Air rifle equipment beyond the rifle

1. Borrow the rifle, a jacket and a stand for the first weeks. How to start shooting 10 m air rifle covers finding a club that lends them.
2. Eye and hearing protection, from the first day. The CMP’s rules recommend eye protection for air rifle, especially where a pellet could bounce back from the backstop, and say some ranges require eye or hearing protection (2.13.1; safety rule 12). The ISSF requires hearing protection near its 25, 50 and 300 m lines, not at a 10 m line alone (6.2.5.1), and the CMP makes it optional for air rifle, but SvSF’s course reminds you of it before you shoot air rifle. Wear it where firearms are shot nearby, and ask what your club expects.
3. Buy a glove: it is small and personal, and SvSF’s course names it, with hearing protection, as the equipment to get.
4. Shoot in flat, firm shoes you already own. The ISSF allows ordinary street or light athletic shoes in every position (7.5.3).
5. Jacket, trousers and shooting shoes, once you know you will stay: SvSF’s course leaves them, and your own rifle, until you have decided to commit. Both SvSF and the NSRA point beginners to the second-hand market.
6. Your own rifle and its sights, when the club’s rifle no longer suits you. Choosing your first air rifle goes through that choice.
7. A stand of your own when you train or compete away from the club; a sling and a kneeling roll only if you shoot kneeling or prone.

A 10 m match air rifle has no scope: the ISSF allows none. The rear sight, or diopter, is a small hole close to your eye; the front sight, a tunnel at the muzzle holding a ring. Your eye centres itself in the hole; your job is to centre the black in the ring, with an even band of light around it.

The rear sight is adjusted in clicks, following the arrows on it. How far one click moves the shot depends on the sight and the rifle: Feinwerkbau’s manual for its Model 800 gives about 0.2 mm at 10 m, with a sight length of about 950 mm. On a borrowed rifle, note the settings before you change them.

Front rings come as inserts of fixed sizes, or as an iris you can open and close: Gehmann’s 520 front iris, for one, adjusts steplessly, one version from 2.4 to 4.4 mm. If keeping both eyes open is hard, SvSF’s course suggests a small patch on the rear sight, or on a cap or headband, to screen the target from the other eye.

How to line the sights up on the target is in Sight picture; which eye to aim with, in Eye dominance.

No magnifying

No optical sight or telescope on the rifle. The sights may have tinted lenses or a polarising filter, but no lens system in them that magnifies the sight picture.ISSF 7.4.1.6 and 7.4.1.6 a

Glasses

One corrective lens may be fitted to the rear sight only, or you may wear corrective or tinted lenses.ISSF 7.4.1.6 b

Front tunnel

On an air rifle it must look circular through the rear sight; elements inside it may carry horizontal or vertical references.ISSF 7.4.1.6 e

Blinders

On the rifle or rear sight, on the non-aiming eye’s side only: at most 30 mm deep and 100 mm from the rear aperture’s centre. A front blinder over that eye, at most 30 mm wide, is also allowed.ISSF 7.4.1.6 d; 6.7.8.2

CMP sporter

Only the sights sold with that rifle, apart from a few exchanges the rule lists. Fixed front inserts may be swapped; an adjustable iris, front or rear, may not be used.CMP 3PAR Rules 4.2.8 b–h

The glove goes on the hand that holds the rifle up: the left for a right-handed shooter, the right for a left-hander. SvSF’s course says it makes the rifle more comfortable to hold, standing or with a sling. Try one on with a rifle in your hands.

Thickness

At most 16 mm, front and back measured together, a lining glove included.ISSF 7.5.6.1

Wrist

At most 50 mm beyond the wrist, with no strap or closure there; elastic only if the glove stays loose.ISSF 7.5.6.2

CMP sporter

One ordinary or shooting glove, on the left hand only (right for a left-hander); no thickness limit, but nothing to tighten it at the wrist.CMP 3PAR Rules 4.3.4

A shooting jacket is a stiff coat with reinforcements where the butt and the elbows rest; shooting trousers give the lower back some support. The ISSF’s notes in its Rule Book say why both may be stiffer in places: to reduce strain on the back and shoulders while you hold the rifle on aim standing.

Try several, in position, with a rifle: a jacket too big supports nothing, and one too tight keeps you out of position.

