[canebrake]

From: Alan Korwin's, Page Nine; No. 78 - Winter Olympics Shooting

The lamestream media told you:

Nothing.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver has a target-shooting event, but the lamestream media has omitted it. Sadly, U.S. competitors were eliminated by bad weather, as this report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation outlines:

"Stinging sleet, snow and poor visibility took away any chance of winning the 10km biathlon sprint for American Tim Burke, a favorite to win a biathlon medal. The first biathletes to go off on Sunday skied and fired their rifles in a light rain, while those who went off later -- including Burke -- admittedly had no chance due to a sudden turn for the worse in the weather. 'The people starting in the middle of the pack had no chance today. Unfortunately, I was one of those,' Burke said."

More Olympic biathlon action followed with the men's 12.5km pursuit and the women's 10k pursuit. The .22 caliber 5-shot biathalon rifle is an alien-looking contraption and most marksmen have never seen anything like it. (See below)

HowStuffWorks "How Biathlon Works"

--------

More Olympic Shooting

The lamestream media told you:

Nothing again. This is getting old.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

A rifle sold at auction -- five different times -- at a recent Wild Sheep Foundation convention netted $175,000 to help train American rifle, pistol and shotgun shooters for the 2012 Olympic Games. Auction proceeds go to USA Shooting, the official U.S. Olympic firearms training group.
Shooting sports are the number two consumer sport in the nation -- behind exercise (health clubs, home equipment, etc.) and ahead of golf (you've heard of golf, right). The media's gross bias is plainly evident in the amount of "news" coverage the shooting sports get, namely virtually zero. Even in the Olympics it barely gets any mention. The media digs its own grave by omitting news half the country would devour.

[Yunus]

I watched some Biathlon last week. It was pretty cool. I thought it would be rather boring but because of the way it is done there is always someone shooting so it's not just watching cross-country skiing. The only problem is that because of the staggered start times, it's not a direct race, you don't know who won until everyone is done. I would prefer to see a head to head race.

I wonder what the cost of an Olympic rifle is?

NBC's coverage of the entire Olympics has been called into question, they didn't even show the USA v Canada hockey game on NBC, they pushed it to MSNBC which is not in HD in many locations, instead they showed Ice Dancing and 2 man Bobsled.

[orangello]

I saw a brief hilight with some guy skiing with a rifle, but i didn't actually see anybody shoot. Weird-looking rifles, i think the squirrels might heckle & throw poo until their buddies start dropping.

[Splatter]

Originally Posted by Yunus

I watched some Biathlon last week. It was pretty cool. I thought it would be rather boring but because of the way it is done there is always someone shooting so it's not just watching cross-country skiing. The only problem is that because of the staggered start times, it's not a direct race, you don't know who won until everyone is done. I would prefer to see a head to head race.

Then you wanted to see the "Mass Start" event. 10km for women, 15km for men. The event ran on Feb 21.
I'm not sure if you'll be able to access the vid from the US..
Biathlon | Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games | CTV Olympics

Originally Posted by Yunus

I wonder what the cost of an Olympic rifle is?

A competitive rifle would start at about $1800. That would be a totally off-the-rack specimen.

Originally Posted by orangello

I saw a brief hilight with some guy skiing with a rifle, but i didn't actually see anybody shoot. Weird-looking rifles, i think the squirrels might heckle & throw poo until their buddies start dropping.

Ja, srsly, until their buddies started dropping. These guys and gals run full-out for about 6 minutes, then take about 12 seconds to set-up and shoot 5 shots in front of screaming crowds, where missing one of those little targets means skiing extra distance (making a lot more work to medal). Think of the fun of racing over a mile, cross-country, coming to a stop and having to hit 5 squirrels-out-of-5, then racing another mile. and doing it all again.

If you folks do see the video, you have a really good look at the rifles at 34:15 and beyond.

[DoyleTheDog]

I watched the womens event last night, and it was a heads up race. Russia won gold, France got silver and Germany got Bronze.

[red ryder]

Anybody watch "Top Gear"?

They did a Biathalon that was pretty great.

Top Gear Biathlon - Car Videos on StreetFire

[Highpower]

Originally Posted by Yunus

I wonder what the cost of an Olympic rifle is?

Obviously more in the US than in BC.

About $4,000 with all the necessary gear. Anschutz claims to hold 95% of the market in the Olympics.

Champion's Choice - Product Catalog - .22 Caliber Biathlon Rifles

[Splatter]

Originally Posted by yunus

i wonder what the cost of an olympic rifle is?

Originally Posted by splatter

a competitive rifle would start at about $1800. That would be a totally off-the-rack specimen.

Wow! Ok, when I last priced them a competitive rifle was $1000, I guess I'm further out of touch than I thought!
So, bare bones rifle... $3000

And for Anschutz market share? Ya, that's about right. Pretty much the Russians and the Chinese are the only ones not shooting "The Big 'A'" and even then they shoot rifles that have a very strong resemblance (cough-cough-copies-cough).

[Highpower]

Originally Posted by Splatter

So, bare bones rifle... $3000

Yeah.... bare bones if you don't need a rear sight!
I have heard that those Russian-made (Ishmash) Biathlon Basic rifles are nothing to sneeze at either. One of the old timers at a local gun shop tried to talk me into buying one a few years back. He said he was totally amazed that such a "cheap" gun could out shoot his beloved Cooper rifle. I believe he was dead serious about it too.

I should have bought one, but at the time was thinking "you'll never see me on a set of skies" - so what's the point?

It would have been fun to have a .22 with that straight pull / toggle action though. Oh well.