Indoor practice routine......

[OnaginOffagin]

I've got a indoor practice routine that I think is going to pay huge dividends. My loving wife bought me a Biathlon airgun target with holes and paddles.... if you succeed at putting a pellet through a 3/8" hole at 30' (I didn't quite have the 33' specified), it hits a paddle which then pops up a blocking square of metal that makes the hole disappear! Just like a turkey falling off a rail! There are five holes (again, just like the turkeys!) and once you've shot at them all, you pull a string and they all reset!

Love the thing! I sweat and fret just like a real match! I shoot an old RWS Model 75 springer with a BSA 4-12 scope. I use Crossman Premier pellets at about $9 for five hundred. No excuse whatsoever for not practicing!

Can anyone see anything wrong with this routine? I also do holding practices and dri-fire with my 1710 and Model 54 in a McMillan stock.....

I have no silhouette range within daily driving range.

[atomicbrh]

Yes, I think it is well worth the effort. There are too many really good shooters doing similar types of drills. I also suggest shooting animals on paper reduced to this 30 foot distance with a pellet trap. There are many ways to make a cheap homemade pellet trap to hold the paper. There is somebody here on this forum that made 40 animals fit on a single sheet of copier paper reduced to 33 foot size. The animal shapes keep you more interested than if you were just shooting circles on paper.

Sorry to hear that you do not have a range within easy driving distance. I shot a Smallbore Match Saturday Morning and then my son and I shot both a Smallbore and Air Rifle Match Sunday afternoon. Next Saturday I will host another Smallbore and Air Rifle Match less than 30 minutes from home. I now feel bad that I complained about the total of ten hours driving I did to get to those matches.

Do you know where to buy these biatholon airgun targets? They sound like fun plus good training.

Bobby R. Huddleston

[GTKF]

I also practice in the basement with an HW77 springer at 10 mtr on reduced paper silo targets (5 of each animal/sheet, 2 shots at each). It helps with everything but the hold. I hold the springer as lightly as I can and let it recoil, while with SB and HP my hold is as tight as I can comfortably get it

Ken

[OnaginOffagin]

Atomicbrh......

My wife can't remember where she bought the target (it's been several years, I just set it up again).... but she thinks it may have been Neal Johnson's Gunsmithing, Inc. It's a Kurt Thune, and she thinks she paid about $85.

Here's a photobucket pic of it set up in my utility room. You can see that damnable 3/8" hole you gotta go through! You can remove the inserts, shoot directly against the back paddle, but that makes the target too easy, and you can clean about 40 almost instantly.... different with those tiny holes in the inserts!

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd22 ... ets001.jpg

And here's one I found just like it in an internet search.....

http://www.devinmfg.com/targets1.html

Sure are a lot of fun, and, if you have a friend with an airgun, you can even have matches!

[Dee]

Just came across these..

http://www.devinmfg.com/targetpage.html

No affiliation but they look pretty nice.



Dee

[Jason]

Speaking of biathlons, there's a couple guys trying to get me into "summer biathlons" this year that are comprised of running and shooting. What are the rules of the normal biathlons like? How big are those holes that they have to shoot targets through and how far away are they? I've avoided the winter biathlon thing because I can't ski worth a darn, but that summer biathlons sound like they might be fun.

[Dee]

I have heard of summer biathlons using bikes. I know I can't run much less ski I would think running with a rifle strapped to your back would be rather cumbersome unless your going for that military feel.


Dee

[Jason]

In the examples they gave me, the rifle was left at the rack at the range and you ran a course that started and ended at the range. I would personally rather have a bike and shoot biathlon, as I'm pretty good on a bike and my knees take a lot less abuse biking than running.

[Kevin6q]

The summer biathlon targets are the same as the winter. The prone is 4.5 cm diameter and the offhand is 11.5 cm dia. The prone is inside the offhand (a plate w/ a hole reduces it) so the sight pic. is the same. In summer the rifle is left on the rack and carried by the barrel to the point where you insert mags and shoot. The only sights allowed are metallic (no optical magnification) and almost everyone uses some sort of aperture setup. Just like silo matches there are 5 bullets for 5 targets and a hit is a hit. The target falls and you avoid the penalty loop. One P-lap per miss. Depending on the race format there are either 2 stops (prone and offhand) and three run loops or 4 stops (p,p,o,o) and 5 run laps plus any P-loops you earn. The ammo must be subsonic and made of lead. Bolt actions are required.

I think this covers the basics. Most matches have a novice or intro class which have shorter runs and usually use the offhand targets while prone. Sounds simple until you jack your heartrate up to 150 bmp and starve your brain of O2. Just like silo the sport is manic depressive. One moment your feeling great and the next you are all bummed out.

[Quonset Hut]

The NSSF put Summer Biathlon together in the early 90's as a family participation sport. They got Marlin, who had an entry level target rifle then, to be the primary sponsor, and lined up other sponsors for a National Series. They hoped that local clubs would run matches also. The target was five four-inch knock-down plates at 25 Meters. This inexpensive open frame target was reset by pulling a light rope from behind the firing line. I bought one for practice back then, it was $70.

At the National series events, Marlin 2000 Rifles and ammo were provided. There were a few shooters who had their own biathlon rigs, they were squadded by themselves. I think they started five people at a time, and had some time break before the next group started. The fastest runners by their own estimated time for the 5K started first. In the 5K race, you ran an initial mile and then arrived at the prone shooting stations, where they handed you the rifle and ammo. There was no penalty loop, thirty seconds was added to your running time for each miss. Another mile+ run, then the offhand shots at same distance and penalty rules. Finally a one mile run to the finish.

I did the event on the Fox river in Illinois in 1993, and there were perhaps 100 folks entered. The hills killed me - actually I knew I was in trouble when the next slowest estimated time was fifteen miutes faster than fat ole me!

There was a push by the elite biathlon community and some top runners to move the sport to mirror the 50 meter distance and targets of the Winter game to gain Olympic acceptance. That, along with the loss of sponsors, led to the almost total marginalization of the sport. It is now perhaps only seen at the winter venues who have already invested in the winter targets. The "Sport" 25m version is gone. There is not enough interest to get the 50m "Match" version to the games. With the exception of cross training for winter athletes, and the curious willing to go to mountain locations for the very few matches that remain, the sport is dead.

[Kevin6q]

I remember attending those 25 M matches. Summer races are not dead yet; at least here in northern New England. Two F&G clubs host monthly 50m events and the club in the Burlington area, Ethan Allen BC hosts a race every Thursday during July and August. There is also a hotbed of activity in northern NJ and in WA state. Last summer I ran 25 races.

My involvement in silo is a direct result of these F&G clubs. I wanted to learn to shoot better and figured silo was pretty close to the demands of biathlon w/o the run/ski. Turns out, silo has improved my biathlon shooting. I attend the local matched w/ my biathlon rifle. Its not legal in any class but the MDs allow me to shoot and discard my score unless they are running a club "run what ya brung" class where the rifle is class legal. Seems I do a bit better if I job a bit between banks of animals.

www.pemi.org www.eabiathlon.org/ www.pabiathlon.org/ www.saratogabiathlon.20m.com