ISSF shooting events
Encyclopedia
International Shooting Sport Federation
The International Shooting Sport Federation is an organization that governs international shooting sports. While far from the only such organization, it is the one that is a member of the International Olympic Committee and so it is in charge of the Olympic shooting events. Not all ISSF shooting...
recognizes several shooting events, some of which have Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
status. They are divided into four disciplines: rifle, pistol, shotgun and running target.
The main distinctions between different rifle events are the distances to the target and the shooting position
Three positions
International Rifle events in Three positions are conducted with an equal number of shots fired from the Prone, the Standing and the Kneeling positions, always in that order....
s used. For the other disciplines, the position is always standing, and changes include limits to shooting times and different types of targets.
The present events
| Event | |Olympics | |World Championships | |Former names | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | M | W | JM | JW | ||
| Rifle events | |||||||
| 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... |
1900–1972 | ✔ | ✔ | Free rifle | |||
| 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... |
✔ | ✔ | |||||
| 300 metre standard rifle | ✔ | ||||||
| 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... |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Free rifle (men) Standard rifle/Sport rifle (women) |
| 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... |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 10 metre air rifle | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Pistol events | |||||||
| 50 metre pistol | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Free pistol | |||
| 25 metre pistol | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Sport pistol | ||
| 25 metre rapid fire pistol | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| 25 metre center-fire pistol | ✔ | ||||||
| 25 metre standard pistol | ✔ | ✔ | |||||
| 10 metre air pistol | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Shotgun events | |||||||
| 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... |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Double trap Double Trap Double trap is a clay pigeon shooting sport, one of the ISSF shooting events. Participants use a shotgun to attempt to break a clay disk flung away from the shooter at high speed.... |
✔ | 1996–2004 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| 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... |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Running target events | |||||||
| 50 metre running target | 1972–1988 | ✔ | ✔ | Running boar | |||
| 50 metre running target mixed 50 metre running target mixed 50 metre running target mixed is an ISSF shooting event, shot with a .22-calibre rifle at a target depicting a boar moving sideways across a 10 metre wide opening... |
✔ | ✔ | |||||
| 10 metre running target | 1992–2004 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 10 metre running target mixed 10 metre running target mixed 10 metre running target mixed is one of the ISSF shooting events, shot with an airgun at a target that moves sideways. The target is pulled across a two meter wide aisle at the range of 10 metres from the firing point. The target is pulled at either of two speeds, slow or fast, where it is visible... |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Discontinued events
Forty-five ISSF have been discontinuedDiscontinued ISSF shooting events
This article includes the ISSF World Shooting Championships medal tables of currently discontinued shooting events. The events that International Shooting Sport Federation presently includes in World Championships and Olympic Games are listed in ISSF shooting events article.- 300 metres free rifle...
Common principles
All ISSF shooting events consist of precision shooting in the sense that only the position of the shot on the target determines the result, not the time used to produce that shot (provided the time was within the set constraints, of course). This separates them from International Practical Shooting ConfederationInternational Practical Shooting Confederation
The International Practical Shooting Confederation is a shooting sport based on the concept of practical shooting. Accuracy, power and speed are all required to achieve a maximum score.-Founding and organization:...
events and other kinds of action shooting
Action shooting
Action shooting is a term that encompasses target shooting events where the shooter's score is based on both the accuracy and elapsed time. Disciplines covered by the term include:*United States Practical Shooting Association...
. In rifle, pistol and running target events, the maximum score for each shot is 10. In shotgun events, there is only hit and miss.
Elimination, qualification, final
In the 300 metre rifle events and the 50 metre rifle and pistol events, all participants of a main competition must compete at the same time. If the range capacity is not enough for this, an elimination round is conducted the day before the main competition. From this round, only so many shooters advance as the range capacity can allow. The program of the elimination round is the same as that of the match or qualification round.The match, or qualification round in case of Olympic events, is then the major part of the competition. In all events except those where elimination rounds are held, shooters are divided as necessary into relays and shoot the match at different times during the competition day. In matches consisting of two stages, all shooters must complete the first stage before the second stage may commence. The stages are not seldom completed on two consecutive days (especially so in 25 metre rapid fire pistol, the shotgun events, and the running target events).
In larger matches, but only in the Olympic events, a final is added to the qualification round. (On the national level, there may be finals even in some non-Olympic events, such as 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...
for women.) The top eight contestants (or top six in case of the shotgun events and 25 metre rapid fire pistol), qualify for the final. The final consists of 10 shots in the 50 metre and 10 metre events, 20 shots (four five-shot series) in the 25 metre events, and one series in the shotgun events (that is, 25 targets in 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...
and 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...
, and 25 doubles in double trap
Double Trap
Double trap is a clay pigeon shooting sport, one of the ISSF shooting events. Participants use a shotgun to attempt to break a clay disk flung away from the shooter at high speed....
). In rifle and pistol finals, the score zones are divided into decimals, so that each final shot may give up to 10.9 points. In shotgun finals, there is still only a hit or a miss, but a special type of clay target with coloured powder is used to make it easier for spectators to immediately see the result. In all cases, the final score is added to the score of the qualification round, and the winner is the shooter with the best aggregate score. Ties are resolved by shooting as many additional shots (or series at 25 metres) as needed to break them.
Scoring and tie-breaking
In all rifle, pistol and running target events results are recorded in ten-shot series, despite the fact that none of them are actually shot this way; the pure precision events at 300 metres, 50 metres and 10 metres are shot at the shooter's own pace, the 25 metre pistol events are shot in five-shot strings, and the running target events are shot one shot at the time. However, the recorded ten-shot series are used for tie-breaking, so that the participant with the better last series comes before the other. From 2009 however, the number of inner tens, where applicable, will be the first tie-breaking criterion. In events without finals this tie-breaking system can decide championships, while in Olympic events it only decides the qualification and starting order for the finals (or starting order only, in the case of six-shooter finals, where a special shoot-off is held if shooters are tied for the last final place). In 25 metre center-fire pistol and 25 metre standard pistol, ties for medal places are resolved by a one-string shoot-off.Shotgun events are recorded in series of 25 targets (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...
and 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...
