Olympic shooting sports?

There used to be something called a military ski patrol in which competitors used regular military rifles. The US team used M1s but they never did well. Swedes dominated the competition. That evolved into the Biathlon first in 1958. Semi-autos were no longer used but they were still big bore. In the 1962 Squaw Valley games, the US tem used Model 70 bolt actions in .243 Winchester. It has evolved since then.

This was written up in the February 1969 Guns magazine. In the same issue was an article about an American small-bore rifle champion and another one about whether a hunter could shoot as well as a skeet shooter. There was yet another article about a police shooting match at Indiana University. The article was written by Bill Toney Jr, US Border Patrol. Elmer Keith was holding up his end of the world with an article on combat quick draw.

Times have changed.
 
My guess that shooting sports are not as popular because they are not as exciting to watch.
Talent? You had better have it, but no real strategy required, just hit break all your targets.

Cycling, distance running, and curling all require both talent and a strategy against the opponent and conditions.

Adding a sport? Bring curling to the summer games on hardwood - shuffleboard without sticks. I am addicted to watching, it is a competition that combines talent and strategy along with a big dose of cutthroat mentality.

JT
 
I'd rather watch the Brazilian beach volleyball team instead of any shooting sport. If the shooters were, well, more interesting to look at, things might change. But you have a point. Even magazines don't cover shooting so much for exactly the same reason.
 
There are lots of magazines that cover shooting. Most of them even make money, which is becoming more and more rare for a hardback magazine.

There are entire channels dedicated to shooting.

I definitely see that there may not be as much universal interest as in some events, but you really think people would not be interested in seeing a team comprised of an LA SWAT members, a SEAL, a golf instructor, an insurance agent, etc. square off against the Chinese and Russian military's entrants?

The modern shooting sports included are farther from Martial than the shot-put competition. The shooting event in the Pentathlon is slow fire fixed range air pistol and the 5 events are held separately. You can't get much more boring. The pentathlon is much more exciting b/c it includes skiing in the same event, but the shooting part is about as boring as possible.

I'd rather watch the Brazilian beach volleyball team instead of any shooting sport.
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Sometime around 1990 my Dad bought a TV with a feature called "Picture-in-Picture." Ground breaking technology at the time. :)
 
I highly doubt there are many golf instructors who are also shooting enthusiasts. I'd say that whoever is into competitive shooting at the high school and college level, that's where the good competitors will come from and they can go for two or three games, too.

I actually haven't watched any competition for more than a minute because I simply don't watch television, having given it up since Hee Haw and Lawrence Welk went off the air. But I did catch the opening ceremonies. To me, the most impressive part of the whole thing is the entry of the athletes. Just to be there and walk in that parade is an achievement, especially for, say, a woman from Afganistan. While life is easier for some of them than it is for others, it's still mostly amateurs. Some will come without a snowball's chance of even coming close to winning or maybe not even finishing. The Afgan woman, a runner, finished around 30 in a field of 32. Maybe she'll do better next time.

And there really was a Jamaican bobsled team, mon.
 
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It is true that the Olympic shooting disciplines look wimpy.
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Apparently you guys haven't shot much ISSF or ISU competition.

I use to shoot International Rifle and a tad bit of International Pistol. Now I shoot action pistol.

Its a whole different ball game. You cannot compare ICORE, USPSA, ISPA, 3 Gun with something like.........lets say, International Rapid Fire Pistol.

To give you an example, you have to start with your pistol held at 45 degrees from the body facing 5 targets. You have three stages, when the targets face, you have 8 seconds to engage the 5 targets, second stage 6 seconds and third stage 4 seconds to engage the 5 targets. The black or bulleyes on these targets 29.53 inches. That's from the center to the 6 ring. The 10 ring is 3.9 inches and you better be in the high 90s to come close to placing. Use to have two events, 22 and CF.

When I shot Air Rifle, I think you had something like 2.5 hours to shoot 60 shots at an itty bitty pin size bullseye. Some idiots like me just let them rip and our scores sucked. The winners took every bit of the 2.5 hours and looked whipped after match.

Use to shoot against the U of Alaska Fairbanks team, (who at the time was had one of the best shooting programs in the country). One young lady who always placed at the top of the winners circle also ran marathons. She told me that Air Rifle was more demanding, physically and mentally challenging then a 26 Mile Marathon.

I was never very good at International Rifle (and worse with ISU Pistol) because I didn't have the mental management skills. But what I did shoot sure improved my High Power Score and did wonders for my pistol shooting.

Too many people look at Target Shooting as a combat, or SD, game, its not, its a sport in itself, like golf, gymnastics etc. Nothing to do with combat or SD although you'll find no better venue to develop your fundamentals of marksmanship and mental management.

