So if you thought archery shooting has a lot of of gadgets rifle shooting in the Olympics is just insane. The should have on shooting competitions with nothing but iron sights. Who’s the best shooter not who has the best doo dads. I’m a compound shooter but in the Olympics stabilizers and that’s it. In the pistol shooting the silver medalist said I don’t need that stuff, I’m a natural shooter. My 2 bit opinion.
You guys are hilarious… “Oh, yeah… I could shoot like that if I had all those gadgets…..
Riiiiiiiiight….
Same reaction as on Leatherwall when I posted that “if you’re serious about improving your accuracy, watch the Olympians”… Whole chorus of “I could do that if I WANTED to, but I don’t wanna….”
“Yeah, THAT’s the ticket — I don’ WANNNA…”
ROFLMAO….
I can send my arrows right down the middle out to 70 yards and some with my naked longbows & recurves… about 1/3 of the time…. Now if I could just get those groups down to less than about 8 feet tall, I’d be Golden….
Pretty sure you could hand me an Olympic rig and we would see the same form errors that I have now, about the same 2/3 of the time — maybe cutting down a bit over time…. Sights and stabs might get me onto the 65cm paper more often, but those folks are MACHINES….
But the folks I am still most awed by are the (Winter) Biathloners….
Corax - Biathlon is amazing. There is a summer version too - but more so training oriented to the winter. it's running and shooting. There are a few events here in the north east for both. Pretty cool.
Also, I've no idea about the leatherwall conversations, but those Olympic shooters are amazing!
there was a father and son that used to shoot at a range that I would go to. Both were Olympic shooters, with a 3' stabilizer attached wherever they could. They both took the Sportsmen's Ed class because they wanted to start deer hunting. The lead Instructor asked the class to bring their bows on the final night. They brought in their bows, and the Instructor just about laughed out loud. He told them that there was no way that you were going to walk through the woods without hitting every branch and scaring off every animal within 2 miles. It's not like they never saw a hunting set up before either.
I did biathlons for a while. run, shoot, run, shoot, run. It was all about heart rate while shooting... but not running slow. You could bust out a hard run and get way ahead of everyone, but shooting at 180bpm would cost ya in penalties and everyone else would catch up. It was a blast finding that line where you were fast but not overly exerted. Very cool sport!
Knew a guy that competed in these type of matches. Not only is the rifle tricked out, but so is the shooter. That white coat she is wearing is super stiff leather and so is the glove. She probably has help to get dressed and cinch down the garments to help with tremors.
Lol. Not only do you need to whine on another forum, you blatantly misrepresent why the thread went the direction it did. And the guys on the LW are the pathetic ones...
Well here’s the man. Silver medalist. He said I don’t need all the added head gear vision blockers and dominant eye vision restrictor. I’m a natural born shooter. He’s been an internet sensation. I joke that back in the 50s every state could have sent a team of grade school kids with BB guns to compete against the world. I would like to see everyone get the same bolt action .22. Practice get it sighted in to your liking with iron sights nothing added. Now let’s see who the best shot is. I know for a fact you could give me all the gadgets ever created on a rifle or bow and even on my best day not even come close to competing. Just something I’d like to see. I remember reading years ago about a rifle competition where they were shooting out to 400 yds with center fire rifles. The author that competed using the best sights that were allowed and a bolt action rifle said a gunnery sgt came in there with a bare bones M1 and cleaned everyone’s clocks.
"Agreed. And to see back-yard legends dissing Top-10-In-The-World-class greatness is frickin’ pathetic…"
who did that...at least on this thread? all i saw was people commenting on how an olympic target rifle barely resembles the type of rifle most of us are used to shooting. i didnt see anything about anyones proficiency.
gadgets or no gadgets...their talent is out of this world.
having said that...every discipline has its own limits and challenges. ever wonder how an olympic archer would do shooting without sights...stabilizers...etc?
Pretty sure those guys all started off as giddy little boys with bare bows like this dude.
Give them a couple hours and a list of gaps, and if there’s anyone in the world of “trad” who can begin to keep up, then shame on them for not bringing home Gold for the US….
I’d like to see the 100-yard MeToobers shoot a #50 recurve even WITH sights, let alone without….
I shot competitively on a local level in HS and some in College. We had all that gear 40 years ago. Other than colors, some of the Anschutz stuff looks pretty much the same as in the 80's. I had the cinched down leather coat, glove, the whole bit. I didn't block my other eye though....lol. Realize that in an NRA smallbore 50 foot match, the 10 is the size of a pinhead. Its a bunch of fun for sure. I wasn't good but averaged about 360 out of 400 in 4 position matches. I did shoot a lot in a scoped class but shot iron sights as well in many matches. It was a fun diversion. We had a league and shot against teams from other local communities in our area. Also competed for our ROTC team in college and wasn't terrible against that competition. Helped me in the Marines as I was 2nd high shooter in our Basic School company, losing only to a former prior enlisted scout sniper that served in Beirut. Don't knock it till you try it.
COmpeted in pistol as well, and we were much more like the aforementioned guy in the olympics....
You know, the biggest difference is that the folks who can shoot well with all of the gadgets have the sense to appreciate what goes into shooting without it… My favorite thing about the Olympics is seeing the mutual respect among people who are all incredibly good at what they do. Pretty sure you won’t hear our 4-time medalist skeet shooter discussing the 4-position riflemen…
I watched a little bit of the trap and skeet shooting and except for some with tricked out stocks and butt plates, pretty much with the rest of their gear and shotguns looked basic, although I'm sure those over and under shotguns were high end guns, but some of them didn't even looked ported...
