**History of Shooting Sports:**
– The National Rifle Association (NRA) founded in 1859 in Great Britain to promote rifle-shooting.
– Target shooting was popular in colonial America, with shooting matches and turkey shoots.
– Flintlock rifles were introduced in Pennsylvania in the 1720s for hunters.
– Percussion caps replaced flintlocks around 1820, improving accuracy and reliability.
– The National Rifle Association of America was formed in 1871 to promote rifle shooting in the U.S.
– Trap shooting gained popularity in the United States with the introduction of breach loading shotguns in the 1860s.
**Shooting Sports in the United States:**
– National Matches were held at Creedmoor range in Long Island in 1872.
– The National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice was created in 1903 to advise the Secretary of the Army.
– The NRA established rifle clubs at colleges and universities by 1903.
– Over one million youth now participate in shooting sports events in the U.S.
**Olympic Shooting Events:**
– Shooting events have been included in the modern Olympics since 1896.
– The International Shooting Sport Federation oversees Olympic shooting events.
– Shooting sport awards the first medals in the Olympic Games.
– There are 15 medal events in shooting at the Summer Olympics, covering seven disciplines.
– Targets were changed to circular shapes to avoid violence associations.
**Competition Disciplines in Shooting Sports:**
– There are 15 medal events at the Summer Olympics, covering rifle, pistol, and shotgun disciplines.
– Mixed Pairs events were introduced for gender equity.
– Rifle events include 50m rifle three positions and 10m air rifle.
– Pistol events include 25m rapid fire pistol and 10m air pistol.
– Shotgun events include Trap and Skeet.
**Bullseye Shooting Overview:**
– Bullseye shooting involves hitting a round target’s center for maximum points.
– It emphasizes precision, accuracy, sight picture, breath, and trigger control.
– Competitors have fixed time limits for each shot, with distances ranging from 10 to 300 meters.
– Beginners often start with bullseye shooting to learn marksmanship fundamentals.
– Bullseye shooting is also a part of the Summer Olympic Games and requires significant training to excel.
Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such as handguns, rifles and shotguns) and bows/crossbows.
 From the final shoot-off at the men's skeet competition during the 2008 Summer Olympics. | |
| Highest governing body | Several organizations, see list |
|---|---|
| Nicknames | Shooting |
| First played | Switzerland in the second half of the 15th century[citation needed] |
| Characteristics | |
| Contact | No |
| Team members | Yes or no, depending on competition |
| Mixed-sex | Yes or no, depending on discipline |
| Type | Indoor or outdoor |
| Venue | Shooting range |
| Presence | |
| Olympic | Yes |
| World Championships | Yes |
| Paralympic | Yes |
Shooting sports can be categorized by equipment, shooting distances, targets, time limits and degrees of athleticism involved. Shooting sports may involve both team and individual competition, and team performance is usually assessed by summing the scores of the individual team members. Due to the noise of shooting and the high (and often lethal) impact energy of the projectiles, shooting sports are typically conducted at either designated permanent shooting ranges or temporary shooting fields in the area away from settlements.