Good to see more people interested in the sport. Here are my answers
to some of your questions.
The Marlin model 2000L is a good rifle to begin your career with.
Marlin is not a USBA sponsor any longer. The contract ran out after
last year's summer season. As far as I know the rifle is still
manufactured. The stock is a different color now. You will also
need the summer biathlon conversion kit. This allows the rifle to
accept 5 shot magizines. The trigger is the weak spot of this
rifle. The really nice part about the 2000L is that it shoots a
variety of different brands of ammunition well. I have had good luck
with Federal Gold Medel, any of the RWS, and CCI green in my 2000L.
My wife still to this day likes that rifle the best, even though
there are more expensive European rifles in the same gun case.
The Izhmash Biathlon 7-4 is my current rifle of choice for winter and
summer racing. It is a very picky rifle. This will be my 3rd season
with this gun, and here is what I have found out. (some of it the
hard way) The single most important factor to the accuracy of this
rifle is to make sure that the 2 screws that hold he receiver to the
stock are torqued to the exact same tightness all of the time. This
is because the barrel is pillar bedded from the factory. The brands
of ammunition that I have had the best results with have been Wolf,
and Winchester Supreme. I spent a lot of time and money this summer
testing ammo, and the 2 brands mentioned above showed the best
results in testing.
I don't have much experience with the Anschutz, but there are a lot
of people out there that do, so I won't comment on them at this
time. I know that they are very good rifles.
If you have any other questions post them and with all of the
combined knowledge of this group we should be able to answer them.
You can also e-mail me at Jaguar5701@... with your questions.