Olympics Insight — Anatomy of a Modern Biathlon Rifle
If you’ve been following the Winter Olympics in Sochi, no doubt you’ve been watching Biathlon events. This combination of Nordic-style skiing and precision shooting is hugely popular in Europe. Biathlon requires great physical fitness levels, superior marksmanship skills, and of course, a very accurate .22 LR rifle.
This video shows biathletes at previous winter Olympics. Note how the straight-pull actions allow competitors to shoot rapidly without breaking their position (at the 1:00″ mark, the shooter takes five shots in ten seconds). Target racks are located 50m from the firing line. The targets, which flip from black to white when hit, are 45mm (1.8″) in diameter for prone, and 115mm (4.5″) in diameter for standing.
Watch Olympic Biathlon Competition (Archive Footage)
Biathlon rifles are sophisticated. The top competitors use rigs with slick, straight-pull actions, integrated magazine carriers, and ergonomic stock designs that work well for both prone and standing positions. The advanced slings use “bungee cords” to allow rapid deployment from on-the-back carry position (while skiing) to the shooting position.
One of the most popular Biathlon rifles is the Anschütz model 1827F Fortner. This features a straight-pull action with a two-stage trigger typically adjusted to 550 grams (19 ounces). The sprint version of the model 1827F weighs just 3.7 kg (8.16 pounds). Remarkably, even the magazines are optimized for “high-speed, low-drag” performance: “Shortened 5-shot magazines were laterally incorporated into the stock to reduce the surface on which the wind can act. Non-slip magazine bottoms make the handling of the loading process easier. An additional magazine release lever on the side makes an even faster exchange of the magazines possible.” (Anschütz brochure).
Credit Chris Cheng, Top Shot Season 4 Champion, for finding these photos of the model 1827F Fortner on the Anschütz website.
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Tags: 1827F, Anschutz, Biathlon, Cheng, Olympics, Sochi, Straight-Pull
I;d have guessed their weight as less than 8lbs.
Makes their accomplishments even greater. And a miss requires them to take a 150yd penalty loop – so a miss adds to their time but also depletes their energy reserve for the rest of the course. 10,000 kilometers! They don;t bother trying to slow their heart rate – they shoot with it pumping +-170bpm. Offhand, even.
No matter what your discipline, you won’t win if you don’t shoot a Clean.
Sounds achingly familiar.
What is the wing like device I saw on the left side of some biathlon rifles? Is this for balance?
I have long been curious why Americans don’t do better in this sport? Given most European countries have strict “gun laws”,it seems there would not be so many civilians available for this sport! Are the Euro. athletes all military thus having more access to fire-arms?The article said Euro. kids start training @ a young age. Do their govts. sponser them? It just seems with all the ski and winter sport areas in the US,we could do a better job in the “Biathlon”. I can only conclude that the US Olympic Comm. just doesn’t care about this sport!
Lawson, the gun laws arent nearly as strict as many Americans think they are. It’s no problem to join a local shooting club, of which there is one in pretty much every town, and get started with shooting. The personal firearm is usually just some minor paperwork away.
Wasn’t Biathlon originally shot with REAL rifles,(full-bore service rifle of your country), and at longer ranges (300m)???
It is yet another military skill that has been “gentrified”.
I think it was originally shot at 250 or 300 meters with centerfires.
The wing looking thing is part of the mount for keeping it in place on their backs while they ski.
Good luck finding a new Anschutz Biathlon rifle for sale in the US and at $3,500 plus, who can afford them?