The pistol disciplines after 10 m air pistol

• ISSF: 10 m air pistol (Olympic), 25 m pistol, the sport pistol (Olympic for women), 25 m rapid-fire pistol (Olympic for men), 25 m standard pistol, 25 m centre-fire pistol and 50 m pistol, with a 10 m air pistol mixed team event on the Olympic programme in place of the 50 m event.
• Sweden (SPSF): precision on the 25 m card, fält in the terrain, snabbskjutning, militär snabbmatch, magnumprecision at 50 m, magnumfält, nationell helmatch; and the ISSF events through SvSF.
• Germany (DSB): the air pistol, the small-bore 25 m and 50 m events, and the large-calibre 25 m events; France (FFTir): 10 m, 25 m and 50 m, precision, speed and mixed; Britain: 10 m air, 20 yd and 50 m leagues; the USA: the ISSF events through USA Shooting and the NRA’s precision pistol, bullseye.
• The pistol follows the event: air at 10 m, a .22 at 25 m and 50 m, a centre-fire pistol or revolver for the large-calibre events.

The ISSF’s rule book recognises six pistol events, and its tables give each its course of fire. The 15 Olympic shooting events are split five rifle, five pistol and five shotgun, as the ISSF’s committee recommended in 2017, proposing a 10 m air pistol mixed team in place of the 50 m pistol men’s event, a decision the ISSF said was the IOC’s; the same programme was confirmed for Los Angeles 2028. A World Championship in all events, Olympic and not, is held every fourth year.

• 10 m air pistol: 60 shots in 75 minutes on electronic targets, 90 on paper, for men and women, Olympic; the mixed team shoots 30 shots each. The card is scored on the phone in the app.
• 25 m pistol, the sport pistol: 30 shots of precision, six series of five in 240 seconds each on the precision card, then 30 shots of rapid fire on the turning card, where, as the DSB puts it, each shot has a window of three seconds. Olympic for women; a junior men’s event too.
• 25 m rapid-fire pistol: two stages of 30 shots, each two series of five shots in 8, 6 and 4 seconds, one shot on each of five cards. Olympic for men.
• 25 m standard pistol: three stages of 20 shots on the precision card, four five-shot series in 150, 20 and 10 seconds; a World Championship event for men and women.
• 25 m centre-fire pistol: the sport pistol’s course, 30 precision and 30 rapid-fire, shot with a centre-fire pistol; a World Championship event.
• 50 m pistol, the free pistol: 60 shots in 1 hour 30 minutes on electronic targets, 1 hour 45 on paper, with a single-shot .22; a World Championship event, no longer Olympic.

Svenska Pistolskytteförbundet (SPSF) lists ten disciplines, range and field, and says a member chooses which to take up. On the range: precision, shot in five-shot series of five minutes on the 25 m precision card, a championship being ten series, which the federation has shot since its founding in 1936; snabbskjutning, six series of five shots at the 25 m rapid-fire card, the targets turned to face you for three seconds and away for seven, five times a series, to train fast, well-aimed shots; militär snabbmatch, twelve series of five on the same card in 10, 8 and 6 seconds, on rules based on CISM’s; nationell helmatch, a combined match on the precision, rapid-fire and figure cards at 25 m; magnumprecision, the federation’s youngest discipline, taken up in 2014, on the 50 m card with large-calibre guns; and the air pistol, which the SPSF describes as the range the firearm shooters go to in winter.

In the field: fältskjutning, short-time shooting at targets set out in the terrain in varying ways, shot in patrols that walk between the stations, six shots a station in five to 25 seconds at targets up to 90 metres away, a championship being ten stations; and magnumfältskjutning, which the federation calls a combination of precision and traditional field shooting, with eight stations at 80 to 100 metres and up to 180, and, in its own words, perhaps not a beginner’s discipline. The ISSF events are shot in Sweden under Svenska Skyttesportförbundet (SvSF), whose page names them sportpistol and grovpistol, snabbpistol, standardpistol and fripistol.

Germany: the DSB sorts its pistol programme into the air pistol at 10 m, Olympic, with a mixed team, a supported class, a multi-shot air pistol, a multi-event and a standard event; the small-bore pistol at 25 m and 50 m, rimfire 5.6 mm, where the 50 m pistol is the free pistol and the 25 m events are the Olympic rapid-fire and sport pistol and the standard pistol; and the large-calibre pistols and revolvers, always at 25 m, centre-fire 7.62 to 9.65 mm without magnum ammunition for the centre-fire event, and 9 mm Luger, .45 ACP and .357 Magnum for the pistol-and-revolver events, one per calibre, shot as four series in 150 seconds and four in 20. The DSB’s cards are in the catalogue: Nr. 4 at 25 m and Nr. 10 for rapid fire.