Thickness

Jacket and trousers at most 2.5 mm, single thickness, linings included; reinforcements at most 10 mm.ISSF 7.5.2.1 and 7.5.4.8 a

Stiffness

The material must give at least 3.0 mm under the ISSF’s stiffness tester. The jacket above the lowest point of the shoulder blades (not the sleeves), and the trousers above the crotch, may be stiffer than the rest.ISSF 7.5.2.2, 7.5.4.10 and 7.5.5.6

Loose fit

The jacket must hang loosely: it must be able to overlap at least 80 mm beyond its normal closure.ISSF 7.5.4.2

Underneath

At most 2.5 mm under the jacket and the trousers, and no jeans under shooting trousers.ISSF 7.5.7.1

Without them

Ordinary training trousers may be worn in any event or position; other ordinary trousers if they give no artificial support.ISSF 7.5.1.3 and 7.5.5.1 h

CMP sporter

No shooting jacket or special shooting trousers: up to two loose shirts or sweatshirts, and ordinary trousers or jeans.CMP 3PAR Rules 4.3.1 a–c

The ISSF changed its rifle clothing rules and stiffness tolerances for 2026. Its Rule Book notes that most jackets in use will not necessarily need tailoring, but that a new one needs flexing before it is as flexible as the rules require. Not every match switched at once: the NSRA said it would run its British Open Air-Gun Championships 2026 to the earlier rules, and the CMP kept its own while allowing clothing made to the new ones. Ask the seller of a second-hand jacket whether it has been checked against the 2026 rules.

Standing, your feet are the base of the whole position, and SvSF’s course says stable shoes or boots help.

Ordinary shoes

Street or light athletic shoes are allowed in all positions. Shooting shoes only in 10 m events and in 50 m and 300 m three-position, never in prone events.ISSF 7.5.3

Shooting shoes

Upper at most 4 mm thick, sole at most 10 mm at the toe, height at most two-thirds of the sole’s length, and a matching pair.ISSF 7.5.3.1 and 7.5.3.4–7.5.3.6

CMP sporter

Low-cut street or athletic shoes, no higher than the middle of the ankle; shooting shoes and boots are not allowed.CMP 3PAR Rules 4.3.2

Between shots in standing, a stand takes the rifle’s weight, so you can rest your arms without moving your feet. A stand can tip: keep a hand on the rifle whenever it is on the stand, in training too, with the muzzle downrange. The CMP’s rules keep a cradle on a stand no higher than a third of shoulder height for that reason (4.7.4).

ISSF

A rest between shots is allowed if no part is higher than your highest shoulder in the standing position. It may not stand in front of the shooting table, and you must keep a hand on the rifle while it rests.ISSF 7.5.8.3

A sling runs from the upper arm to the fore-end and carries the rifle’s weight in kneeling and prone. The ISSF forbids it in standing, and its 10 m air rifle event is shot standing, so a sling is for three-position air rifle, such as the CMP’s junior events, and for three-position and prone at 50 and 300 m. How to set one up is in Standing, kneeling, prone.

ISSF

At most 40 mm wide, worn on the upper left arm (right for a left-hander) and attached to the fore-end at one point; not used in standing.ISSF 7.1.3, 7.5.8.2 and 7.6.1.3 i

CMP sporter

A simple strap at most 32 mm wide, without padding, in kneeling and prone.CMP 3PAR Rules 4.3.3

CMP precision

At most 40 mm wide, in prone and kneeling; not in standing.CMP 3PAR Rules 4.6.5

In kneeling you may also use a roll under the ankle: both rulebooks allow one soft, cylindrical roll (ISSF 7.5.8.5; CMP 4.7.2).

SvSF’s course notes that its national rules set few limits on clothing, while the rules of ISSF-style sport shooting go much further. At ISSF championships, the Rule Book says:

Responsibility

Athletes must make sure all the equipment and clothing they use complies with the rules.ISSF 6.7.2

Before

Equipment Control is open for voluntary checks, and athletes are encouraged to bring their clothing before the competition.ISSF 7.5.1.4

After

Rifle clothing is checked after the elimination and qualification rounds; failing a check of clothing, underclothing, taping or the rifle means disqualification.ISSF 7.5.1.5 and 6.7.9.1 a

A club or national match may check less, or nothing: ask before your first, and use any check before the start.