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It's a nice facility, too. I shot on the 10m and 50m ranges in Rio de Janeiro in the late 80's, and they were kinda ratty; though they did have the "Bang Bang Bar" on site. I found it hysterical that not only was doping control set up to do drug testing in the bar, but the rifle shooters-who were dehydrated after spending hours in their heavy shooting pants and jackets--would be offered a beer while waiting to produce a urine sample. I'll bet the bar is gone, but the rest of the venue looks pretty good.

Men's 50m pistol (free pistol) just completed; this was the first event of the Summer Olympics until 1988, because the founder of the modern games thought it was the most difficult event of the games. Gold: Jin Jong-Oh of South Korea, Jin holds the world record in both 10m and 50m pistol. He is a five-time Olympic medalist, including an unprecedented 3 consecutive gold medals in this event Silver: Hoang Xuan Vinh of Vietnam, who earlier this week won the gold in Men's 10m air pistol. Bronze: Kim Song Guk, North Korea. The U.S. Athletes in this event were Will Brown, Twin Falls, Idaho, who finished 10th, and Jay Shi, Phoenix, Arizona, who finished 14th. "Free" pistol refers to the fact that there are very few rules governing their design. The grip can enclose the hand, but not extend past the break in the wrist. Sight radius is unlimited, but optical sights are prohibited. Electronic triggers set to a fraction of an ounce are the norm. The few companies that make them test fire from a machine rest, and pistols that can't put 10 rounds in a 0.4" group at 50 m (55 yards) won't leave the factory.

Women's 25 Meter Pistol (aka 'Sport Pistol') Results Gold: Anna Korakaki of Greece, who won a Bronze in Women's Air Pistol earlier in the week. Silver: Monika Karsch, Germany Bronze: Diethelm Gerber, Switzerland Enkelejda Shehal was the only U. S. Woman to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in this event. She finished 33rd out of a field of 40. Up tomorrow: Men's Double Trap Men's 50 Meter Pistol (aka Free Pistol, one of my old events).

Many years ago I went to a range called the Bullet Stop, outside of Atlanta. It had the most impressive rental wall of FA firearms I've ever seen, and they also let people bring in anything they wanted as targets. They'd just sweep out/hose out the bays as necessary. I asked the RO what people had brought in. He said watermelons were popular, occasionally personal computers...but the one everyone remembered was the woman who brought in several boxes of her soon-to-be-ex-husbands bowling trophies. She lined them up, and reduced them to small shards of plastic, wood, and marble.

I'm flashing back to when NJ outlawed soft-cooked eggs.

Men's Trap has wrapped up. Gold: Josip Glasnovic, Croatia Silver: Giovanni Pellielo of Italy, competing in his SEVENTH Olympics! Bronze: Edward Ling, Great Britain No U.S. Shooter qualified for the Olympics in trap this year, though we have two who will be shooting in the doubles trap event later in the week. Up tomorrow: Women's 25 meter pistol. This event is somewhat similar to American bullseye competition, except the targets are smaller, optical ('dot') sights are not allowed, and the timed and rapid stages begin with she shooters arm down at a 45 degree angle-not already up and on target.

There is no reason for those things to be in civilian hands!

Men's air rifle has wrapped up. Gold: Niccolo Campriani of Italy. Niccolo won Silver in this event in London in 2012, along with the Gold in 3-position rifle. Early in his career Niccolo shot for West Virginia University. Silver: Serhiy Kulish, Ukraine Bronze: Vladimir Maslennikov, Russia Neither American shooter made the finals. Lucas Kozeniesky of Fairfax, VA finished 21st in the field of 50. Lucas is a member of the Varsity Rifle Team at North Carolina State. Daniel Lowe of Olympia, Washington finished 34th. Dan will be competing later this week in both 3-position and prone rifle.

