>>64283581
It doesn't need to be as invasive as a smartgun, some do nothing but add a little magnet to the follower of the magazine, and then just have the counter on a little display on the side of the grip panel.
Ergo, the counter could completely fail and go dead, but it wouldn't stop anything else in the gun from working. Naturally something you should be mindful to not train yourself to depend on too much.
I wouldn't perhaps bet money on it coming soon, but I could eventually see this kind of functionality becoming simplified, economized, and hardened enough, that it would at least be viable enough for civilian use, and by that I mean for things like target shooting and hunting.
>>64283788
Mechanical round counters for magazines is something that has existed for a few weapons. It's never been really widespread, but it's a pretty old concept. One of the old Japanese light machineguns (there were two, one in 6.5mm and one in 7.7mm, forget which), had a full 30 round counter on each of its top-mounted magazine, so the gunner would actually have the count in his peripheral vision while aiming and firing, so he'd see how many rounds he had left exactly by glancing at it.
>>64284802
Probably the most famous example (outside of the Armat M41A from Aliens), and by far the most common. I love the Savage 99, it's such a cool rifle.