“except for some with tricked out stocks and butt plates,”
How much you wanna bet that all of the other guns have been painstakingly custom-fitted to the same degree that is possible with the “tricked out” adjustable stocks?? I’d bet the only difference is the ease of adjustment….
The way 99.9% of us shoot shotguns is on par with buying an iron-sighted rifle and taking it straight into the woods without even putting a round through it. Stock fit is all the rear sight you get.
My brother has a custom-built 20ga SXS, choked C/IC (nonselective), and I have watched him roll a big, Nebraska rooster at 45 yards on the first barrel and take 7 Mourning Doves on 5 shells.
I think sometimes there’s more tech involved than it might look… Proper gun fit can take a good shot to a whole new level…
Yeah, aside from the stocks am sure some of those over and under shotgun are tricked out internally that can't be seen like extended forcing cones, etc...
What got me when watching the Women's Individuals Skeet finals the shootoff for the Gold Metal the Great Brittan lady got robbed, she chipped a bird they said was a lost, protested it and slow motion video clearly showed a chip come off the clay target... And it wasn't like a tiny chip, it was clearly big enough to be seen... With today's technology you'd think the officials could replay it, could see it, and reverse their call and get it right... Now that the metals were awarded, can she protest that?
I’d think that all decisions are Final unless someone is DQ’d after the fact.
Next time around, it may be different, but I kinda doubt that skeet will ever become an Instant Replay sport because how often are there cameras even present??
It would make sense to have radar-guided, high-res cameras tracking the birds, but given the cost of the technology and the size of the market, it probably wouldn’t make any sense… ;)
I tried watching the Trap, and all I could ever make out was little clouds of orange “smoke”…..
I used to shoot competitive rimfire pistol and registered trap. In trap shooting a lot of the top guys had custom Perazzi shotguns fitted to them at the factory in Italy. On a given day they could win or lose since many of the top level shooters are going 99 or 100 out of 100 targets. At that point, its mainly a mental game. Proper cadence with the other 4 shooters in the squad also plays a part in the mental game. There were some times I was mentally strong and couldn't miss, but more often had mental lapses. You don't have time to dwell on that last miss, if you do you're screwed. Just so much of a mind game.
As far as all of the gadgets in Olympic shooting, all of the top shooters have those gadgets, so it really comes down to the shooter at that level of competition. Its truly a mental game at that point as their training has brought them this far where everything is or should be automatic and repetitive. Like anything, there are one or two freaks of nature that just naturally excel. Just like anything, have different classes if you want more simplicity (such as iron sights only, bare bow, etc.).
“Like anything, there are one or two freaks of nature that just naturally excel. ”
JMO, but there are no Olympic-class athletes who are NOT freaks of nature; if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be there.
On a totally different note…. Just this morning, the US Figure Skating team was awarded their Gold medals in an official ceremony in Paris. Long overdue, but awesome that they were afforded their opportunity to stand for the anthem in front of a huge & supportive crowd.
"JMO, but there are no Olympic-class athletes who are NOT freaks of nature; if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be there"
Not true, Olympic athletes are world class, but only a handful or two are freaks of nature that naturally excel and always metal or win. Those swimmers in the far lanes are world class, yet look like amateurs when freaks like Michael Phelps beat them by a second or two (and a second or two in swimming is a big difference). Same is true for track and field and many other events as well.
I guess it depends on your definition of Freak. But none of those athletes are just “normal folks” with great training & coaching. Every one of them is some kind of perfect storm of anatomical and athletic gifts…
"I guess it depends on your definition of Freak. But none of those athletes are just “normal folks” with great training & coaching. Every one of them is some kind of perfect storm of anatomical and athletic gifts…"
unless youre a dude competing against women. then you can pretty much be average...and still dominate.
tobywon - "99 or 100 out of 100 targets. At that point, its mainly a mental game"
That is sooo true... Shot in a trap league a couple years and had a pretty high average of either 23 or 22, (can't remember, but I think it was 23) but anyhow shot gobs of 24s and 23s, but I could not hit that 25th bird... I remember one time I'd broken 24 straight of the first birds and knew it, and knew I was down to the last bird,,, it was in my head... Well, of course I missed that last bird...8^)
"Women's Individuals Skeet finals the shootoff for the Gold Metal the Great Brittan lady got robbed, she chipped a bird they said was a lost, protested it and slow motion video clearly showed a chip come off the clay target... And it wasn't like a tiny chip, it was clearly big enough to be seen... With today's technology you'd think the officials could replay it, could see it, and reverse their call and get it right... Now that the metals were awarded, can she protest that?"
Well, it is now making national news:
"Team GB star demands Olympics apology and 'accountability' after controversial ending"
In some of the sport competitions they have a certain time limit to protest. American gymnast lost her bronze medal by missing the time limit by two seconds.
Zbone, I missed your post above but so true and have been there. How many times has your mind strayed while trap shooting waiting for your turn or even when everyone on the squad are hitting them and one guy misses or calls for a target a bit different and then next one to two miss. Tough mental game at times!!
Was going through and deleting some of my TV recordings and realized I still had the ladies Gold Metal Skeet match recorded so I froze a frame and took a picture of the protested and controversial "lost" bird... Officials must have been blind not to have seen a chip that size shot off... As said, the Great Brittan lady got robbed...
