[heads]

> just competing on mental focus

Ahem: snooker, darts, golf, test match cricket, tennis. To varying degrees with these sports, at the top tier, mastery of the skill is merely the table stakes. The winners are the ones who can do so under immense pressure.

[Aloha]

The difference in how good two pro bowlers are is often fractions of a percent.

Maybe a step back in technology would make the sport more interesting.

I think that can be said for a bunch of stuff like pool, snooker, darts, golf, and bowling.

[dmoy]

Add most ISSF bullseye rifle to that list.

(Not to knock the people who do that vs less high tech bullseye disciples, because they're also definitely better - they clean house in the lower tech competitions too)

I'm reminded of an excerpt from Ian Banks culture series, the game player one (player of games?). Really good games need some element of random, not just pure skill+gear.

[harimau777]

I just wish they would use real rifles. I don't get the point of target shooting with air rifles. Dealing with the characteristics of an actual gun is a core part of marksmanship.

To me, competing in target shooting with an air rifles is like competing in a marathon using a treadmill.

[heads]

This is probably stating the obvious but being able to compete with low energy rifles is a must for inclusivity in the sport. Gas rifles are legal and available everywhere.

The limit in the UK is 12 foot pounds for an air rifle. Oddly, comparing that with a bow (draw weight of 40 pounds firing a 30” arrow) makes archery seem pretty lethal.

[dmoy]

Yup this is exactly it. As more countries limit civilian gun ownership, the ISSF has followed to keep participation at the international level broader. At some point I imagine 50m 3p will get replaced by 3p air - 50m prone is already gone from Olympics.

There are a few places where 300m ISSF is still done, like Switzerland, but it's dwindling. Even in the US, high power bullseye is much less common than smallbore/air, because there's no terminal college or international goal.

From a precision standpoint, the air rifles are also much more exact for cheaper. 10m air rifle is insanely difficult.

And also let's be honest, bullseye is a weird mental game that most people don't like anyways. So anyone in the US doing gun-competition-for-fun is doing USPSA or similar.

If you want to do high power bullseye, there's still a handful of people left doing it.

[dmoy]

ISSF is trying to gamify the finals for bullseye competitions, and it's... well it's a thing. Idk if it's good, but it's probably more entertaining for the bundesliga cheering people