About Shooting
“To win, I need to hit every shot within a 1cm circle at a distance of 34 feet, and with a pounding heart”
Olympic Shooting Sport has been India’s most successful medal winning sport at the Olympic Games in recent times. India has won its only individual Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze medal in the previous four Olympic Games.
Broadly, Olympic Shooting is divided into Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun and has several events which are shot with different calibres and at different ranges, there are indoor as well as outdoor ranges and the distance varies from 10m to 25m to 50m and even flying clay birds in case of shotgun events. There are separate events for men and women and while some events test a shooter’s precision shooting abilities there are some events which test their time fire dynamic shooting ability.
The Olympic events that I participate in:
10m Indoor Shooting Range
| Event | Air Pistol Women |
|---|---|
| No. of shots and Time | 40 shots in 50mins in the qualification stage and 24 shots by command in the final stage for top 8 ranked shooters of qualification stage
|
| Size of bullseye/10th ring | 11.5 mm diameter |
| Calibre | .177” or 4.5mm |
| Weight of gun and trigger pressure | 1kg and 500gm |
25m Outdoor Shooting Range
| Event | 25m Pistol for Women |
|---|---|
| No. of shots and Time | 60 shots divided in two stages – precision and rapidfire, both consisting six series of 5 shots each. Time in precision is 5mins per series of 5 shots whereas in the rapidfire stage, there are only 3 seconds to fire a shot with a break of only 7 seconds between two shots. |
| Size of bullseye/10th ring | 50 mm diameter for precision 100mm diameter for rapid fire |
| Calibre | .22 l.r. |
| Weight of gun and trigger pressure | 1kg and 1kg |
Other Olympic events:
- 10m Air Rifle Men and Women
- 10m Air Pistol
- 25m Rapidfire Men
- 50m Rifle 3 positions Men and Women
- Trap Men and Women
- Skeet Men and Women
Non Olympic events (World Championships, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games)
There are also some events which do not have Olympic Event status but are very much official events as per the International Shooting Sport Federation. They are conducted at all major competitions except the Olympic Games.
- 25m Standard Pistol Men
- 25m Centre fire Pistol Men
- 50m Free Pistol Men
- 50m Prone Men and Women
- Double trap Men and Women
Performace in Shooting sport requires high level of precisionunder pressure. It involves repetitive but extremely controlled movements, so elite shooters need high levels of mental toughness, exceptional body control and stability.A shooter must be able to zone out from the world. Contrary to popular belief, shooters require lot of exercises for strengthen and endurance in their muscles. Theyneed rock-steady physical and mental stability to repeatedly shoot targets that aren’t even visible to the naked eye.It is primarily an individual sport, which makes the shooters self-reliant, independent and experts at crisis management.
For more information about Shooting and Elite shooters please visit
www.issf-sports.org