This dude looks relaxed and laid back as he takes the Bronze. What is spectacular, in this picture, is that he doesn’t look like a cyborg. No fancy gizmos, nothing except ear plugs and prescription glasses.
Why is some random ex-cop from Turkey taking a bronze in a shooting competition? The top four slots should all be Americans.
USA! USA! USA! Rah rah rah.
How many of you have precession air guns? I have one. And it isn’t great. If I had a few hundred to spend on a good air-rifle, I have enough to spend on a good rifle.
My guess is that air-pistol and air-rifle competition just isn’t that popular in the states. We have young children competing in shooting sports. Often times starting with their parents’ firearms.
Those that are superb get sponsorships and are soon professionals, which means they don’t qualify for the Olympics.
Since they added snowboarding to the Winter Olympics, maybe we can hope they will add Three Gun or one of the other standard shooting sports. At that point, I would expect to see more American’s taking medals. Until then, I’m going to laugh at the people who think that a guy shooting with limit equipment is something unheard of.
Then I’m going to the range and putting a few hundred rounds down range. A mix of 9mm, 0.45.
Comments
9 responses to “Where’s the Gold?”
Too many Americans think of airgun as “BB guns”. You can still buy a Daisy Red Ryder; they are still fun to shoot. Airguns have grown up and become serious shooting devices.
That 4.5mm 10m air pistol he’s shooting will place 10 pellets in a 4.6mm hole at 10m; cost: $2500 – 3000. The skill to do that is incredible. 490/500 won’t get you 10th place in that competition.
the fact that these are AIR guns shows me the pc oylimpic crowd is moving away from these icky guns.. guns?? eeewww how un gentlemen! like everything else liberals get involved with this too will be pc’d to death and canceled.. when are Americans gonna wake up and put a stop to the stupidity??
Curby, I don’t think that’s the case. Air guns have been around for ages. I remember shooting an air rifle at a fair in Holland when I was 9 or so (rather badly). Sure, in many countries shooting air guns is an easy option while firearms are quite restricted, but I don’t think that “PC moving away” is accurate here.
They do have firearms at the Olympics; skeet, for one. The Wall St. Journal had a nice piece a day or two ago about a US lady who is a top competitor at skeet, and who just a few years earlier was training to be a professional ballerina. Interesting switch, though they point out that both require excellent balance though shooting requires more arm and upper body strength than ballet (for a woman, that is; men’s ballet is quite another matter).
I don’t think we should dismiss air guns too readily … recall that the Girardoni air rifle is often used to illustrate that the founders knew about repeating arms, for instance. And it was useful enough for Lewis and Clark to take it along.
I can see an air gun – if built and calibrated properly – being more repeatable than one using powder-based propellants. Simply, potentially less variation in the exact amount of propellant.
(Tried to reply to Curby; probably user error. Anyway.)
a little clarification- Im not dismissing air guns, there are many that rival gunpowder rifles. using air rifles when they used to use “real” rifles made me think they were moving away from firearms, thats all.
I don’t know that they are using air rifles when they used to use real rifles. Instead, as far as I know both flavors of guns have been around for a long time, and it isn’t that one is replacing the other.
Check out Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_at_the_Summer_Olympics — it lists all the events and their history. You can see that “real” firearms have been around for a long time while air guns are newer but are not replacements. And for the women’s programs firearms and air guns appeared at about the same time and both persist.
Chris, your last line reminds me of the tale of the samurai who went to the bow range, fired a single shot, hit bullseye, and then went home for the day.
Bullseye shooting is less popular than action shooting here so we have fewer competitors in the Olympic disciplines. Also more target shooters are interested in high power classes. FWIW in Tokyo the US took gold in men’s 10m air rifle silver in women’s 10m air rifle and a bunch in shotgun events.
If LeBron James and Steph Curry qualify to play in the Olympics then “professional ” shooters are also allowed. The ban on paid professional athletes ended decades ago. The issue is lack of interest among younger people. And not just for shooting sports but for almost any activity that requires patience and perseverance. Its the instant gratification microwave mentality most people have.