Anybody here following the Olympic Shooting events for the 2024 Summer Games?

Here’s a handy guide to the events and American shooting team:

A Complete Guide to the Shooting Events at the Paris Olympics

It’s a shame that not much attention is given to Olympic shooting by the American gun culture. And finding shooting ranges or facilities that can accomodate the various events is very difficult.
Notably, Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol is particularly difficult to find training opportunities.
Curiously, in many countries the only possible access “regular folks” have with firearms is often restricted to official Olympic/International events. And, often ranges are built to only accomodate these events.

If you’re unfamiliar with the events, it’s worth looking into!


My personal favorite event is the 50 Meter slow fire “Free Pistol” event. Here’s the final rounds from the 2016 Rio Olympics Games. Sadly, this was the last year for this tremendously difficult event.
Free pistol was eliminated from the Games soon after.

https://youtu.be/_dw9t4z36dM?si=jCZZpd_dfEkZ1xGO

Interesting array of shooting glasses in that video. I wonder how accurate they could be with a larger caliber handgun. Thanks for posting.

For the last Summer Olympics, we still had satellite TV, and it was nearly impossible to find coverage of the 'less popular' events like shooting, fencing, etc. You might be lucky to get 5 minutes of a final buried in an hour broadcast that covered 20 different events.

This year we are streaming Peacock to watch the Olympics, and it's an enormous improvement. Most of the events are filmed, though some don't have commentators except for finals. I could have watched all 6 hours of air rifle on Saturday if I had wanted to! And you don't have to watch live. The menu is broken down by categories, so it's fairly easy to find the events you want to watch.

If you are interested in watching events you never used to be able to see, you should check it out. IIRC it's ~$15/mo, we're just planning to cancel when the Olympics are over.

I do agree that Olympic shooting is very unfamiliar to most American shooters, with the exception of Trap/Skeet. Even plain old bullseye shooting is becoming a 'lost' art. The equipment has become so specialized as to be almost unrecognizable to the average shooter.

Still, it's amazing to watch the skills and talent of the shooters at the Olympics.

Interesting that you should mention the parallel disciplines with International and American versions. In all cases the International disciplines are more difficult. International Skeet has variable time delays, faster targets, and more varied angles.
With Pistol events, International disciplines are more difficult on a technical and precision level.
Slow fire in American Bullseye is at 50 yds, while Free Pistol is at 50 meters. The outer scoring ring in Bullseye is 5 points, while in Free Pistol it’s 1 point. A small error costs your score dearly. The 10 ring in Free Pistol is proportionally much smaller than the Bullseye 10 ring. Of course, American Bullseye, at least in a full 2700 match, is a long, 270 shot arduous slog. The International pistol events are each 60 shots. Oh, and optics are prohibited.
Attached is an image of Swiss free pistol shooter Moritz Minder and his world record 577/600 point target.

It is possible to be competitive in some events with fairly common gear. For International Centerfire Pistol, plain old American revolvers, like the S&W K-38, are very popular. The Winchester 52 was a very popular smallbore rifle while it was in production. Don Nygord won a few medals in International Air Pistol shooting a modified Daisy 777!
It’s too bad American firearms manufacturers all basically ignore International shooting. It would do them a lot of good to reconsider their attitude. High Standard, for example, earned a lot of prestige by taking seriously Rapid Fire Pistol. The result was America’s one and only Gold medal in that event.
But, it could also be a way to bring a good image to American firearms manufacturers who are all too commonly misrepresented negatively in the media.

Attached Images

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Yes, the glasses are adaptable to many disciplines. I’ve seen American shooters use them for Bullseye and IHMSA Silhouette. It’s nice to be able to adjust the lens position so you are looking straight through the center with no distortion.
They’re not that expensive. And, fitting circular lenses is straightforward.
As you may have noticed, the glasses are adaptable to many preferences.
Varga, Knobloch, and Champion are probably the most popular brands.

