From: [j d p] at [atl.hp.com] (John Pierce) Newsgroups: rec.guns Subject: Olympic Shooting Report (long) Date: 1 Aug 1996 10:12:44 -0400 Olympic Shooting Report (And I didn't even pull a trigger) Enough lurking! I haven't seen any reports from the olympics, so I'll have to step into the breach. Thursday, July 25. I was exhausted after working the previous weekend and pulling long hours Monday and Tuesday. The new revision went in on Wednesday, so I had some relief. I decided to take off and take the kids to the olympic shooting venue! ------------ I have been to Wolf Creek skeet & trap range several times (I'm no good, but hey, it's fun!). I even saw the Olympic setup while under construction. So knowing where it was, we drove on down...traffic was not too bad...and parked and got tickets. My wife declined to make the trip, and Mary (13) was babysitting, so it was myself, Ben (17 year old gun nut) Sam (15) and Evie (11). We opted to leave our lunch, umbrellas, etc. in the car, presuming we could could run to the car and get back into the venue later. This turned out to be a fatal assumption: thank you, ACOG, for your Olympic cheapness. Just about every other place in the area will let you, but not not ACOG. ASIDE: There have been Goodyear blimps floating around Atlanta, but one has the Goodyear logo painted out. ACOG made them take it off, because Goodyear is not an official sponsor! We walked from the upper Wolf Creek skeet fields (the parking area) down to the sidewalk for the lower fields, by the clubhouse. There was an open tent set up, where they were handing out free souvenirs and ice cream. The souvenirs were clay pigeons, with "Wolf Creek...Fulton County" molded into the top. Cool. I fondly gaze at mine, even as I type. Walking over to the venue, one of our burning questions (Will we see skeet?) was answered by the building volume of 12 ga pops. We went through the metal detectors, they hand checked my 10x50 binox, and there we were: inside the Olympics. We drifted over to watch skeet practice for a while. I wanted to get oriented, so we went over to the 50m building. It was crowded. There was a final for the Men's 50m prone going on. But we couldn't see the shooters. There were massive bleachers, but none had a view of the line itself, so we stood in the walkway to watch. The prone position diagram from my college marksmanship class came to mind...the one where there is a straight line through the rifle, through the body, through the right leg, which gives you perfect form. Apparently, not one of these guys had ever seen that diagram. They all had their own form, and what I had been taught was not it. Oh, well. I guess they know what they are doing. After a bit, volunteers started herding everyone into the bleachers, where you couldn't see anything but the ranking and tote boards. For my money, this setup is just plain bad design. OK, it was more of a spectator event then in the past (thanks to the Suis-Ascor system...more later), but it would not have taken a big change to let us actually *see*, for crying out loud! We sat for a while, watching the tote boards and rankings, but decided this was Not An Interesting Place To Be. Off to next door, the 10m building. No finals here, just the Qualifications for 10m Running Target air rifle (Men's only...no women's in this event). The view here was GREAT! We worked our way into some 3rd row seats and settled in for a while. First we saw a fellow from the Ukraine. Then a country I couldn't place. Then Australia. Then came a fellow from China (Ling Yang?). This was real treat. This man was the picture of relaxed concentration, a veritable shooting machine. He racked up 10 after 10. There were blind bovines that day, because he nailed many bulls right in the eye. Later, I looked at the fact sheet for the event. This shooter is the current World Record (not olympic) record holder for this event. We were impressed by all the shooters, tracking that seemingly teeny target with butter-smooth motions, firing at just the last moment before it disappeared. I overheard someone say, "I'd be happy to get straight 7's in this." He was wearing a polo shirt with "NRA certified instructor" embroidered over the pocket. This gave us a good chance to see the Suis-Ascor scoring system in action. Each target is mounted in a metal frame, which has four "microphones" in the corners. The system can place a shot to 0.1 mm. A computer snarfs up the data and produces a real-time graphic that shows the scoring rings, current hits with a circle (bullseyes have radiating concentric rings, like the waves when you throw a rock in a pond), and previous shots marked as a "+". There's a large score indicator, and a shot summary. Way cool. The judges collect a hardcopy and send it to scoring after a shooter is done. In the meantime, there's a large projection screen that updates ranking in real time. This goes a long way to making shooting a spectator sport. Next, over to the 25m building for the final of Men's Rapid Fire pistol. When we walked in, there was music playing: they had a DJ running CDs, announcing the pieces and providing light banter between songs. When they were to start the match, they announced each shooter in English and French. It went something like this: At bay one, representing the United States, . . (Applause as his fans cheer him on). At bay two, representing France, ..... Wow. Was this Olympic competition, or a party? Then came the first stage. The announcer gave the range commands, complete with countdown. Poppopopoppoppoppoppop, with a background of .22 brass skittering across the concrete floor. Then it was over. I noticed that more than one shooter put his left hand in his pocket, contrary to what my pistol instructor told me 20 years ago. (He relented and let me do it, while making clear that *proper* form is to place the left hand on the hip.) Oh, well. I guess they know what they are doing. About this time, the troops starting agitating for food. Due to a mixup, we had only three dollars between us, once we got in. So we went to the exit to inquire if we could, pretty please, get back in if we ran to the car for a few minutes. The reply: no way. Gotta buy new tickets to return. So, while some of the crew took a Porta-Potti break, the rest of us browsed the vendor tents. (So *this* is an RWS Diana 200? OOOOhhh, I want one!) Then it started: the deluge. We took refuge in the 10m building. The events were over, so this became essentially a giant umbrella to shelter the masses. We sat next to a Polish athlete and his family (his kid was poring over Power Ranger trading cards) and a couple on the row in front of us snoozed. We spread out our catalogs and brochures to dry. We salvaged the Beretta catalog, but the Walther flyer was a write-off. Pretty soon, the rain stopped, and we took a vote on what to do. The unanimous decision was to go outside and watch skeet, as the Rapid Fire competition (inside) was instantly jammed to capacity when the rain started. We brushed the water out of the plastic seats and sat down to a super practice round. Since it was practice, there were no names posted. I did make out a USA contestant (Roy?) with a wild blue plastic stock emblazoned with "Browning." Check out that crazy rib! It looks like he's shooting skeet with a trap gun! Oh, well. I guess he knows what he's doing. I really enjoyed watching him while he was not shooting. He went over to the stands and talked with his wife. When it was his turn again, he shot, then went back to talk with his wife. It was pleasant to him so comfortable and to see such a good marital relationship. We watched for quite a while before the rain started again. Ben had to go to work, and I had work waiting, too. We decided to bail out. We picked up ice cream and souvenir clay pigeons on the way out. What a day! I can't believe how much we all enjoyed ourselves, without pulling one trigger. -- #################OPINIONS#HERE#ARE#MINE#ALONE#################### John Pierce Atlanta Technology Center [j d p] at [itpg004.atl.hp.com] (404) 648-8389