France: the FFTir’s pistol disciplines run at 10 m with compressed air, and at 25 m and 50 m with .22 Long Rifle and large calibre; every event is shot standing, one-handed, and the practice divides into precision, speed and mixed events. The federation counts five Olympic pistol events: 10 m women, 10 m men, the 10 m mixed team, 25 m women and the men’s 25 m rapid fire. Its 25 m cards are the C50 precision card and the rapid-fire card.

Britain: the NSRA runs a 10 m air pistol competition with pistols to ISSF rules, a pistol league of 20 shots a round at 20 yards or 50 metres, shot with free pistols or air pistols, on the PL15 card at 20 yards and the PL7 at 50 m, and a survey on whether a revived national championship should hold 25 m events at Bisley or 50 m and 20 yd events elsewhere; what a cartridge pistol may be in Britain is a matter for the UK guide, and the NRA’s handgun league shoots long-barrelled .22 pistols and centre-fire long-barrelled revolvers.

The USA: USA Shooting, the national governing body for the Olympic shooting sports, keeps the ISSF events under American names, air pistol, sport pistol, rapid-fire, standard, free pistol and centre fire; the NRA’s own discipline is precision pistol, bullseye, shot outdoors at 25 and 50 yards and indoors at 50 feet, 50 yards or 20 to 25 yards. Its national match course is ten shots of slow fire in ten minutes at 50 yards on the B-6 card, then timed fire, five shots in 20 seconds, and rapid fire, five in ten, at 25 yards on the B-8, shot with a .22, any centre-fire of .32 or larger and a .45, for a 2700-point aggregate of the three guns.

The federations say it plainly. SvSF: the air pistol is 4.5 mm on compressed air or CO2; sport pistol, snabbpistol and standard pistol are shot with a 5.6 mm pistol, grovpistol with 7.6 to 9.65 mm, and the free pistol is a 5.6 mm pistol loaded with one shot at a time. The DSB: the small-bore events take single-shot or repeating pistols in 5.6 mm rimfire, the large-calibre events centre-fire pistols and revolvers. The ISSF’s ammunition table gives the same: 4.5 mm for air, 5.6 mm rimfire long rifle for the 25 m rimfire events and 50 m pistol, 7.62 to 9.65 mm for centre-fire, with no high-power or magnum ammunition.

The makers build to the events. Pardini’s SP is a semi-automatic in .22 LR designed, in its words, for the 25 m sport and standard pistol events, and its HP, in .32 S&W, for large-calibre shooting; Morini’s CM 84E is a free pistol with a trigger set between 22 and 160 g. Your 10 m match pistol is the one described in Match air pistols, and the road from it to the first cartridge pistol, country by country, is in the licence guides.

Start with the air pistol: How to start shooting 10 m air pistol covers the club, the first season and, in Sweden, the road to the firearm pistol through pistolskyttekortet and the club years, and Your first air pistol competition the first match. The next step on the range is the same shot at 25 m: the SPSF’s precision series and the ISSF sport pistol’s precision stage are five-shot series on a 25 m card, with time to spare, before the turning cards and the seconds come.

Every card on this page has its own target page with the rings, the scoring and the course of fire, and the two-card ISSF events have their own discipline pages, 25 m pistol and 25 m centre-fire pistol. The app has the cards in its catalogue, so the score trend you started on the air pistol continues on the next one.

Which pistol shooting events are Olympic?

Three of the ISSF’s six: 10 m air pistol for men and women, with a mixed team event, 25 m pistol for women and 25 m rapid-fire pistol for men. The 50 m pistol men’s event was recommended for replacement by the mixed team in 2017, and the programme confirmed for Los Angeles 2028 stands.

What is the difference between sport, standard and rapid-fire pistol?

All three are 25 m events with a .22. Sport pistol is 30 shots of precision and 30 of rapid fire with three seconds a shot; standard pistol is 60 shots on the precision card in series of 150, 20 and 10 seconds; rapid-fire pistol is 60 shots in five-shot series of 8, 6 and 4 seconds, one shot on each of five cards.

Which pistol do I need for 25 m?

A 5.6 mm (.22 LR) pistol for sport, standard and rapid-fire pistol; a centre-fire pistol or revolver of 7.62 to 9.65 mm for the centre-fire event and the large-calibre disciplines. Whether you may own one, and the road to it, is in the licence guides.