The 36th UIT World Shooting Championships was the contemporary name of the ISSF World Shooting Championships

ISSF World Shooting Championships

The ISSF World Shooting Championships are governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. World Shooting Championships began in 1897, after the successful 1896 Summer Olympics, and although the ISSF was not founded until 1907, these early competitions are still seen by the organization as...

 in all ISSF shooting events

ISSF shooting events

The International Shooting Sport Federation recognizes several shooting events, some of which have Olympic status. They are divided into four disciplines: rifle, pistol, shotgun and running target....

 that were held in Caracas

Caracas

Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

, Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, in 1954. It was the first time Venezuela hosted the competition (which it did again in 1982), and a new military shooting range had been constructed in the suburbs of Caracas for the event.

After their successful debut in the 1952 Summer Olympics

Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics

With the competitions in shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, the Olympic shooting program began its expansion. Three new events were added: 100 metre running deer, 50 metre rifle three positions and trap. In total there were seven events....

, the Soviet Union now participated for the first time in the World Championships, and won 20 of the 30 gold medals. Rifle shooter Anatoli Bogdanov, the star of the 1952 shooting competitions in Helsinki, dominated once again with six individual and four team victories. He broke the world record in the 300 metre rifle three positions

300 metre rifle three positions

300 metre rifle three positions is an ISSF shooting event, involving shooting 40 shots each from the prone, the standing and the kneeling positions. Lately a similar event has been designed for women, where only half the course is shot. Originally there had been champions declared in each position...

 match with a margin of nine points. In the shotgun events, the United States and Italy were still on top, but the shooting greatness of especially Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries had now diminished, shifting the tide eastward.

As in most other events, the Soviet team won the team championship in 25 metre center-fire pistol. The American marksman Arthur Jackson commented that the western shooters watched with a mixed sense of pity and relief as the Soviet team shot their archaic Nagant M1895

Nagant M1895

The Nagant M1895 Revolver is a seven-shot, gas-seal revolver designed and produced by Belgian industrialist Léon Nagant for the Russian Empire. The Nagant M1895 was chambered for a proprietary cartridge, 7.62x38R, and featured an unusual "gas-seal" system in which the cylinder moved forward when...

 revolvers in the pre-event training. On the match day they revealed their practical joke and instead brought brand new American Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson is the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States. The corporate headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1852, Smith & Wesson's pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world...

 match revolvers, shooting the same kind of gun and ammunition as the individual champion, and winning three points ahead of the American team.

Medal count

Rank	Country				Total
1	Soviet Union	20	6	7	33
2		4	9	5	18
3	United States	3	6	2	11
4		2	1	0	3
5	Canada	1	0	0	1
6		0	4	5	9
7		0	3	2	5
8		0	1	0	1
9		0	0	6	6
10		0	0	1	1
		0	0	1	1
	Egypt	0	0	1	1

Rifle events

Individual			| Team
300 metre rifle three positions 300 metre rifle three positions 300 metre rifle three positions is an ISSF shooting event, involving shooting 40 shots each from the prone, the standing and the kneeling positions. Lately a similar event has been designed for women, where only half the course is shot. Originally there had been champions declared in each position...
		1133		Soviet Union	5607
		1132			5505
		1126			5491
300 metre rifle prone 300 metre rifle prone 300 metre rifle prone is an ISSF shooting event. It was added to the World Championship program in 1982, and was based on the English Match but shot with the same full-power rifle as in 300 metre rifle three positions...
		391	No team competition
		389
		388
300 metre rifle kneeling
		380	No team competition
		379
		378
300 metre rifle standing
		366	No team competition
		363
		362
300 metre standard rifle
		514			2471
		513			2448
		503			2437
50 metre rifle three positions 50 metre rifle three positions 50 metre rifle three positions is an International Shooting Sport Federation event, a miniature version of 300 metre rifle three positions. It consists of the prone, standing and kneeling positions, fired in that order, with 3×40 shots for men and 3×20 shots for women...
		1174		Soviet Union	5802
		1172			5765
		1167			5758
50+100 metre rifle prone
		598		United States	2373
		596			2372
		596		Soviet Union	2370
50 metre rifle prone 50 metre rifle prone 50 metre rifle prone is an International Shooting Sport Federation event consisting of 60 shots from the prone position with a .22 Long Rifle caliber rifle...
		399			1988
		399			1986
		399		Soviet Union	1986
50 metre rifle kneeling
		396		Soviet Union	1958
		393			1943
		393			1921
50 metre rifle standing
		380		Soviet Union	1865
		380			1850
		379			1843

Pistol events

Individual			| Team
50 metre pistol
		553		Soviet Union	2722
		552		United States	2706
		552			2697
25 metre rapid fire pistol
		584		Soviet Union	2317
		582		United States	2292
		581			2289
25 metre center-fire pistol
		586		Soviet Union	2319
		585		United States	2316
		584			2263

Shotgun events

Individual			| Team
Trap Olympic Trap Officially referred to only as trap, and also known in the United States as international trap, bunker trap, trench or international clay pigeon, the single-target Olympic trap shooting event has a history over a hundred years old...
		296			773
		293			768
		293		Egypt	768
Skeet Olympic Skeet Skeet is a variant of skeet shooting, and the specific variant used in the Olympic Games. Two throwing machines at different heights launch a series of 25 targets in a specific order, some as singles and some as doubles, with the shooter having a fixed position between them. Men's competitions...
		148	No team competition
		145
		145

Running target events

Individual			| Team
100 metre running deer, double shot
		213		Soviet Union	828
		206			804
		206			757
100 metre running deer, single shot
		224		Soviet Union	857
		221			824
		219			824