Rifle 101: A Beginners Guide To The Sport

I spend a lot of time spreading awareness about the shooting sports through social media and right here on this blog. However, I realize that some of you may not know much about the sport or maybe even none at all and that is okay! This blog is a brief intro to how the sport works so if you still have any questions after reading, feel free to comment below or DM me on Instagram @gabbzmo.

Quick disclaimer: This post is covering NCAA rifle/ Olympic rifle only.

Rifles:

There are two different rifles that are shot within the sport of rifle. One is an air rifle, the other is a smallbore rifle.

Air Rifle

Our air rifles are 1.77 caliber, they shoot 4.49mm or 4.50mm led pellets using compressed air 10 meters away from the target.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to this photo. The photo is being used under "Fair Use" laws.

The rifle pictured above is a Feinwerkbau 800 x. It is very similar to the one I compete with. While it looks quite complicated, some even saying it looks as if it is from the future. The rifle is made with many adjustments in order for the athlete to make the gun fit their body and position so that the equipment is working for them, not the other way around.

Smallbore

The other rifle we shoot is a .22 long rifle. This rifle is shot at either 50ft or 50m. Typically, the only time smallbore is shot at 50ft is for college rifle competitions.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to this photo. The photo is being used under "Fair Use" laws.

The same as air rifle, there are many adjustments on this rifle that allow the athlete to fit the rifle to them to be as comfortable as possible.

Air Rifle Match Format & Scoring:

The course of an air rifle match takes about an hour and a half. That is with a fifteen minute sighting period on top of the hour and fifteen that is for match firing. A sighting period is given prior to the start of the actual shots taken for the competition, it allows the athletes to settle into position and get into a groove. The time is also used so that athletes can properly sight in their rifle. There is no number of shots that have to be taken during the sighting period, athletes can take as little or as many shots they wish to in the given time. Once the sighting period ends, the athletes are then given an hour and fifteen to shoot 60 record shots. These shots add up to give a final score.

NCAA:

In NCAA competitions, the score is calculated in integer. The highest value shot being a 10, the lowest a 0. So with 60 total shots, the highest possible score is a 600.

Olympic:

On the international/ Olympic level, the scoring is done in decimal. The highest possible shot is a 10.9. This goes down by a tenth of a point, so, 10.9, 10.8, 10.7, 10.6, and it keeps going all the way to the lowest being a 0.0. The highest possible score, being if the athlete shot a 10.9 60 times in a row would be a 654.0.

Smallbore Match Format & Scoring:

The match format for the smallbore rifle really depends on whether the competition is for an NCAA competition or an Olympic style one.

NCAA:

Competitions in NCAA are in a 3x20 format. The "3" represents the three positions shot throughout the course of the match, kneeling, prone, and standing. The "20" shows that there are twenty shots per position. Prior to match firing, there is a fifteen minute sighting period while athletes are in the kneeling position. Following the sighting period, the athletes are given an hour and forty-five minutes to complete twenty shots in kneeling, take prone sighting shots, then twenty shots in prone, take standing sighting shots, then take the final twenty shots in the standing position.

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  Kneeling Position

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  Prone Position

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  Standing Position

Olympic:

When it comes to Olympic style rifle shooting, the only difference between the match formatting is the time given and number of shots, the target distance also varies but we will touch on that later in this post. In this format, the course of fire is a 3x40, again, the "3" representing the number of positions shot. However, in this case there are forty shots taken per position. The match format, including the sighting time is the exact same. The only difference is that athletes have two hours and forty-five minutes to complete their record fire.

Scoring for both NCAA and Olympic rifle is the same, the scoring is in integer. The same way that NCCA rifle is integer, the highest value shot is a 10. This means that for NCAA competitions (3x20), the highest score is a 600. In Olympic style competitions (3x40), the highest possible score is a 1200.

Targets:

The targets we shoot vary on the discipline/ course we are shooting. So between NCAA and Olympic style shooting, there are three targets we shoot in total.

NCAA & Olympic Style Air Rifle:

Below is a picture of the target we shoot in air rifle matches. The small dot in the middle is the ten ring, it is the size of a period at the end of a sentence that is in font size 12 in Times New Roman font. This target is 10 meters from the firing line.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to this photo. The photo is being used under "Fair Use" laws.

When it comes to Olympic style air rifle, the target is the exact same.

NCAA Smallbore:

Smallbore shooting in the NCAA is shot at a distance of 50ft. Below is a picture of the target that is shot at.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to this photo. The photo is being used under "Fair Use" laws.

This is what a paper target looks like, these are not commonly shot once the collegiate level or Olympic level of shooting is reach. At this level, an electronic target is shot at where it is a single bull the athlete shoots at over and over.

Olympic Style Smallbore:

This course of fire is shot at a distance of 50 meters. Below is a picture of what the target looks like up close.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to this photo. The photo is being used under "Fair Use" laws.

Like the other targets, that small area in the middle of the target is what athletes are working to hit with every shot they take.

So that is a brief overview of the sport of rifle shooting. As I said before, if you still have any other questions, please do not hesitate to reach out an ask.