If Breakdancing is a success in Paris, the Summer Games
in Los Angeles 2028, will feature, Slingshot Breakdancing.
It's the Inner City warm weather Biathlon.

Would be nice to see more competitive shooting events, even other events, and drop the long personal boring stories. YMMV.

Love the smell of gunpowder in the morning.

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Hope you aren’t a fan of the 50m Prone Rifle and Pistol events in the Olympics | laststandonzombieisland

You won't be able to watch the 50m this Olympics. See above.
A easier way to find shooting events is by going to NBC Olympics and down on the lower right side of the page is "OLI" which is a chat bot and will give you info about specific events.

Yes, for some reason, the event becomes more and more politicized every four years. The controversy of the opening ceremony, for instance, does little to help.

By contrast, here’s a perspective on the shooting events in the Olympics from a very different times (April 1957) as published in Guns Magazine:

https://gunsmagazine.com/wp-content/...8/12/G0457.pdf

Of course, the author Charles Askins was a colorful character. But, he could shoot! His take is worth a read.
You’re not going to see any firearms built using military surplus actions these days!

Here's a link to the Men's Air Pistol Final:

https://youtu.be/o_GI383-XUE?si=183UvSk-0dh-vSK4

Really great shooting under a LOT of match pressure!
If you don't know, there is a 60 shot general match to determine the finalists. Those guys go on to the final elimination round. The video just shows the last couple minutes to determine the medalists. Notice the finalist list: Mongolia, Serbia, Germany (2 slots), Korea, Italy (two slots AND two medals!), and China.

Ask yourself something: In a nation of gun owners (a lot of whom are handgun owners!), why can't the the USA break into the finals?
Air pistol is one of the easiest events to set up and run from a logistical standpoint.
Yet, "somehow", it's just not happening.
Having spent years on both sides, as a competitor and coach for a junior program, it's probably best if I refrain from elaborating.

Nonetheless, the final round "shoot-off" makes for an exciting visual for the viewer.

Hopefully, some youngsters out there will see this video and get hooked!!

I was at the range shooting my usual primary pistol, a Hämmerli 160 free pistol (see picture attached). Typically, if anyone notices, it gets a few puzzled looks.
But, thanks to the abundance of pistol shooting coverage for the 2024 Olympic Games, I actually met some guys who were well informed and interested.
They have been following the pistol events on “Peacock”, which I have learned, is a subscription based streaming service.
It was really nice to be able to have a conversation about many of the detailed aspects and personalities who are shooting for the Gold.

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Nice to see Team USA won Gold and Silver in Skeet.

I always enjoy watching the shooting sports ...
I'm glad they still let us watch them .
I have competed in local shooting indoor shooting sports and both my children particpated in High School shooting sports .
Shooting can be a very interesting and fun sport .
Gary

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The new match formats, typically using the Finals in an elimination process, has been quite an adjustment for competitors. But, it has been great from the standpoint of making the shooting events more exciting for viewers.

LOTS of people all over the world are seeing competitive shooting for the first time. NBC has actually done a good job of covering the shooting events, offering many ways to find and watch different media.

This is very good and important for the shooting events, and for gun ownership in general.

People who know nothing about guns are getting a chance to see things from a perspective that doesn't involve people shooting each other.

Hopefully, everyone has heard about Yusuf Dikec, the pistol shooter from Turkey who helped his team win the Silver medal in the 10 Meter Mixed Air Pistol event.
He's a retired cop, who shoots in his plain everyday streetwear!

Even GQ did an article on him!

Read:
Yusuf Dikec Made Olympic Excellence Look Impossibly Chill | GQ

This is a great piece of media coverage that does a lot of positive good for guns, gun ownership, and competitive shooting!

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Yusuf Dikec-pistol-silver-medallist.jpg (50.9 KB, 36 views)

[CODE]No idea if the link will work:

+ Some thoughts about Olympic Pistol shooting:

P.44
++ Always Good Shooting

Congrats to Sagen Maddalena on winning silver in 3 position rifle!

Just gonna leave this here . . .

