Air rifle biathlon

[kentek]

I am a total newbee to biathlon and I am considering the purchase of an air arms biathlon rifle for practice.

My question is can I use this rifle on a 50meter range and successfully hit the target?

[Levergun59]

You can't shoot an air rifle outdoors at 50 meters and hope to hit the target with any kind of confidence when any wind kicks up. A 22 is a 40 gn bullet at a speed of 1080fps and it is affected by wind at 50 meters. Your air rifle is an 8gn pellet propelled at 560-800fps with a ballistic coefficient of a rock. You are better off shooting 10 meter air rifle targets indoors for practice or better yet shoot 3p smallbore indoors at 50ft. The 10 ring for 50' indoor is the size of the period at the end of this sentence. When you shoot in the 90's standing in 3P, those 50 meter biathlon targets will look like the Graf Zeppelin.
Chris

[Shooterer]

When you shoot in the 90's standing in 3PChris

Sir, you owe me a new keyboard. I just spit my coffee all over it.

[Levergun59]

LOL Shooterer,
Kid just finished 4th at Junior sectionals. He set new personal bests in smallbore and air rifle. But he left a lot on the table also. Lots of room for improvement. He is trying to work on two fronts. Conditioning: he skied a 5k race on wednesday and will ski today. Shooting: 1/2 an hour standing practice in front of the refrigerator every night he doesn't shoot or ski. He shoots a 60 round standing air rifle practice on Saturday and a 3-4 hour practice with the smallbore rifle on Sunday. He is earning every point and closing in on everybody.
Chris

[mavericksr71]

If you have access to a rimfire range, a better choice for practice is to get a lower cost (see other Biathlon Topics) biathlon rifle, that way you are practicing with the same rifle you are competing with. Another option is to get the air rifle and train at the shorter distances previously mentioned. You can download scaled biathlon targets at http://biathlonontario.ca/category/athl ... resources/

[kentek]

I live in the People's Republic of California.
Need I say much more.

Years ago the state banned the US Olympic biathlon team from bringing their .22s into the state.

I'm looking for a way to practice. I would love to state a Summer biathlon club. I think it would be fun to try it on Inline speed skates which is my current training method.

I appreciate all of your great comments.

[Levergun59]

Kentec,
I thought they shoot Biathlon matches in California like near Mammoth something.
Speed skating is a great way to condition. It does not involve the same muscle groups as biathlon. I know this because I am a old fart hockey player out of Canada. The technique to skate skiing involves completely different muscle groups, especially the quads. You need a lot of balance skiing on one leg when you are double poleing that is not required in hockey. I thought I would get out there and be a rock star with my skating background. Many craters later I realized the truth. I got the skate skiing down later, but I hurt in so many new places plus the concussion I got when I tried my hockey style of skate skiing, lost my balance and rammed the back of my head through a 4 inch crust of ice. Well, you get the idea.
Roller skis are the best way to go when practicing for Biathlon and the skate skiing part of it

[kentek]

I am a newbee to CA. Lived in Denver for a long time and did XC Skate skiing a lot in the high country. eg. 9000ft alt.
Agreed, Skate skiing is tough; like running uphill carrying 2 cinder blocks.

I did a lot of training for XC skate on inlines in Denver in the hills. I used my old skate poles with rubber tips and did many miles training.
But I could never get over the altitude difference. To skate @ 9000 ft you have to do it at least 3X a week, any less and you are sucking wind.

[jr]

I live in the People's Republic of California.
Need I say much more.

Years ago the state banned the US Olympic biathlon team from bringing their .22s into the state.

kentek, it's true that California does have tighter gun laws (at least compared to most other US states), but I've never heard of the case you mention, and I can't think of any California statute under which that would happen.

There is an active gun community in the state (consider joining the CRPA, go to http://www.crpa.org/ ), and I know that the Auburn ski club does biathlon, and perhaps there are others.

[mavericksr71]

First, in the interest of being upfront, I am the owner of Maverick Biathlon Products. We have just introduced a new air biathlon rifle based on the Baikal IZH 61. It is a 5 shot repeater and is set up like a winter biathlon rifle. It is designed for 10m target shooting. You can find out about it at, http://maverickbiathlon.miiduu.com/mave ... ir-rifle-1 (I hope I am not violating the rules of the forum by adding this link, if so Admin please let me know and I will take it out). You can also find us on Facebook under Maverick Biathlon Products. Please check it out and hope this will work for what you are looking for.