NBC Showed Olympic Shooting Today

[benenglish]

I was surprised and gratified to see NBC feature, on their main channel, about 20 minutes of biathlon today. They didn't shy away from the shooting and even had cameras set up to properly follow target knockdowns. With a hi-def TV and a good feed, it was cool to watch bullets in flight before they impacted the steel.

Let's see if they keep it up for the rest of The Games.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Next time let us know during, rather than after please.

 

[robertc1024]

I watched it too. Good coverage.

 

[benenglish]

Next time let us know during, rather than after please.

It was on my Tivo. I got to the beginning of the biathlon coverage almost exactly at the time it ended. I was really disappointed that I couldn't post this timely.

tl;dr - Point taken. I'll try to do better.

PS - If NBC does it like they have in previous Olympics, there should be a full replay available on NBCOlympics.com. You can get a short summary here. I'm looking for a link to the full coverage.

ETA: More here.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

No worries Ben, just a thought.

 

[majormadmax]

It was on yesterday as well. We were watching it. Kinda interesting...

As for the Olympic coverage schedule, it can be found here: http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv-listings

 

[majormadmax]

Next time let us know during, rather than after please.

It's on again at 4:30am...you've been warned!

 

[ZX9RCAM]

It's on again at 4:30am...you've been warned!

Thanks.
I can TiVo it.

 

[Byrd666]

Caught a bit of that too. Was more than pleasantly surprised, particularly when I caught just a bit of the rifle and equipment set up part just prior to it.

 

[Moonpie]

Ball&Chain was watching it.
She was saying how cool it was and how difficult it must be.
I caught a few minutes of the rifle close ups.
Interesting rigs.
Wonder what kind of $ one of those rifles costs?

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Ball&Chain was watching it.
She was saying how cool it was and how difficult it must be.
I caught a few minutes of the rifle close ups.
Interesting rigs.
Wonder what kind of $ one of those rifles costs?

Remember the old adage, if you have to ask....

 

[majormadmax]

I am somewhat surprised at the use of .22LR in these rifles, wouldn't .17HMR be a better choice with its flatter trajectory?

Here are a few articles about the sport:

http://www.accurateshooter.com/competition/anatomy-of-an-olympic-biathlon-rifle/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/sports/olympics/biathlon-winter-olympics-rifle-gun.html

https://qz.com/54254/this-german-invention-is-used-in-95-of-rifles-in-biathlons/

By the way, per the last article, biathlon rifles cost about €3,000 ($4,000), and about 10,000 are in use today.

Cheers! M2

 

[benenglish]

I am somewhat surprised at the use of .22LR in these rifles, wouldn't .17HMR be a better choice with its flatter trajectory?

The reason is that the rules specify/require .22LR. Period, full stop, and the ISSF doesn't want to hear anything about any alternatives.

Just be glad they allow .22LR. The smart money is betting that within my lifetime, the summer Olympics will go laser-only. Luckily, lasers don't work in blowing snow so the biathlon will remain a cartridge shooting sport for as long as we have biathlon.

 

[mroper]

it must of been a tough shooting day. NBC announces the best shooter in the history of the sport frenchman
Martin forcade. He lays down on the line and misses three of five in the first round.

 

[benenglish]

Wonder what kind of $ one of those rifles costs?

The competition rifles are more expensive (obviously) but the sporter version of the Fortner/Anschutz runs $3400 from Champion Shooters Supply. They are currently out of stock.

In my well-studied but almost entirely inexperienced opinion (I've only handled a Fortner 2 or 3 times.), I think the sporter version rifle with the shorter, threaded barrel is probably the finest production .22LR bolt rifle being produced today. More info (though not much) can be found on the Fortner web site.

Actually, I should call it "semi-production" because the sporters are only made in very occasional production runs. Champion is currently out of stock on all models.

I can think of a couple of custom .22LR bolt rifles I'd rather have but they're all single-shots. For a repeater, I can't think of anything better.

 

[Renegade]

I am somewhat surprised at the use of .22LR in these rifles, wouldn't .17HMR be a better choice with its flatter trajectory?

Lots of things would be better. Scoped rifles would help too. But they have to standardize on something, and 22LR is more than adequate, especially since it is short range and fixed at 50m.

 

[benenglish]

it must of been a tough shooting day. NBC announces the best shooter in the history of the sport frenchman
Martin forcade. He lays down on the line and misses three of five in the first round.

Yeah, I watched that. The second favorite guy did the same thing. They both knocked themselves off the podium and the guys who wound up there were entirely unexpected.

From what I've been able to read, it appears that Forcade got over-confident, skied the first leg too hard (he'd built up a lead of over a minute), and was simply too winded to hold the rifle well on his first series. With those three misses (and they were close, each about an inch from scoring), he knocked himself completely out.

 

[Kar98]

I caught a few minutes of the rifle close ups.
Interesting rigs.

To say the least!

 

[benenglish]

Scoped rifles would help too.

I don't believe any shooting sport sanctioned by the ISSF allows the use of any optics of any kind. I don't feel like going through that incredibly thick rule book to confirm this but I'm even under the impression that, unlike the NRA, they don't allow diopter correction lenses to be inserted into the aperture sights on rifles. Further, they don't allow aperture sights on pistols at all, which is a weird restriction to put on free pistols...but that's drifting way off topic. And we all know I'd never do that.

 

[benenglish]

I caught a few minutes of the rifle close ups.

They get custom paint jobs and custom stocks and wind up looking like something from a sci-fi movie. Even if you compete with a bone-stock rifle, you'll have to add an eye blinder and sling. Many (Most? I dunno.) competitors change the rear sight to something more elaborate. However, they all start at the same place, looking roughly like this from the factory.