), 40 targets (women's double trap
Double Trap
Double trap is a clay pigeon shooting sport, one of the ISSF shooting events. Participants use a shotgun to attempt to break a clay disk flung away from the shooter at high speed....
) or 50 targets (men's double trap).
History and admittance of new events
The first ISSF World Shooting ChampionshipsISSF 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...
were held in 1897, and while the Olympic shooting program changed heavily until the 1930s, the World Championship program was quite stable. The early events were 300 metre rifle, 50 metre pistol (added 1900), and 300 metre army rifle (added 1911). In 1929, the program was extended with 100 metre running deer, 50 metre rifle and trap. Rapid fire pistol, although a popular Olympic event, was not added until 1933. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, a number of new events were introduced. After the inclusion of the airgun events and 25 metre standard pistol in 1970, however, there have not been many additions, double trap being an exception.
Events can have a status as test events, with rules provided by the ISSF but not actually counted among the ISSF shooting events. 5-shot air pistol is such an event. The development of this 10 metre version of rapid fire pistol is more or less stalled however, as relatively few shooters have the special airguns needed, and several of the countries where the shooting form has some popularity use other rulesets instead of the one suggested by the ISSF. There are also official ISSF rules for automatic trap (also known as ball trap), although there are no ISSF championships in that event.
Manufacturers
Several companies design and manufacture firearms specifically for use in ISSF shooting events. Some companies would specialize in air guns (rifle and pistol), while others specialize in pistols whether air powered or small caliber. For shotgun events, guns from traditional manufacturers of shotguns are used.Some manufacturers:
- Anschütz (Germany)
- BenelliBenelli (firearms)Benelli Armi SpA is an Italian firearm manufacturer founded in 1967, located in Urbino, Italy, best known for high quality shotguns used by military, law enforcement and civilians all over the world. Particularly famous is the Benelli M3 12 gauge, used extensively by American SWAT teams...
(Italy) - BerettaBerettaFabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta is an Italian firearms manufacturer. Their firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and military purposes. It is also known for manufacturing shooting clothes and accessories. Beretta is the oldest active firearms manufacturer in the...
(Italy) - FeinwerkbauFeinwerkbauFeinwerkbau , often abbreviated FWB, is a German manufacturer of firearms . It is aimed mainly at competitive ISSF shooting events, including some contested at the Olympic Games as governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation .The company currently offers three distinct product lines:...
(Germany) - HämmerliHämmerliHämmerli is a Swiss manufacturer of firearms aimed mostly at sport shooting, especially Olympic events governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation....
(Switzerland) - MoriniMorini (manufacturer)Morini Competition Arm S.A. is a Swiss manufacturer of target pistols aimed at ISSF shooting events as governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation and competed in at the Olympics....
(Switzerland), specializes in pistols - Pardini (Italy), specializes in pistols
- PerazziPerazziPerazzi is a manufacturer of precision shotguns from Brescia, Italy. The company sells hunting and sporting models of shotguns in the over-and-under and side-by-side varieties. The manufacturer is noted for their removable trigger groups, high quality, and high prices . The founder of Perazzi is...
(Italy), shotguns - SteyrSteyr Sportwaffen GmbHSteyr Sportwaffen GmbH is an Austrian manufacturer of air guns aimed mostly at competitive ISSF shooting events events such as 10 m Air Pistol and 10 m Air Rifle contested at the Olympic Games as governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation .The company was formed as an offshoot of...
(Austria), air rifles and air pistols. - Walther arms (Germany)
Books addressing ISSF events
- Buhlmann et al., Ways of the Rifle, Rev. Ed. (2009)
- Leatherdale, Frank & Paul Leatherdale, Successful Pistol Shooting, Rev. Ed., Wiltshire, Eng.: Crowood, 1995
- Antal, Dr. Laslo, Competitive Pistol Shooting, 2nd Ed., London: A & C Black, 1989
- Leatherdale, Frank & Paul Leatherdale, Successful Pistol Shooting, Wiltshire, Eng.: Crowood, 1988
- Yur'Yev, A.A., Competitive Shooting, [translation of 1973 work], Washington: National Rifle Association, 1985
- Antal, Dr. Laslo, The Target Gun Book of UIT Pistol Shooting, Droitwitch, Eng.: Peterson, 1985
- Antal, Dr. Laslo & Ragnar Skanaker, Pistol Shooting, Liverpool, [authors], 1985
- Chandler, John, The Target Gun Book of Pistol Coaching, 2nd Ed., Droitwich, Eng.: Peterson, 1985
- Antal, Dr. Laslo, Competitive Pistol Shooting, West Yorkshire: EP, 1983
- Chandler, John, The Target Gun Book of Pistol Coaching, Droitwich, Eng.: Peterson, 1983
- Freeman, Maj Peter Cuthbert, Target Pistol Shooting, London, Faber and Faber, 1981
- Hinchliffe, K.B., Target Pistol Shooting, London: David and Chartes, 1981
- Antal, Dr. Laslo, Pistol Shooting, Small-Bore Pistols and Air Pistols, Know the Game Series, West Yorkshire: EP, 1980
- Standl, Hans, Pistol Shooting as a Sport, New York: Crown, 1976
- Freeman, Maj Peter Cuthbert, Modern Pistol Shooting, London: Faber and Faber,1968