The Women’s Trap event has completed. Team USA won a bronze medal. Gold: Catherine Skinner, Australia, who hit 12 of 15 targets in the finals round Silver: Natalie Rooney, New Zealand, was edged out, hitting 11 of 15 in the finals Bronze: Corey Cogdell-Unrein, United States. This is Corey’s third Olympics; she also won a Bronze medal in Beijing in 2008. Corey was the only US shooter to qualify for Women’s Trap this year. Don’t be mislead by the seemingly low scores; International ‘Bunker’ Trap is quite a bit more difficult than American trap. Full event: http://stream.nbcolympics.com/womens-trap-final Short clip of the finals: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/82915358/rio-olympics-2016-shooter-natalie-rooney-to-shoot-for-gold-in-womens-trap-event Tomorrow’s events: Men’s Air Rifle, and the concluding second day of Men’s Trap.

Women’s Air Pistol concluded a short time ago. Gold Medal: Zhang Xengxue of China Silver Medal: Vitalina Batsarashkina of Russia, finishing 2.3 points behind Zhang Bronze Medal: Anna Korakaki of Greece All are first-time Olympians, and together they make up a remarkably young group for a pistol event—their ages range from 19 to 24. The two US shooters, first-time Olympian Lydia Paterson of Kansas City and Enkelejda Shejaj of Naples Florida, finished 29th and 40th, respectively, out of the field of 44 competitors. Enkelejda had previously competed for Albania in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics.

I'm curious as to syllabus and instructors as well. If it has local experts and is tailored to NJ, it could be quite valuable. If it's the same content presented in every state on the schedule, it's a lot less valuable to us in NJ, where complying with the local laws is enormously more difficult than worrying about the federal laws.

NBC says they will stream every event of the Olympics, and after the Beijing games you could look at archived video, so I'd imagine they'll do that again. You can look for the timing of the events here: http://www.nbcolympics.com/live-stream-schedule It's anybody's guess if it will make it onto their TV broadcast. In past years, very little shooting coverage has been broadcast, and that often shows up in short clips shown after the event is over. That said, trap and skeet make for much better television than do rifle and pistol, particularly the finals, when they use clay pigeons loaded with colored powder to make the breaks very visible. IF Kim Rhode is in the finals for Woman's Skeet, I expect at least some of that to be broadcast. She's already the only U.S. Olympian to win medals in 5 consecutive Olympic games (in any event). If she medals in this, her 6th Olympics, she'll set a record that may never be beaten.

Men’s Air Pistol wrapped up a short time ago. It didn’t go as well for Team USA as we’d hoped. Hoang Vinh of Vietnam won the Gold medal, Felipe Wu (Brazil) won the Silver, just 0.4 points behind Hoang Pang Wei (China) finished third to take the Bronze Americans Will Brown finished in 12th place, and Jay Shi finished 18th in the field of 46. (my old scores would have only put me in about 35th place...) Air Pistol image: http://www.pilkguns.com/LP50compact2013.jpg Events coming up tomorrow include Women's Air Pistol, Women's Trap, and Day 1 of Men's Trap. In related news, America’s newest gold medalist Ginny Thrasher spoke out against the gun law controversies that are making it difficult for competitive shooters in the U.S. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/08/06/shooting-gold-medalist-ginny-thrasher-laments-controversy-gun-laws/88333030/ Update: NBC just ran a great interview with Ginny (It was broadcast! Not on one of the obscure webcast channels). She had several minutes of air time, did a great job of explaining her event, and a little footage from the shooting venue made it into the clip. It was very good exposure for the shooting sports. Six-time Olympian Kim Rhodes is taking a very strong stand, particularly against California’s new law requiring a background check for every ammo purchase. Kim shoots 500 to 1000 rounds every day of her life, and notes that the constant background checks are an unnecessary hardship. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/05/rio2016-top-american-olympic-shooter-kim-rhode-attacks-gun-control-laws These two are perhaps the best spokespeople we could have making the case that current gun laws have gone too far and ARE negatively affecting sport shooters.

