Re: Watching Biathlon - how big are the targets?
Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 5:28 am
AD9,
I might be the biathlete you're mentioning in the post. There are quite a few biathlons held at Pemi each summer with many levels of participation from the match class (experienced athletes) to a wheelchair class. If you are capable of walking there is a way for you to participate. Come on out this summer and give it a try.
The silo matches are great fun. The offhand biathlon targets are 4.5" diameter at 50 meters and are much easier to knock over than the pigs. Silo definitely helps my ability to acquire the proper target and break the shot when the picture looks good. I set my targets to help out the organizers and give myself something to do between shooting. It also feels normal to be moving between shoots. I use my normal biathlon shooting rhythm breaking 5 shots in about 25 seconds. Any longer and I overhold and the chance of a miss goes way up. Shooting at prone matches I use the same cadence as biathlon too. The biathlon rifle is not NRA legal but the guys at Pemi allow me to shoot anyway. I usually run NRA sized animal first since there is no way to re-zero between bouts. The aperture sights require a lot of clicks going from 40 to 100 meters and keeping track is a lot of work trying to get things back to the starting point. I usually run the 1/2 scale animals next since being a few clicks won't mean too much as long as I center the target.
I might be the biathlete you're mentioning in the post. There are quite a few biathlons held at Pemi each summer with many levels of participation from the match class (experienced athletes) to a wheelchair class. If you are capable of walking there is a way for you to participate. Come on out this summer and give it a try.
The silo matches are great fun. The offhand biathlon targets are 4.5" diameter at 50 meters and are much easier to knock over than the pigs. Silo definitely helps my ability to acquire the proper target and break the shot when the picture looks good. I set my targets to help out the organizers and give myself something to do between shooting. It also feels normal to be moving between shoots. I use my normal biathlon shooting rhythm breaking 5 shots in about 25 seconds. Any longer and I overhold and the chance of a miss goes way up. Shooting at prone matches I use the same cadence as biathlon too. The biathlon rifle is not NRA legal but the guys at Pemi allow me to shoot anyway. I usually run NRA sized animal first since there is no way to re-zero between bouts. The aperture sights require a lot of clicks going from 40 to 100 meters and keeping track is a lot of work trying to get things back to the starting point. I usually run the 1/2 scale animals next since being a few clicks won't mean too much as long as I center the target.