10M Air Rifle - Olympics

[hog45]

I have watched a bit of the Olympics this year and saw Virginia Thrasher (USA gold winner) with her air rifle, and was fascinated by it.

I do not do any competitions myself, and haven't "fired" an air rifle since I was a kid, but I found the whole event very interesting. The contestants wear strange, robotic looking jackets with squares and straps and all sorts of strange looking attachments.

The rifles look like bizzaro hybrids of traditional rifle meets legos, and of course there is no recoil, very little sound, and I can't even see the trigger being pulled, so it must be hyper-sensitive. When the camera shows the shooter, you cannot tell by watching them when they have fired. I literally cannot even see the trigger finger even move. They just stand there and then after a while they relax and put the rifle back, and I didn't even know they fired it.

Does anyone know a thing or two about this event? What the purpose of the strange outfits is? What all the stuff on the rifles is for, what kinds of modifications are done, etc?


Thanks

[RobW]

I'd suggest Target Talk if you are interested in Olympic style shooting. I've done a fair bit of Olympic pistol, never tried rifle in competition but have tried postal matches over the internet. It is very challenging, the 10 ring is the size of a pinhead at 10 meters. The cool thing, just about anyone can set up a home range.

Link: http://www.targettalk.org/

If you would like to see more competition footage, try ISSF TV on YouTube. With electronic scoring and real time updates the finals are actually really exciting to watch:

Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcF...tDmX1yMp6x_C0Q

The jacket and pants hold you in position and reduce movement (surprisingly well!). The stuff on the rifle is an anatomic fully adjustable stock and very precise dual aperture sights front and rear. Air gauges (modern air rifles use compressed air, like a scuba system) as well.

[Hawk]

If you don't mind a long day trip. Check out the CMP Air Rifle Range at Camp Perry Ohio It's open to the public and they will provide the air rifle!
I had the privilege to shoot there a few years ago. It's a beautiful range with automatic scoring and remote monitors.

Read more here:http://thecmp.org/air/cmp-competitio...blic-shooting/
PICS: http://cmp1.zenfolio.com/f897186260