Idk what they’re using in the Olympics specifically but air gun pellets are basically a hybrid between a BB and some sort of super high tech tiny bullet
Looks like the single shot pistol events are 4.6mm air pistols, and the rapid fire pistol events are 5.6mm, or .22lr for us Americans, actual firearms.
The rifle events appear to also be .22lr (5.6mm), and the shotguns are 12 gauges.
So basically, whilst all the weapons used are extremely specialized, they are all actual firearms with the exception of the single shot pistol competition, which is an airgun.
I would be willing to bet the .22lr ammo is some stupendously fancy match grade… not sure about the actual shape of the air gun pellet.
For comparison, there exist .17 caliber weapons and rounds, I am guessing thats about the size of the air pellet.
(.17hmr in the left, .22 in the right. the .17 has a larger cartridge because its a magnum round, you’re just looking at the tips to compare the actual sizes of the bullet)
For further comparison, to really get a sense of how tiny these are:
For 10m air pistol, further down in the wiki page it shows that they use wadcutter pellets. They meticulously test batches to get extremely tight grouping - 5.0mm-4.5mm in a test rig.
That’s incredible for an air gun, I would never have thought they could get that accurate
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellet_(air_gun)
Idk what they’re using in the Olympics specifically but air gun pellets are basically a hybrid between a BB and some sort of super high tech tiny bullet
Looks like the single shot pistol events are 4.6mm air pistols, and the rapid fire pistol events are 5.6mm, or .22lr for us Americans, actual firearms.
The rifle events appear to also be .22lr (5.6mm), and the shotguns are 12 gauges.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISSF_25_meter_rapid_fire_pistol
https://olympics.com/en/news/olympic-shooting-air-rifle-3-positions-rapid-fire-air-pistol-shotgun-trap-skeet
So basically, whilst all the weapons used are extremely specialized, they are all actual firearms with the exception of the single shot pistol competition, which is an airgun.
I would be willing to bet the .22lr ammo is some stupendously fancy match grade… not sure about the actual shape of the air gun pellet.
For comparison, there exist .17 caliber weapons and rounds, I am guessing thats about the size of the air pellet.
(.17hmr in the left, .22 in the right. the .17 has a larger cartridge because its a magnum round, you’re just looking at the tips to compare the actual sizes of the bullet)
For further comparison, to really get a sense of how tiny these are:
Probably using Eley .22lr, match grade stuff goes for around 20 USD per 50 round box.
For 10m air pistol, further down in the wiki page it shows that they use wadcutter pellets. They meticulously test batches to get extremely tight grouping - 5.0mm-4.5mm in a test rig.
That’s incredible for an air gun, I would never have thought they could get that accurate
IIRC, generic Daisy Air Rifle projectiles, BBs and lead pellets, are .177 caliber.
This looks a lot like what I saw. That’s cool. Now I gotta start an air gun club