Olympic shooting is just a different beast. Look at the differences in scores; it’s fractions of a point, in most cases. Air guns simply aren’t popular in the US, while they’re one of the very few options open to most people outside of the US. And, TBH, there’s not a lot of support for the Olympic shooting sports in the US, aside from possibly trap.
The “conventional” guns aren’t conventional by any normal definition. I suspect that the air rifles are slightly more accurate than the .22 rifles, because it’s really hard to get perfectly consistent .22 ammunition. I’ve known a few people that did that kind of target shooting–I think they were all Finns?–and holy hell, they’re really particular about controlling for every possible variable.
Trap uses very normal shotguns, aside from being extraordinarily, exquisitely made; the over-under shotguns are works of art.
Olympic shooting is just a different beast. Look at the differences in scores; it’s fractions of a point, in most cases. Air guns simply aren’t popular in the US, while they’re one of the very few options open to most people outside of the US. And, TBH, there’s not a lot of support for the Olympic shooting sports in the US, aside from possibly trap.
They use conventional guns as well. But they are specially designed for shooting sports.
https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/shooting-101-olympic-equipment
If nothing else, you can’t destroy a clay pigeon in skeet shooting with an air gun.
The “conventional” guns aren’t conventional by any normal definition. I suspect that the air rifles are slightly more accurate than the .22 rifles, because it’s really hard to get perfectly consistent .22 ammunition. I’ve known a few people that did that kind of target shooting–I think they were all Finns?–and holy hell, they’re really particular about controlling for every possible variable.
Trap uses very normal shotguns, aside from being extraordinarily, exquisitely made; the over-under shotguns are works of art.
I don’t think most Americans even know there are other guns beside the AR15 lol…
Christ I’m so glad I dodged that gun nut culture. I was very close to falling down that rabbit-hole in younger years.
Edit: Oof, must’ve pissed off some RWNJs.