Question for Eric U.

[Eric U]

I don't know of anybody that shoots good standing who has their buttplate out as far as prone.

Eric U

[Albert B]

I watch biathlon (German television) often. Most but not all biathletes use aprox. the same LOP for prone and standing. If there is a difference in LOP it is only a smaal amount. I do admit they must make concessions because they can not use a free-rifle stock .
By the way, Biathlon season starts 12th of december in Ostersund, Sweden.

Albert B

[RoryW]

I watch biathlon (German television) often. Most but not all biathletes use aprox. the same LOP for prone and standing. If there is a difference in LOP it is only a smaal amount. I do admit they must make concessions because they can not use a free-rifle stock .
By the way, Biathlon season starts 12th of december in Ostersund, Sweden.

Albert B

It is worth keeping in mind that Biathlon is not particularly demanding from an extreme accuracy point of view. In prone hitting the center 45 mm registers a hit while for standing anywhere on the black scores. (or at least it did last time I looked at a target)

That's not to say it's easy, but the difficulty comes from a different set of factors compared to ISSF matches.

Some people used to run a stepped buttplate with a long high position for prone and a short low position for standing but it wasn't mainstream practice. I had a brief time on the world cup circuit a long time ago and what struck me then was how stock-standard most people's rifles were. It almost seemed that for some teams - notably the USSR (and that dates me) the all seemed to use the much the same set-up regardless of physical differences - and those guys were the top of the tree in those days.

My guess is that most biathletes probably come to the sport from a skiing background and so for them the rifle is a means to an end something you use but don't fuss over too much. Another thing might be that at the very top level, although you can loose a race in the range you will win it out on the track so their energy and concentration goes into their training and also their skis, where skilled selection / waxing / preparation is essential.

RoryW