10 Meter Air Rifle

Hello all! Today's entry will be about the wonderful sport of 10 Meter Air Rifle. This is the sport which got me into shooting and is the first shooting sport for many shooters. So, on to the main article.

10 Meter Air Rifle

US International shooter Jamie Gray

10 Meter Air Rifle can be separated into three main categories: Men's 60 Shot Air Rifle, Women's 40 Shot Air Rifle, and 3-Position Air Rifle. The latter is a discipline shot by juniors (18 and younger) and is the discipline shot by high-schools and clubs around the country. Men's and Women's Air Rifle are both shot at the Olympics and differentiated by the number of shots taken and the time allowed; Men receive 105 minutes to shoot 60 record shots and women receive 75 minutes to shoot 40 record shots. For those who know anything about the international circuit, you probably know that the rules were recently changed (there will be a blog post about this at some other time), but I will be focusing on the old rules because very few people (me included) fully understand the new rules.

Before I get into the specific disciplines, let me go ahead and give you a little bit more information on the distinction of "Air Rifle". The rifles shoot a .177 caliber flat nosed pellet by way of compressed air. The pellets are flat nosed in order to cut a perfect circle in the paper, making it easier to score. The targets used are either paper or electronic and are set 10 meters away from the shooter. Paper targets are far more common at the club and high school level and are a collection of 12 bullseyes (10 record bulls and 2 sighting bulls (used only to sight your rifle in)) because they are cheap and easy to get. Electronic targets are the standard for collegiate and international competitions. The target scores the shot by way of a laser or sound and can score each shot within a tenth of a millimeter. Each electronic target costs around $2500, rendering it almost impossible for most small clubs/high schools to own.

Flat nosed pellets

12 bull target

size of bull with a 5 shot group

The target itself is divided up into 10 scoring rings with the 10-ring being in the very center and only being .5mm in diameter (that is about the size of the head of a push pin)! The black part of the bull (what you actually aim at) is only about the size of a quarter. On paper targets, only one shot is shot per bull, but you can shoot an unlimited amount of shots in the sighter bulls (at least until you take your first record shot), electronic targets only have one bull where all of your shots are taken. Your final score for 3-postion and Men's 60 shot is out of a possible 600 points and Women's 40 shot is out of 400 points. On top of this, if your shot completely covers the 10 ring, you are awarded a center shot. Center shots count for nothing except for in a tie breaker (the person with the most center shots wins).

The first discipline I am going to talk about is the 3-Position discipline. This discipline is favored by high-schools and junior clubs around the nation because it offers a good combination of 3 position smallbore and 10 meter air rifle without the need for different ranges and multiple rifles. It also teaches the basics of shooting to young shooters and introduces them to all three positions. I am not going to get into the rules of 3 position, but if you are interested in some further reading, check out http://www.odcmp.com/3p/rules.pdf . Each match is shot in the same way as a 3-position smallbore match; each shooter is given 30 minutes to shoot 20 record shots (plus sighters) in prone, 40 minutes for 20 record shots (plus sighters) in standing, and 30 minutes for 20 record shots (plus sighters) in kneeling. In between each position, the shooters are given 5 minutes to switch over to the new position and adjust their rifles accordingly.

Before I go on to the next section, I wanted to talk about the distinctions of 3-position rifle. Shooters shoot in one of two different "classes". The first "class" is Sporter (shot by new shooters). In Sporter, the shooters are limited in the equipment they are allowed to use. For instance, they are not allowed to wear the extra clothing and their rifles are very basic with little to no adjustments. The second class is called Precision (shot by more experienced shooters). Precision shooters are allowed to wear all of the extra clothing and their rifles are extremely adjustable allowing them to fit the rifle exactly to their body. The extra clothing and the nicer rifle give the shooter a distinct advantage, allowing them to hold steadier and shoot higher scores. Other than the equipment, there is no other difference in shooting. This also only applies to 3-position matches, there are no classes in the Men's and Women's Air Rifle.

Sporter

Precision

Men's and Women's Air Rifle are the two disciplines shot internationally and at the Olympics. The only difference between the two are the number of shots and the time allowed. All of the shots are shot in the standing position and at the international level, it is not uncommon to see scores in the high 590's out of 600 points (actually it is nearly impossible to get into a final with a score lower than 596/600). At major competitions, all shooters shoot as individuals and the winner is determined by a combination of a 60 or 40 shot match plus a 10 shot final (yes, i know this has changed with the new rules, but I am not going to get into that now. If you are interested in the new rules, check them out http://www.issf-sports.org/theissf/rules/english_rulebook.ashx ). To enter into a final, a shooter must be one of the top 8 shooters in the competition. After the competition, the top 8 shooters take a short break and then go on to shoot 10 shots (you are given 75 seconds per shot and each shot taken one at a time). After the 10 shots have been fired, the winner is known and any ties result in a 1-shot shoot off until there are no more ties.

In college, the only rifle discipline shot is the 60-shot Men's Air Rifle. This is shot by both men and women with the same basic rules as international shooters. The only difference is that there is no final and the winner is a specific team of 4 shooters instead of a single person. I will delve deeper into college shooting in a later article, so stay tuned. 

