Rifle Shooting

Introduction

Rifle shooting is one of the disciplines of shooting sport in which a firearm or airgun with a rifled barrel is used. A rifle normally refers to a long weapon which usually requires two hands to hold and fire steadily and has a greater accuracy and longer range than pistols and is popular for hunting. In rifle shooting, shooters fire shots from three different positions- prone, standing and kneeling. Normally in competitions, there is a qualifying round, followed by a final and the winner is determined by adding a shooter’s qualification and final scores together.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) of the UK was founded in 1860 and NRA of the US was formed in 1871 for the purpose of promoting and encouraging rifle shooting. Internationally, the sport is governed by International Shooting sport Federation ("ISSF") which was founded in 1907 as the International Shooting Union and then changed its name in 1998.

Objective

The objective is to shoot as many bullets into the center of the target, within a specific time frame.

Events

10m Air Rifle

Both Men’s and Women’s event

50m Rifle 3 Positions

Both Men’s and Women’s event

50m Rifle Prone

Both Men’s and Women’s event

300m Rifle 3 Positions

Both Men’s and Women’s event

300m Rifle Prone

Both Men’s and Women’s event

300m Standard Rifle 3 Positions

Men’s event

Participants

Both men and women participate in all the events of rifle shooting except for the 300m Standard Rifle 3 Positions event in which only men compete.

Playing Area

Rifle shooting (or any type) takes place on a shooting or firing range which is a specialized facility designed for firearms practice. It can be indoor or outdoor where shooters fire at round black aiming areas (target) displayed on white backgrounds. A range basically has a line of targets and firing line which are parallel to each other and the wind flags (in outdoor shooting ranges) are placed as close to the bullets' flight path as possible without interfering with the shooting. They aid the shooters in determining the wind's likely effects on a bullet's flight path.

Officials

Chief Range Officer

Incharge of the competition at the range and incharge of the range officers, who give the commands to the shooters.

Scoring Officers

Responsible for ensuring that targets are rapidly changed, scored and marked.