10 m air pistol equipment: shoes, glasses, blinder and the rules

In the order the money is well spent:

1. Pellets of your own, and a tin cover or a tray for them: the one thing every evening uses up.
2. A case or box for the pistol, once it is yours; the club’s pistol lives in the club’s.
3. Flat, low-sided shoes you can walk heel-toe in: ordinary ones first, shooting shoes later.
4. Shooting glasses with a blinder for the non-aiming eye, and a prescription lens if you need one, since no lens or filter may be fixed to the pistol.
5. A trigger weight, to check your own trigger against the 500 g before someone else does.
6. A grip that fits: fitting an air pistol grip is the cheapest improvement you can buy.
7. Not a jacket, trousers, glove or sling: those are rifle kit, and the rules forbid any clothing that braces a pistol shooter.

The pistol rules say little about clothing and a lot about shoes. Only low-sided shoes that do not cover the ankle bone are permitted, and the sole must be flexible in the whole forward part of the foot; inserts are allowed if they bend too. The rule is enforced on the range as well as at the control table: to show that the soles bend, athletes must walk normally, heel to toe, at all times on the field of play, with a warning for the first offence and a two-point penalty or disqualification after that.

Which shoes

Only low-sided shoes that do not cover the ankle bone. The sole must be flexible in the entire forward part of the foot; removable inner soles or inserts must be flexible there too.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.5.1 and 8.5.2, ISSF Rule Book, Edition 2025 (Second Print 07/2026), effective 1 July 2026

The test

An ISSF-approved device checks sole flexibility: the sole must bend at least 22.5 degrees when a force of 15 newton-metres is applied to the heel with the shoe clamped.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.5.3 and 8.5.6

On the range

Walk normally, heel to toe, at all times on the field of play. A warning for the first offence; a two-point penalty or disqualification for the next.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.5.4

Within that rule Gehmann sells a pistol sneaker and Sauer a shooting shoe. Gehmann’s, designed with Olympic shooters, has a rigid non-slip rubber sole that it says gives a stable standing position and a slightly raised rear part that relieves the spine over long periods of standing; Sauer’s EASY TOP has a sole that makes contact over its whole surface for stability, a raised heel area against fatigue, and an ankle kept free in accordance with the ISSF requirements. A flat, firm street shoe with a thin sole does the same job for a first season; the ankle rule and the walk are what a borrowed or ordinary shoe must pass, and a high-cut rifle boot never will. Why the feet matter is in One-handed pistol stance.

The rule puts the optics on the shooter, not the pistol: correcting lenses and filters must not be attached to the pistol, but corrective lenses or eyeglasses, filters or tinted lenses may be worn. One front blinder covering the non-aiming eye is permitted for all athletes if it is not more than 30 mm wide; side blinders are for shotgun athletes only.

Lenses and filters

Not attached to the pistol. Corrective lenses or eyeglasses, filters or tinted lenses may be worn by the athlete.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.2 e and f

The blinder

One front blinder to cover the non-aiming eye, not more than 30 mm wide, for all athletes. Side blinders on the cap, glasses or a headband are for shotgun athletes only.ISSF General Technical Rules 6.7.8.1 and 6.7.8.2

What shooting glasses are for, the makers say plainly. Champion Brillen explains that a pistol shooter should focus on the front sight and leave the target slightly blurred, and that an intermediate-range prescription lens limits the focus to the sights so that the shooter, however hard they try, cannot focus on the target; its frames take adjustable iris diaphragms, colour filters, eye-shields for the non-aiming eye and side shields against stray light, and its 42 mm lens holder is the one for pistol. Knobloch’s K1 frame, sold by Gehmann, has a height-adjustable nose piece, a choice of a 37 mm or a 23 mm lens holder, and takes the standard iris, eyeshield and polarised filter accessories; Gehmann’s flip-up eyeshield is 30 mm wide so as to comply with the ISSF rule. The iris, Champion says, changes the depth of field as its opening changes.

The blinder is there so that both eyes stay open. Closing one eye for a couple of hours becomes painful and tedious, Lexi Lagan of USA Shooting told NBC Washington during the Paris 2024 Games, and a blinder on one side lets a shooter keep both eyes open and still focus. The CMP’s guide gives the beginner’s version: a strip of cardboard or translucent plastic in the headband or cap to block the non-aiming eye’s view of the sights, which also settles a cross-dominant eye. Which eye aims is in Eye dominance, and what the eye should see in Sight picture.

