So I thought I'd share this since I thought it was pretty cool. A guy I know made a program called ShootOFF that allows you to use your webcam and gun to practice shooting when you don't have the time, money or ammo to go to the range. The program is free, and it's open source so people can write their own training protocols...
Basically how it works, is you start off by setting up a target somewhere in your house (like a teddy bear for example). You point your webcam at the target, and then on your computer you draw a pattern over your target and make your own point system. So, for example, you can draw a box over the teddy bears head for 10 points, and the rest of its body would be 5 points.
You then take the firearm of your choice, and chamber a laser round (you can use an NLT SIRT gun, Surestrike Laser Ammo- the one I've been using, Laser Lyte, etc.). Dry fire your gun at the target, which will flash the laser where you were aiming and be picked up and tracked by the webcam.
I've been playing with it for awhile now and it works pretty well, even with the crappy built-in webcam on my lap top. It's obviously no replacement for live fire training, but it's still pretty fun and a great way to practice... it also seems like a great way to teach someone else how to shoot properly and safely.
If you want to try the program with a regular laser pointer, you can download the program here:
https://github.com/phrack/ShootOFF/releases
An article on The Firearm Blog about it:
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2013/11/22/shootoff-open-source-laser-dry-fire-training-software/
Lastly, a crappy little video (made from the original release... it's on 1.3 now):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGZ1D4LCHVY
Basically how it works, is you start off by setting up a target somewhere in your house (like a teddy bear for example). You point your webcam at the target, and then on your computer you draw a pattern over your target and make your own point system. So, for example, you can draw a box over the teddy bears head for 10 points, and the rest of its body would be 5 points.
You then take the firearm of your choice, and chamber a laser round (you can use an NLT SIRT gun, Surestrike Laser Ammo- the one I've been using, Laser Lyte, etc.). Dry fire your gun at the target, which will flash the laser where you were aiming and be picked up and tracked by the webcam.
I've been playing with it for awhile now and it works pretty well, even with the crappy built-in webcam on my lap top. It's obviously no replacement for live fire training, but it's still pretty fun and a great way to practice... it also seems like a great way to teach someone else how to shoot properly and safely.
If you want to try the program with a regular laser pointer, you can download the program here:
https://github.com/phrack/ShootOFF/releases
An article on The Firearm Blog about it:
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2013/11/22/shootoff-open-source-laser-dry-fire-training-software/
Lastly, a crappy little video (made from the original release... it's on 1.3 now):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGZ1D4LCHVY