And the first medal awarded at the 2016 Olympics goes to… U. S. shooter Ginny Thrasher, who took the gold medal in Women’s Air Rifle!! Ginny, from Springfield, VA, is a 19-year-old member of the powerful West Virginia University varsity rifle team. She beat two-time gold medalist Li Du of China by a single point in the finals. Yi Siling, also of China, took the Bronze. Sarah Scherer, of Woburn, MA, was the other U. S. Olympian in the event. Sarah finished 8th. Even the Associated Press ran with the story: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2016/08/06/first-gold-medal-in-rio-goes-to-us-shooter-virginia-thrasher/88332924/ Women’s Air Rifle event: https://www.olympic.org/shooting/10m-air-rifle-40-shots-women Interesting, in the opening ceremonies last night, two nations chose shooters to be their nation’s flag bearer: India’s flag bearer was Abhinav Bindra, a member of their Olympic Rifle team, and Serbia’s flag bearer was Ivana Maksimovik also a member of their Olympic Rifle team. Both have won Olympic medals for their countries previously.

As noted before, it does depend on the gun. I use Chip McCormick 10 round power mags a lot in competition (in a Kimber) and they have literally been 100.0 percent reliable. I'm approaching 100.00 percent. Not one problem, ever. The combination is freakishly reliable

What can you tell me about the doctor sight?

Overall, pretty well. Medal table at the bottom of this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_at_the_Summer_Olympics The US has won roughly twice as many as the other top-placing countries. Historically, we've been strongest in rifle and shotgun events, weaker in pistol.

I’ll post results here, starting Saturday. Shooting has been the first medal event of every Olympics of the modern era. Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern games, made Free Pistol the first event of the inaugural 1896 games, as he thought it was the most difficult event of the games. In 1988, when Women’s air rifle was introduced, it replaced Free Pistol as the first medal event. There are now 15 shooting events in the Summer Olympics, plus the pistol event in the Modern Pentathlon. In addition, there are 11 Biathlon events in the Winter Olympics. Keep those facts in mind the next time someone tries to tell you that guns have no legitimate sporting purpose! For now, let me introduce to you the members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Shooting Team. Special shout outs to: Will Brown, who is not only from my home town, but is also competing in both of my former pistol events. Matt Emmons, from Browns Mills, NJ, going for his fourth Olympic medal in rifle. Kim Rhode, veteran skeet shooter who has a chance to make history by becoming the first person to ever medal in SIX Olympic games. Honorable mention to Anatoly Pikman, Short Hills, NJ and a member at my home range in Riverdale. Anatoly is a member of the US team in Rapid Fire Pistol, but he didn’t qualify for an Olympic slot this year. More detail on the team members at: http://www.usashooting.org/12-the-team/rioinsight Pistol Will Brown
 Event: Free Pistol, Air pistol Olympic Experience: None Hometown: Twin Falls, Idaho Emil Milev
 Event: Rapid fire pistol Olympic Experience: Bulgaria —1992, 1996 (silver), 2000, 2004; Team USA – 2012 Hometown: Temple Terrace, Fla. Keith Sanderson
 Event: Rapid fire pistol Olympic Experience: 2008, 2012 Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colo. Enkelejda Shehaj
 Event: 25-meter pistol Olympic Experience: Albania – 1992, 1996 Hometown: Naples, Fla. Lydia Paterson
 Event: Air Pistol Olympic Experience: None Hometown: Kansas City, Kan. Jay Shi
 Event: Free pistol, air pistol Olympic Experience: None Hometown: Phoenix, Ariz. Rifle Matt Emmons
 Event: Three-position rifle Olympic Experience: 2004 (gold, prone), 2008 (silver, prone), 2012 (bronze, three-position) Hometown: Browns Mills, N.J. David Higgins
 Event: Prone Olympic Experience: None Hometown: San Clemente, Calif. Lucas Kozeniesky
 Event: Air rifle Olympic Experience: None Hometown: Fairfax, Va. Dan Lowe
 Event: Air rifle Olympic Experience: None Hometown: Olympia, Wash. Michael McPhail
 Event: 50-meter prone Olympic Experience: 2012 Hometown: Darlington, Wis. Sarah Scherer
 Event: Air rifle Olympic Experience: 2012 Hometown: Woburn, Mass. Virginia Thrasher
 Event: Three-position rifle, air rifle Olympic Experience: None Hometown: Springfield, Va. 
Shotgun Corey Cogdell-Unrein
 Event: Trap Olympic Experience: 2008 (bronze), 2012 Hometown: Eagle River, Alaska Morgan Craft
 Event: Skeet Olympic Experience: None Hometown: Muncy Valley, Pa. Glenn Eller
 Event: Double trap Olympic Experience: 2000, 2004, 2008 (gold), 2012 Hometown: Houston, Texas Vincent Hancock
 Event: Skeet Olympic Experience: 2008 (gold), 2012 (gold) Hometown: Eatonton, Ga. Josh Richmond 
Event: Double trap Olympic Experience: 2012 Hometown: Hillsgrove, Pa. Kim Rhode
 Event: Skeet Olympic Experience: 1996 (gold, double trap), 2000 (bronze, double trap), 2004 (gold, double trap), 2008 (silver, skeet), 2012 (gold, skeet) Hometown: El Monte, Calif. Shooting Success: Five-time Olympic medalist, 28-time world cup medalist and 14-time national champion Bet You Didn't Know: She can become the first Olympian to win a medal on five different continents at the 2016 Rio Games in South America. Frank Thompson
 Event: Skeet Olympic Experience: 2012 Hometown: Alliance, Neb. Go USA! Citius - Altius - Fortius

