Veronica Hines

Target shooting is one of the biggest sports in the world, especially at the Olympics. With participants from 97 countries in its last edition and close to 400 participants, target shooting is a sport that requires discipline and finesse combined into one at all times during participation. A slight edge here or there can ruin a shot, not factoring in environmental factors can be the difference between a bullseye and completely missing the shot. With countless shooting ranges across the country and the world, target shooting in Florida and other places and is a commodity growing fast with more and more people picking up the sport for either fun or professional participation. Below we have listed some information regarding target shooting in the Olympics and what entails in the men’s 50m rifle event.

Frequency: Every four years

Last edition: Rio 2016

Next edition: Tokyo 2020

Number of shooting events in sports: 15 events across three disciplines

Athletes at the last edition: 390 athletes from 97 NOCs

The Olympic Programme includes 15 total events across three disciplines, namely Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun. Olympians compete in six men events, six women events and three mixed team events respectively.

Each event consists of a qualification phase, followed by a final round.

RIFLE EVENTS

50m RIFLE 3 POSITIONS MEN

The 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men is an ISSF event where athletes shoot over a distance of 50 meters or 54.68 yards in kneeling, prone and standing positions. This entails them using a 5.6 millimeters or 0.22 inches caliber rifle, along with a maximum weight of 8.0 kilograms or 17.64 libbers.

The center of the target is positioned at 0.75 meters above the floor and its total diameter measures 154.4 millimeters. The diameters of the fourth ring are 106.4 millimeters, while the tenth ring measures 10.4 millimeters.

Specialized clothing and equipment have been created for this purpose to help improve stability for participants when in their shooting positions.  

Qualification round

During the qualification round, every athlete fires a fixed, 40 shots in kneeling position, 40 in the prone position and 40 in standing position all within a set time of 2 hours and 45 minutes.

The qualification score consists of integer points, Maximum score per shot is 10 points and the maximum score anyone can procure here is 1200 points.

Final round

The top eight athletes with the highest scores from the qualification round advance to the final showdown or round, where each of them can get off up to 45 final shots.

The final score consists of decimal points, where the maximum score a shot can get you is 10.9 points and the maximum score a participant can gather in the final round is 490.5 points. All finalists in this phase start the final round with zero points. The qualification points gathered are of no use here and everyone must start from scratch again.

The final starts with three series of five shots in the kneeling position: each of them has to be fired within 200 seconds, the kneeling position is followed by a changeover time of seven minutes; Three more series of five shots in the prone positions are then fired: each of them within 150 seconds; the prone position is followed by a second changeover time of nine minutes. Two series of five shots in the standing position are then fired, each of them within 250 seconds.

At the end of the second standing series, the shooters with the two lowest scores are eliminated in 8th and 7th place.

The five final single shots are fired on command and within 50 seconds each. After every single shot, the lowest ranking athlete is eliminated until the gold and silver medalists are decided by the 45th and conclusive shot.

If there is a tie for the lowest ranking athlete to be eliminated, the tie will be broken by one or more additional shoot-off shots.

This adrenaline-rushing sport is garnering admiration from one and all across the world. But this is a sport that also needs some strong safeguards and careful administration and supervision due to the nature of the sport. Places like some Florida shooting range and even any others now are being more and more vigilant because the misuse of equipment could be a major issue and they’re doing their best to curb it.