Olympic Champion Shooters - Models of gun safety

[DigMe]

Check out this picture from the June 21st edition of Espn: The Magazine. It's about Army First Lieutenant Chad Senior who's enrolled in the Army's World Class Athlete Program and training for the Olympic Pentathlon. Here's the picture followed by the caption:

DEAD CALM

Senior takes a few minutes to chill before hitting the shooting range. According to coach Janusz Peciak, the '76 Olympic champ from Poland, shooters should have a heart rate so low theyre nearly dead. When Senior finally starts firing, Peciak gets in his face to break his focus. Whatever. Senior hits his targets without so much as a twitch.

Copyright - ESPN: The Magazine

Wow. I'm sure that helps him to learn focus and all but Peciak looks like he's about an inch away from taking a .22 round to the head. There's got to be better methods than this!

Please...no Polish jokes.

Please forgive the grainy pic...I don't have a scanner and took a quick snapshot of the magazine photo with my digital camera.

brad cook

 

[sturmruger]

Damn that doesn't look too smart.

 

[Average Guy]

Could be, like the Kerry photo, that it's just the angle and he's behind the muzzle. Could also be dry practicing, despite what the caption says. Could be a lot of things. Are we sure that isn't Ron Rifkin from "Alias"?

 

[DigMe]

Average Guy,

Could be but he looks pretty close to that muzzle at any angle that I can imagine. Even if it is unloaded though it's still breaking basic rules.

brad cook

 

[Leatherneck]

Reminds me of the huge Army poster here in the Pentagon that features a world-class Army rifleman dressed to the nines with medals and all, holding a race rifle at port arms with his finger wrapped around the trigger! :banghead:

TC
TFL Survivor

 

[Justin]

1) That's an air pistol, not a .22

2) The perspective of the photo makes it look like coach guy is in front of the barrel when I seriously doubt that is the case. If the shooter's arm is extended 90° from his body, that would give coach a good arm's length of space, plus the length of the pistol itself, which is probably the better part of a foot long.

The really bad ASCII diagram below should muddy things up. The little smilie is the coach, the vertical lines are the shooter's arm, and the horizontal lines with the 0 represent the shooter's shoulders and head.

............ |
............ |
..... |
............ |
____0___

 

[DigMe]

Air pistol doesn't preclude .22...but you're right it was probably a .177 pellet and not a .22 pellet. Didn't know they used air pistols though.

brad cook

 

[SoundWave]

Air pistol doesn't preclude .22...but you're right it was probably a .177 pellet and not a .22 pellet. Didn't know they used air pistols though.

The Olympics use air pistols chambered in .177 you are correct.