You think you can shoot, The CMP at Perry and Alabama have ranges set up. Take a trip and see how you do against the kids that shoot there. They have the indoor range with the electronic scoring targets.

You'll get a whole another outlook on Small Bore and Air Rifle Shooting.

Jammie Gray won the gold in International 3 position with a 591/600. Order some 50 meter ISU Rifle targets and see what your score is after shooting 60 rounds, 20 Standing, 20 Kneeling and 20 Prone.
 
I highly doubt there are many golf instructors who are also shooting enthusiasts.
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You missed a thread or two!


There is a difference between challenging and not being wimpy. Acting may be very challenging, but that does not make it an Olympic sport.
 
I'm friends with a fellow on the small bore team. In fact, the school where the lady is an assistant coach at is right down the road from me, and where my mom recieved her masters. So, I like to think I'm familiar with the guys and girls and what they subject themselves too.

Simply put, it's a kick in the teeth. The sheeer amount of time and effort those athletes put forth dwarf what most of us do at the range, in the backyard, or at work.

And I must say that I prefer these "wimpy" events compared to the "action" or "combat" matches.

While yes all guns are weapons, sometimes I feel that we harp too much on using a weapon to take life rather to enhance our quality of life.
 
I understand Jamie Gray used an Anschutz 2013. I don't think you can consider all guns "weapons"

This certainly doesn't look like a weapon to me, more of a state of the art sporting implement.

2013.jpg
 
The winners took every bit of the 2.5 hours and looked whipped after match.
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Yup, holding up a 12lb rifle for a couple of hours, dressed in super-heavy, inflexible clothing that doesn't breathe will really wear a person out. It may not look like it, but it's a lot of work.
 
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Baseball and Softball are no longer Olympic events......

...most likely because they're legitimately popular only in the USA, Japan, and a handful of Latin American countries. Same goes for cricket, which is wildly popular in the UK and other former British colonies but is largely ignored elsewhere, and consequently was only contested once at the Olympics- at the 1900 Paris Games.
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Baseball is actually very popular in many diverse nations globally, much more so than sports like table tennis and badminton. In many countries it can be genuinely considered THE national sport. Take a look at the rosters of MLB teams and you will see Americans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Japanese, Koreans, Canadians, Panamanians, Taiwanese, Mexicans, Dutch....

The real issue is the Major League Baseball schedule conflicting with the Olympic games. The IOC tried and failed for years to get Major League Baseball to suspend their season every four years to accommodate the Olympics. The Olympic tournament was a joke without any international superstars whatsoever and the IOC knew it, which is why the sport was dropped. In response MLB created the World Baseball Classic.
 
I always thought the purpose of the Olypmics were to determine who the best in a certain sport was.

In Jamie Gray's case, that would be the best at small bore rifle shooting.
 
Not all the UK is anti gun as some replies are impaling. Their is a big event coming here in 2013 with the police and fire games Competitors coming to N Ireland from all over the world. A lot form America. Shooting competitions are included example below.


Home >
2013 Sports >
Pistol (Police Action Pistol)

Pistol (Police Action Pistol)
 
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If the Brits had their way they would all be shooting Airsoft guns.:eek: I LOVED the Jamaican bobsled team. The real purpose of the Olympics is to sell crap. It's all about money unfortunately.
 
It seems to me that some shooting sports are alive and well, mostly, in Great Britain, though it is not the same as it is in the United States and never was. In fact, it is rather closer to what it is in Northern Europe, where it also is alive and well. However, it is mostly hunting oriented, though target shooting apparently still exists.

I brought back a newstand issue of a British gun magazine, "Shooting Times," which is a weekly. We were somewhere near Carlisle, having driven through beautiful but bleak Northhumberland. At least it was August. That issue had a review of a Finnish-made target rifle in 6.5x47 Lapua, prices starting at 3,950 and that's pounds sterling. There were also advertisements for Webley & Scott, who I didn't know were still in the gun business. The issue also had articles about doing things to encourage game (kill the foxes, chiefly) and about dogs. You know how the British are about dogs.

The Germans, Austrians and Swiss also have a similiar view of guns and apparently not above making a lot of fun of hunters in comedy routines. If you search for Jagd auf Bruno on Youtube, you'll see what I mean. It's slapstick comedy but it involves a lot of bad gun handling. All of those people, as you probably know, are heavily into tradition, what with leather pants, funny hats and beer gardens. Where else would you see someone yodeling (jodln) with a rifle.

The attack, if you could say that, in Great Britain on shooting sports has more to do with what is called blood sports and the same people are equally against fox hunting with hounds where no guns are involved at all. But hunting and shooting is very class related there, too, and is seen as a "country pursuit," something we really don't quite understand.
 
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