There are 15 shooting sports in the current Olympic Games:
- 10m Air Rifle Men
- 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men
- 10m Air Pistol Men
- 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men
- Trap Men
- Skeet Men
- 10m Air Rifle Women
- 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women
- 10m Air Pistol Women
- 25m Pistol Women
- Trap Women
- Skeet Women
- 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team
- 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team
- Skeet Mixed Team
The pistol and rifle are .22 Caliber, the trap, and skeet are 12gage. The air pistol and air rifle fire 10 mm projectiles.
In reading the rules, they talk about how the shooting jackets are padded to reduce recoil.
How would they deal with the recoil from a 30-06? It boggles the mind.
The rapid shooting requires 5 rounds on target from low ready in 4, 6 and 8 seconds.
Jerry’s 6, reload, 6 in 1.9 seconds would likely break their heads. Of course, they are looking for accuracy rather than speed. Jerry puts all of his rounds in the A box, that is different from the ISSF target.
The 10 Ring is 100 mm in diameter with the inner 10 being 50 MM, the outer ring is 500 mm. They define a miss a bit differently than we would at “9.7”.
Regardless, there are still real rifles at the Olympics.
Comments
7 responses to “Olympic Shooting Sports”
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Air guns use 4.5mm projectiles at 10M. For both rifle and pistol.
There’s still a great amount of skill involved.
Someone needs to introduce the Olympics to 3-Gun, if for no other reason than the resultant heart attacks, strokes and pearl-clutching fatalities would open governing board seats to people more familiar with reality.
Then again, that might not turn out to be as successful as imagined, and it would wind up proving that 3-Gun could be completely destroyed with government-regulated 4.5MM Airsoft guns, metric distances and Socially Acceptable Targets.
Still, that first option is attractive…..
(And, regarding those “recoil-cushioning jackets,” a few long stages of IPSC-Major in pistol and Heavy Metal in rifle in Florida in August could be enlightening)
The padded jacket offers another advantage which is it reduces the movement from the arms and body creating a more stable shooting “mount.”
Which is why in High Power Rifle we use heavy canvas jackets that are closely fitted and have multiple straps to tighten sections selectively – the jacket acts as an exoskeleton. Just don’t try to do anything but shooting in them because movement is difficult. In most of the Olympic sports – biathalon comes to mind – that much restriction of movement would be intolerable. But in 3-Position it works.
Agree they are boring.
It is an event that is 100% accuracy. The less movement, the better. No change in stance, etc… It is literally like watching someone draw a perfectly straight line with a pencil.
Having said that, I will not knock the skill of the shooters. It is something to strive for, but it is boring to watch. Seriously, if the sport was exciting to watch, that guy from Turkey would not be a meme, it would be a minor point on the news.
I would think skeet is more exciting, since it involves movement and rapid reaction. I already mentioned the other day the WSJ article about the ballerina who became a champion skeet shooter, and how both skills need excellent balance.
BTW, the photo at the top of the article is clearly from biathlon, a winter sport. That one is an odd hybrid combining cross country skiing with target shooting (half standing, half prone). Miss a target and you have to do a penalty lap. Part of the difficulty is that skiing is intense exercise, not in any way conducive to steady hands.