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I too lament the fact that there is such a divergence between American and European shooting. But I tend to think I would like to see the Europeans come closer to us than vice-versa.

It no doubt takes enormous skill to shoot 50 meter free pistol with a highly specialized .22 single shot. But I’m more impressed by a shooter who can ring up a good 50 yard slow fire score with a 1911 .45.

And in my somewhat limited experience, it seems like people who could shoot Master class scores at American Bullseye (.22, Center-fire, and .45) were also pretty good at International pistol.

The converse was not true. An excellent free pistol, or air pistol shooter could be absolutely terrible at American bullseye, with its mandatory .45 stage.

Or consider Standard Pistol, which is kinda a copy of our National
Match Course. I really like the combination of slow fire, timed fire, and rapid fire. But the Europeans do the slow fire at 25 meters, not 50 yards. And it is all .22 caliber.

I find it more interesting to see National Match Course fired with a Service Pistol. And especially a .38 caliber, iron sighted revolver.

But still. And excellent shooter commands my respect regardless of discipline. (Even those shotgun guys . . . )

Good points. All these matches mentioned are very tough.
Unfortunately, American Bullseye is almost exclusively shot with Red Dot sights these days. Most of the American bullseye shooters have never even attempted to use iron sights competitively.
That’s a HUGE part of the skill set.
Of course, we’re talking about “NRA Bullseye”. CMP rules are considerably tougher. Iron sights only, no external modifications, heavier trigger pulls (comparable to Int’l CF & Standard). It’s a great format for service revolver, as you mention.

Aside from that, have you compared the 50 Meter free pistol target to the American 50 yard target? Besides the extra distance, the American 10 ring is roughly comparable to the Int’l 9 ring. The further out you go, the greater the disparity, and the worse a bad shot affects your score. For example, as long as your shot even hits the target, the least you can score in American Bullseye is a 5. On the International target, the outer score ring is a 1! Little mistakes with International are much more costly point-wise.

But, it must be said that Americans like Bill Blankenship, Bill MacMillan, or Joe Huelet Benner, having mastered the 1911 “service pistol” (not wadcutter shooting optics equipped 1911) transitioned very well to International. Joe won the ONLY Olympic Gold ever win by an American in Free Pistol. That was 1956!
We haven’t seen the likes of those guys in 50 years!

In the last World Cup, in 2023, the American shooters came in 2nd and 3rd LAST PLACE in 50 Meter Free Pistol!
Towards the end of the match they couldn’t even keep’em in the black! Their scores were 492 and 493 out of 600. 20+ years ago, I coached a junior International pistol program. Several of our kids did much better than that, with many earning collegiate athletic scholarships in pistol.
What’s happened??
The richest nation in the world, with the largest percentage of hangun owners, was humiliated by third world countries that still use donkey carts as a regular mode of transportation!

The next event

25 meter rapid fire pistol final
ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol - Wikipedia

is just +/- 30 minutes away:
Paris 2024

P.44

Yeah, you just gotta love Yusuf!!

USA took Gold and Silver in men's skeet, also Bronze in Women's skeet.

Keith Sanderson is extremely accurate with the 1911 in .45 ACP. I met him a long time ago at Camp Perry. He's a modest and nice fellow. He is shooting International Rapid Fire Pistol this year in Paris.

Actually, many recent top shooters can shoot pistols with iron sights exceptionally well. Shooters like Brian Zins have proven it by shooting excellent scores in Service Pistol matches where iron sights are still required. Gunny Zins was 12 times national pistol champion at Camp Perry. Non of the shooters you mention (Bill Blankenship was my idol) achieved anywhere near the level that Zins did.

Well, both Joe Benner and Bill MacMillan did win Olympic Gold medals in Free Pistol and Rapid Fire Pistol respectively. Is that not a high level of achievement?
That was over 60 years ago and the USA hasn’t won a single Gold in any pistol event since.