The pistol brings its own rules to the control table, and after a qualification round the ISSF lists what a pistol shooter can be disqualified for: shoes, taping, trigger weighing, the pistol’s dimensions and grips, and ammunition where it applies. Athletes are responsible for their own equipment complying. The 10 m pistol’s figures:

Weight and trigger

The pistol weighs at most 1 500 g with all accessories, balancing weights included; the trigger pull is at least 500 g.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.12, Pistol Specification Table

The box

The pistol with all accessories fitted, sights mounted, must fit a measuring box of 420 × 200 × 50 mm.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.5, 8.4.1.2 d and 8.12

How the trigger is weighed

A dead weight with a knife edge, no springs or rollers, hung near the middle of the trigger with the barrel vertical and lifted clear of a horizontal surface; three attempts at most, the air charge activated. The minimum must hold throughout the competition, and the test weight is available to athletes on the range before and during training and competition.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.2, 8.4.2.1 and 8.4.2.2

Random checks

Immediately after the last series of a 10 m qualification, at least one athlete per range section or per eight air pistol firing points is drawn for a trigger check; a pistol that fails, or an athlete who does not submit it, is disqualified.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.2.3

Sights

Open sights only; no fibre optic, light-enhancing or reflecting surfaces, no optical or dot sights, no protective covering on the sights.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.2 a and c

So the fifth item on the list is a trigger weight of your own: Gehmann sells a 500 g tester on a long bar for air pistols, while its hand-held needle gauge reads 25 to 250 g, so it cannot check a 500 g minimum, and the rule wants a dead weight with no springs. The rule has the charge activated, so test it as the control does, with the cylinder on, and after any adjustment to the grip check the pistol in the box, as Feinwerkbau’s P8X manual asks. The sights themselves, and sighting in, are in How to sight in an air pistol.

Which pellets, in which weight and head size, and how to test them from a rest, is in Airgun pellets; the rule for the 10 m air pistol is 4.5 mm, lead or a similar soft material. The kit around them is small. Gehmann’s pellet flipper box is filled from a tin of 500 match pellets and, shaken, drops them nose down into 100 holes in rows of ten, ready to shoot, with a foam-lined lid and a grey inlay for the eyes; its soft plastic tin cover stops a loose-lidded tin from spilling. A pellet pen, such as Air Venturi’s, holds a couple of dozen .177 pellets and seats each one to a set depth; its maker’s claim is that it seats them and lets you load with gloves on, no more, and a 10 m air pistol may be loaded with only one pellet either way.

The ISSF’s hearing rule names the 25 m, 50 m, 300 m and shotgun ranges and not the 10 m line, and the CMP’s guide ties the requirement to .22 pistols, but it still packs ear plugs or muffs for the air pistol, and the makers say why: Feinwerkbau warns that emptying the compressed-air cylinder can be very loud, and Walther’s LP400 manual says the same of the escaping air and tells you to wear ear protectors. A small screwdriver for the sights completes the CMP’s list; add the pistol’s own Allen key and the cylinder’s adaptor, which Walther’s manual calls the supplied adapter.

The cylinder is the one part with a date. Feinwerkbau says its compressed-air cylinders have a maximum usage period of ten years that cannot be extended, after which they must be emptied completely and safely and disposed of professionally; Steyr’s evo 10 manual says the same, with the production and disposal dates marked on the cylinder; Walther’s LP400 manual has steel cylinders tested and aluminium ones replaced ten years after manufacture. Check the date on a second-hand pistol before anything else. For filling, Steyr’s manual lists a recharging bottle, a hand pump or a compressor, and the club usually has one of them.

The case: the CMP’s guide wants a small case or box to carry the pistol to and from the range, with the muzzle pointed up whenever the pistol is out of it. Gehmann’s plastic pistol case measures 50 × 30 × 8.5 cm, and its aluminium one is padded with eggshell foam to hold the pistol in place; a rucksack that takes the case and the shoes carries the rest. A bench rest for the pistol, clamped to the cylinder, exists too, for bench-resting an air pistol as when testing pellets: Gehmann’s fits cylinders from 28 to 32 mm across.

The jacket, the trousers, the glove and the sling are the rifle shooter’s, and Air rifle equipment beyond the rifle goes through them; a pistol shooter has none of them, and the rules close the door on substitutes. Any special device, means or clothing, taping included, that immobilises or unduly reduces the movement of the legs, body or arms is prohibited for rifle, pistol and moving-target athletes alike. The pistol is held and fired with one hand and the wrist visibly free, which the card page states. What is left to buy is the grip that fits your hand, and that is a post of its own.

Are shooting shoes required for 10 m air pistol?

No. Any low-sided shoe that leaves the ankle bone uncovered and bends in the forward part of the foot is allowed; you must walk heel to toe on the field of play. Gehmann’s pistol shoe and Sauer’s EASY TOP are made inside that rule, with a flat whole-surface sole and a slightly raised heel.

How wide may a blinder be?

One front blinder over the non-aiming eye, not more than 30 mm wide, is permitted for all athletes (ISSF General Technical Rules 6.7.8.2). Side blinders are for shotgun shooters only. Makers sell 30 mm eyeshields that flip up on the frame.

What is the minimum trigger weight for 10 m air pistol?

500 g, with the pistol at most 1 500 g (ISSF Pistol Rules 8.12). It is tested with a dead weight hung near the middle of the trigger, barrel vertical, three lifts at most and the air charge activated, and random checks follow the last series of a qualification.