancing hit.

Next, Adam mounted a gun and a full ammunition hopper on his hood and chased Jamie, who drove a target car with the rear windshield removed. He was able to riddle the rear end and hit Jamie's head and seat a few times with the fixed mount; in the aimed-mount test, he got so many hits in such a short time that Jamie called an early end to the run.

Note that a .50 cal will fly a lot faster and straighter than a paintball, making the shooting a lot easier.

[Angrytubist]

Many thanks, can't wait to see that one.

[ammulder]

Yeah, but I bet the whole MythBusters sequence took longer than 11 seconds... :)

[swordtart]

Yeah, but it probably took as long to produce the sequence it as it would to play it in CW ;(

We used to assume it would take 1 minute for every second of finished footage. CW could take as long as 1/2 hour to resolve 1s of combat. Even simple straight line movement with no firing could take 5 minutes or so.

[kjamma4]

Originally Posted by swordtart

Even simple straight line movement with no firing could take 5 minutes or so.

You need to get a cattle prod on those people.