BBroadside
Member
I have invented a new sport. Or rather, imagined it. It is called Scout Biathlon.
Summer Biathlon uses the same rifles (IIRC) as Nordic Biathlon, only with running instead of skiiing. Scout Biathlon combines Summer Biathlon with Foot Orienteering and metallic silhouette shooting, using short-barreled centerfire rifles with forward-mounted scopes.
In a really free-and-open environment (one where you could carry rifles over orienteering-type terrain), you'd just compass-and-map yourself from one shooting point to another. I'm picturing the targets as metallic silhouettes of game animals (paper would work too, I suppose). To give it an "action shooting" appeal, you could have a bunch of no-shoot silhouettes to appear as well.
Maybe each shooting point would have some sort of device which would cause several targets to appear when the shooter got into position; perhaps a lever would drop camouflage curtains away from covering the silhouettes. Several targets could appear simultaneously, preferably in the peripheries of the shooter's vision (necessitating perhaps an unrealistically-large berm?) The distance would be enough that the shooter would probably have use his scope to identify them (or the targets could be small). Shooting the targets from the wrong point would earn a penalty.
Imagine: you'd hike 5 km with a scout rifle on our back, compass and map in hand. The map point would say "from a sitting position, shoot the javelinas and rams, leave the birds alone". You'd find a cleverly disguised lever, or something like a garage door opener? Then you'd press it, and bunch of rams, javelinas, and turkey would appear, and you'd lose ten points for each time you shot a turkey or if you shot standing or prone. You'd lose points if you took more than 40 seconds to at that point. Then you'd run off to your next point, another 5 km away, where you could only shoot the turkeys. (A variation, with no levers but with the targets only visible from the exact spot you're supposed to shoot from, would also be interesting.)
In the above scenario, you'd probably have to have a range official accompany you to make sure you didn't get confused and fire at something with no backstop. The official would also do the scoring and time you if, as I imagine, time would be an important aspect.
In a smaller setting, I suppose you could begin with only orienteering, no shooting, and just navigate your way back to the shooting range.
I'd like to make it with as few rules as possible other than the usual safety rules. As far as rifles go, there would be no weight limit. (If you had to orienteer through no-gun territory, the officials could just make you carry weights equivalent to your rifle's weight.) If the targets were metallic, there would also be no caliber minimum. That way, the game would be self-regulating - people would want to carry real Jeff Cooper-style rifles because they are light and make the rams fall over.
Overweight "pseudo scouts" would be allowed to compete head to head with the petite weapons which actually match Jeff Cooper's requirements. If Cooper was right, people will decide that a few extra pounds on a rifle, to reduce the kick, add features, etc., just isn't worth it if you're doing actual scouting with your shooting. (As to the matter of glass: I don't know if you could structure the game so that scout scopes just plain work better, or if you'd have to ban conventional scopes. I'm pretty naive when it comes to scopes.)
Summer Biathlon uses the same rifles (IIRC) as Nordic Biathlon, only with running instead of skiiing. Scout Biathlon combines Summer Biathlon with Foot Orienteering and metallic silhouette shooting, using short-barreled centerfire rifles with forward-mounted scopes.
In a really free-and-open environment (one where you could carry rifles over orienteering-type terrain), you'd just compass-and-map yourself from one shooting point to another. I'm picturing the targets as metallic silhouettes of game animals (paper would work too, I suppose). To give it an "action shooting" appeal, you could have a bunch of no-shoot silhouettes to appear as well.
Maybe each shooting point would have some sort of device which would cause several targets to appear when the shooter got into position; perhaps a lever would drop camouflage curtains away from covering the silhouettes. Several targets could appear simultaneously, preferably in the peripheries of the shooter's vision (necessitating perhaps an unrealistically-large berm?) The distance would be enough that the shooter would probably have use his scope to identify them (or the targets could be small). Shooting the targets from the wrong point would earn a penalty.
Imagine: you'd hike 5 km with a scout rifle on our back, compass and map in hand. The map point would say "from a sitting position, shoot the javelinas and rams, leave the birds alone". You'd find a cleverly disguised lever, or something like a garage door opener? Then you'd press it, and bunch of rams, javelinas, and turkey would appear, and you'd lose ten points for each time you shot a turkey or if you shot standing or prone. You'd lose points if you took more than 40 seconds to at that point. Then you'd run off to your next point, another 5 km away, where you could only shoot the turkeys. (A variation, with no levers but with the targets only visible from the exact spot you're supposed to shoot from, would also be interesting.)
In the above scenario, you'd probably have to have a range official accompany you to make sure you didn't get confused and fire at something with no backstop. The official would also do the scoring and time you if, as I imagine, time would be an important aspect.
In a smaller setting, I suppose you could begin with only orienteering, no shooting, and just navigate your way back to the shooting range.
I'd like to make it with as few rules as possible other than the usual safety rules. As far as rifles go, there would be no weight limit. (If you had to orienteer through no-gun territory, the officials could just make you carry weights equivalent to your rifle's weight.) If the targets were metallic, there would also be no caliber minimum. That way, the game would be self-regulating - people would want to carry real Jeff Cooper-style rifles because they are light and make the rams fall over.
Overweight "pseudo scouts" would be allowed to compete head to head with the petite weapons which actually match Jeff Cooper's requirements. If Cooper was right, people will decide that a few extra pounds on a rifle, to reduce the kick, add features, etc., just isn't worth it if you're doing actual scouting with your shooting. (As to the matter of glass: I don't know if you could structure the game so that scout scopes just plain work better, or if you'd have to ban conventional scopes. I'm pretty naive when it comes to scopes.)