Rhode. Going for a medal in a sixth Olympics is unprecedented. And the shooting sports can use the positive exposure. Voted. How the heck did Jordan Borroughs and Breezie Madden open up such a huge lead? I think the wrestling and equestrian communities are doing a massive get-out-the-vote campaign. So get out and vote for an Olympic shooter!

It means some fine, small time gunsmiths will probably close up shop. That's a bad change for us.

She's also wrong about PTSD, struggles of ones ancestors, or any other life experience affecting your DNA. It doesn't work that way. But, there can be lingering effects on gene expression...so I'll forgive her not understanding the difference between genetics and epigenetics, and go back to wondering why the general public can't grasp the difference between automatic and semiautomatic.

Are you sure? Reebok's parent has a market cap of $25 Billion, with a B. I think they'll be just fine.

They're probably more concerned with the canister losing pressure over time, rather than the contents losing their punch.

Timely billboard, I guess, but I wonder if it is reaching the right audience? Below is a crude Venn diagram of the groups: 1) people playing Pokemon Go, and 2) people having sex. O O :-)

Nationwide, the number of licensed drivers has been climbing steadily from 1960 to 2014. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2014/ I doubt NJ is bucking that trend, though I couldn't easily find stats for NJ only. More efficient cars should certainly have an effect, but nationwide fuel tax receipts continue to climb (same source) over the period 1960-2014. NJ only showed a single year comparison, with an increase in fuel tax receipts of 1.6% from 2013 to 2014. I think fuel efficient vehicles are still slowing the increase, not reversing it. NJ does indeed suck at maintaining public roads (I remember during the 'hands across NJ' tax protest when the figures for maintaining the turnpike and parkway showed that 87% of revenues went to maintaining the turnpike and parkway commissions, and only 13% went to maintaining the actual roads. But, I'm in a town that years ago unilaterally declared three streets in my neighborhood to be 'private lanes'. So they stopped repairing and plowing them. All challenges have failed. The six houses on my street are now responsible for plowing the 0.2 mile road ourselves every winter, and every spring we buy about 4000 lbs of bagged asphalt patch at our own expense, to fill in the potholes. The road still shows as a public road on the map, and we've still got a town street sign (and of course, our property tax rate is still the same as everyone else's in town).