there was quite a lot of pics coming from the olympics shooting contests into the meme space …
which makes me wonder … what type of weapons are being shot?, what caliber of ammo?, etc…
It seems that it is very small caliber (judging from the lack of recoil) …
anybody in the know?
how is security handled in those types of events?
(I assume you are being handled the ONE bullet that you shoot and are allowed the weapon to point into a specific direction… any disqualification for unsafe behavior? )
Pistol and rifle both use the .22 long rifle cartridge (.22 LR, aka 5.6 x .15 mmR). They use “match grade” ammo which is manufactured to higher standards for better consistency, allowing for greater accuracy in competition shooting.
This is the standard round for international competion shooting, not just the Olympics.
I have no idea about security and ammo handling.
Air rifles and air pistols use .177 cal. pellets.
The Anschutz company (Germany) has been making Olympic and other competition rifles for many decades. The rifle team at my university in the 60s was using them. Sig Sauer and a couple of other companies also make competition weapons.
Eley, RWS, and Lapua are the big Olympic ammo manufacturers, and RWS also manufactures a lot of the medal-winning air gun pellets as well.
The big deal is with consistency- if all the bullets weigh and are shaped the same, and all the cases are the same size, and the powder weight is exactly the same, chances are that those rounds are going to all perform the same, letting the shooter get a smaller grouping. So these manufacturers produce special hyper-consistent ammo for that purpose.
Yesterday I watched a rapid-shooting event in which the shooter is afforded a short period of time in which to fire at five separate targets without reloading.
Specs on the guns and event layouts here:
Olympics is all 4.5mm aka .177 air pellet, .22 LR rimfire, and 12 gauge.
The rapid fire pistols are extra special. They have built in muzzle brakes that are open on one side so even the slight recoil is used to move the muzzle towards the next target.
IIRC the three position uses a 5.6 millimeters rifle.
0.22 inches = 5.6 mm
There are also European and world championships shooting 300m where they would use larger-calibre ammunition, but that is a different event.
I’m using the common names, even in Europe they usually say .22LR instead of 5.6×15mmR, whereas both pellet sizes can be used.
@Machine_Elf 's link goes into detail, they’re single shot for some events or have magazines for others.
5.56×45mm NATO is also a 22 caliber, but a lot different.
They used to use centerfire rifles in the winter olympics, but apparently this has also gone to rimfire.
Biathlon became .22 in 1978.
The dominant calibre/ammunition in this event seems to be 6mm Norma BR, not 5.56.
I very much like target shooting. I bought a PCP (pre-charged pneumatic) air rifle in .22. It’s crazy accurate. I consistently hit a dime sized target at 100 feet (I cheat and use a scope). If I put it in a rifle rest I’d bet the grouping would be 1/4 inch across.
I wanted to try air, and it’s nice that it is very quiet.
I bought a special compressor for it since it takes up to 3000 psi. You won’t get that out of a standard compressor.
Rifle + compressor was about $1200. You can go way higher.
The “Benjies” are really popular, proven, long-lived platforms, with basically endless tuning / accessorizing options. A good pick, for sure.
This gets into how cartridges are named, which also gets us into the territory of “the great thing about standards is there are so many to choose from!”
There are several different naming standards for rounds. One of the older ones is the caliber plus the year the cartridge was introduced. An example of this is the .30-06 round (.30 inch diameter, introduced in 1906), which was developed for the Springfield Model 1903 rifle, and leads to the obvious question of why the rifle is dated 1903 and the cartridge is dated 1906 when they were developed together (they tweaked the 1903 cartridge a bit). Another standard is the bullet diameter and the powder load, such as the .45-70 round (aka .45-70 government), which was .45 inch diameter bullet and a 70 grain black powder load. Yet another standard is to specify the diameter in metric along with the cartridge length, so the .22LR round is 5.6x15mmR, which means 5.6 mm diameter (.22 inches) with a cartridge length of 15 mm, and the R means “rimmed”.
A lot of European rounds are 7.62mm in diameter, which seems an odd number. Typically folks like even numbers like 9mm or 10mm. So why 7.62? Because .30 inches (a fairly round number) is 7.62mm. 5.56mm is .219 inches, effectively .22.
5.6 vs. 5.56 gets into another naming convention. That difference of a hundredth of an inch is probably below the manufacturing tolerance of the round, but they give them a different number just to differentiate them. They are both effectively .22 caliber, but they are very different rounds. Another example of this is the .357 magnum round, which is a more powerful round based on the .38 special round. The .38 round uses the neck diameter to name the round and the .357 uses the bullet diameter so that you have two different names to avoid confusion. Both rounds use a .357 diameter bullet and both have a .379 inch neck diameter. Also note that .357 inches is effectively 9mm.
The long and short of it is that naming conventions are a disorganized mess of multiple standards.
The .22 round used for shooting competitions was developed in the late 1800s. They called it the .22 “long rifle” (abbreviated .22LR) to distinguish it from an earlier .22 round that was introduced in the 1850s. The older cartridge was then renamed the .22 “short”. Folks that use the metric system call it the 5.6x15mmR (5.6mm diameter, 15mm lenth, R for rimmed). It’s low cost, low recoil, and good accuracy have made it the standard for recreational target shooting, and it is therefore no surprise that it became the standard for many types of competition shooting as well.
.22 short isn’t a very popular cartridge these days, though it is still in production. When most people say .22 round, they mean .22LR. In European competition shooting they call that same round the 5.6mm round, though upthread it was mentioned that they also use the more common .22LR name.
There is also the .22 long. Not LR. Longer than the short, shorter than the LR.
I’ve heard that .22 long is not accurate. For that matter, I thought there was a general dislike of .22 caliber for target shooting. Apparently, I was mistaken.
Donno. When I shot them as a kid, they where cheaper. And .22 shorts where no fun at all. .22mag was fun.
I had a .22 mag revolver that would penetrate more than a .32 ACP. Smaller bullet and more powder, I guess.