And, Bill Blankenship won a number of World Cup and PanAm Games using his S&W M52 in Int’l Centerfire Pistol. Other notable American Pistol shooters from the same era who did well in Olympics and other Int’l events include Franklin Green (with his own designed electronic trigger free pistol), Bob Chow, and Harry Reeves.

Comparing the National Matches (and, let’s be honest….usually won by taxpayer-funded government employees) with major International Events is an “Apples vs Oranges” comparison.

I was responding to your statement that shooters can't shoot iron sights anymore. Most Olympic athletes are professionals, these days. Blankenship was active Army, as well as, Benner. MacMillan was a Marine. Zins won the Nationals as an active duty Marine and as a civilian. The biggest factor to the USA not placing well in Olympic pistol matches has little to do with the quality of American competitive pistol shooters. It has mostly to do with training. Pistol shooters at the Olympic Training Center aren't a top priority. The bulk of the funding and training are directed to other shooting disciplines. International pistol shooting has never been as popular in the USA as other shooting disciplines. In the rest of the world, International shooting is what they care about. In some countries, top International shooters are considered as highly regarded as any other athlete. In other words, I don't buy in to the the argument that "things were better back then"!

I was amazed at the leather 'suits' the air pistol rifle shooters wore to stabilize their hold. Looked like Moto GP leathers filled with lead. The users walked like Frankenstein's monster.

Through the '60's Bullseye Pistol Shooting (competing at 25 yds. and 50 yds. with one hand) was THE competitive shooting sport. This was a pool where a lot of shooters for the US olympic pistol team were selected. With the participation in the sport (now called Precision Pistol) dwindling down to a small fraction of what it once was, there is no longer that pool to transition over to International Pistol Shooting. If the popularity ever climbs, which is doubtful, the USA will be competitive again. We'd need soccer moms to become precision pistol moms. I'm glad to see our shotgun and rifle shooters still competitive on the international stage.

I like the picture of him with the cigarette hanging out of his mouth. The man is KING

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Speaking of .45's, I had a Wilson Combat Master Grade conversion of a 1911.

Pretty much ANYBODY could and would do well with that! It was like the bullets were guided by radar!! You could eat the innards out of the 10 ring at 50 yards, and never break a sweat! Pretty much like flying an airplane on autopilot.

Ralph Tremaine

I was rooting for John Zurek when he was on the US International team. John is a top competitor in US Precision Pistol competition but had a hard time making a final in the ISSF World Cup competitions.

I have mentioned top ISSF shooters in conversations overseas with good results. Some countries really track their shooters.

Did anyone follow the heartbreak in women's skeet? The woman from England who got silver was robbed. In the shootoff she clearly broke a target that the official called as lost. Several cameras verify that that target was broken. Unfortunately , photo review is not used in the olympics and the referee's call stood.

Granted all that the correct call would have done was prolong the shoot off, but who knows? Maybe she would have won gold.

I find it incredible that cameras are used in almost every other sport there. And the cameras were present. They just aren't used under the current rules.

Here's an excerpt from the press release from USA Shooting:

"COLO SPGS, CO (Aug. 15, 2024) – The U.S. Olympic shooting team brought back five medals and made history at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Chateauroux Shooting Range in France July 26- Aug. 11."......

"Sagen Maddalena: Silver, Women’s 50m Smallbore Rifle
Vincent Hancock: Gold, Men’s Skeet
Conner Prince: Silver, Men’s Skeet
Austen Smith: Bronze, Women’s Skeet
Vincent Hancock and Austen Smith: Silver, Mixed Team Skeet"

For those unfamiliar with the organization, they invest heavily in shotgun. Less so for rifle. Very little for pistol.
Hint: If you know or have any kids, think about getting them started in air pistol. There's quite a number of excellent schools that offer collegiate athletic scholarships. Pistol offers probably the greatest opportunities to gain a good scholarship.

The 2024 Summer Olympics seems to have been successful in promoting the Int'l target shooting sports in general. I've had numerous conversations with casual shooters/gun owners/CWP carry guys in which it has been brought up.