I hope this proved helpful to anyone interested in shooting air rifle. I highly recommend starting your kids in air rifle instead of smallbore because it is much cheaper, easier to learn, and there are quite a few clubs and high schools that shoot this discipline. Stay tuned for next week's article: 50 Meter Three Position Rifle.

An Introduction Shooting Sports

Well it has been quite a while since I posted on this blog, and if it wasn't for some friendly encouragement, I don't think I would have been back in an even longer time.

Today, I would like to start a series about shooting sports (International Rifle to be specific). I do not know how long this series will be, but I am going to try my best to explain every facet of shooting sports to the best of my ability. This is a sport that means a lot to me, but is not a very popular sport in the US.

First, a little background about my involvement in the shooting sports. I started shooting competitively in 2010 with a local 4-H club, and during that year we won a bid to compete in the 4-H nationals in Texas. That trip, with the shooting, the hurricane, the homemade pizza's, and the great company, completely hooked me on shooting. Once I returned, I was able to make some contacts with a local high school with a rifle team where I trained and competed with one of the top high school teams in the nation. After training with them for a year, I decided that I wanted to continue and shoot in college. With help from my dad and the coach, I was able to get a spot on the Murray State University NCAA Division 1 Rifle Team (the 8th ranked team in the nation) where I am still shooting now (as a freshman).


An Introduction to the Shooting Sports:

Ok, to get started let me say that yes, shooting is a real sport and takes a lot of training and skill (just as much, if not more than sports like football, baseball, etc.) in order to perfect. I can not tell you how many times I have heard people bad-mouth shooting because it seems like such an easy activity that anyone can do. To those people, I like to tell them my favorite quote by 3-time US olympic medalist Matthew Emmons, "you show me your olympic gold medal, and I'll show you mine. My gold is just as shiny as yours." Of course, I have no olympic gold medal, but I do have quite a few other medals that still do the trick.

In the group of "Shooting Sports" there are three disciplines with different sub-disciplines:

• Shotgun
• Trap 
• Skeet
• Double Trap
• Pistol
• 10 Meter Air Pistol
• 25 Meter Rapid Fire 
• 50 Meter Free Pistol 
• Rifle
• 10 Meter Air Rifle
• 50 Meter Smallbore Prone
• 50 Meter Smallbore 3-Position

There are other sub-disciplines, but these are the most popular (and the only ones currently in the Olympics). On this blog, I will be focusing on the Rifle category because that is the only one I have experience in. 

 For those of you interested in shooting, let me warn you, shooting is a very difficult sport that can get pretty expensive and require a lot of time. Of course, the cost and time required are dependent on how much you want to get out of the sport, but once bitten by the shooting bug, it is hard to stop. However, shooting is probably one of the greatest sports in the world (in my opinion) and is a sport that someone of any age can (and do) play.

Shooting is difficult. This might not seem true just from reading, but shooting is an endurance sport. As you will see in various pictures, some of the positions require almost a contortionist like flexibility and many can get quite painful. For instance, in kneeling (see picture) there is a lot of pressure focused on your foot, ankle, knee, support hand (the one on the rifle), and elbow. Because of this setup, kneeling is considered the most painful position by most shooters. In a 50 Meter 3-Position match, you are shooting in this position for almost an hour. For most shooters, this results in a loss of feeling in the foot (the kneeling roll cuts off virtually all circulation to your foot) and the support hand (the sling cuts off circulation to your hand and arm in some cases). Usually shooters cannot even stand until 5 or so minutes of sitting/laying down. To make matters worse, kneeling is shot as the last position meaning that the shooter has already had to endure prone and standing position for 2+ hours!

Many times I am asked, "why don't you just change the position?". The answer to this question is simple. The positions have been studied for over a hundred years, and the culmination to all that studying has led to these positions which give the most stable platform from which to shoot from. 

A hurdle even tougher to pass for some people is the mental side of shooting. What separates the best shooters from the rest is their ability to stay focused on a small black dot for multiple hours without rest. In theory, shooting is very easy, all you have to do is hit a dot. However, being able to do that 60+ times over multiple hours requires an immense amount of concentration and is extremely mentally draining. The whole deal with shooting is the ability to be consistent, to do the exact same thing the exact same way over and over and over again. 

I say all this to warn you about what you are thinking about getting in to, not to dissuade you from trying. Any sport you want to get in to has its difficulties and pains, shooting just presents them in a different form. I love shooting, and even after experiencing all of this I still get up every morning for 5AM practice because I want to continue competing and getting better. 

So far, all I have said are the bad things about shooting. Now, let me show you some of the benefits of shooting. First, shooting is safe. There are many rules in shooting dedicated specifically to safety and, believe it or not, shooting is the safest sport for you can compete in (look it up). For instance, in the 4-H which deals with a variety of kids only has only had 2 (i believe) documented injuries, neither of which were life threatening and were fixed on the range. Second, shooting is a great way to learn patience, decision making, and anger management. One of the things drilled into shooters heads is that they need to know when to take a shot and when not to. You only take the shot when it is a 10 (or try to), but this can take a long time and a number of holds. In order to battle through this, the shooter is forced to learn patience and decision making. Anger management comes from the necessity to remain calm throughout an entire match in order to keep their shots consistent. Finally, shooting is fun. It is extremely rewarding to put in a lot of effort and see that you shot a perfect 100/100 on a target. Also, because it is nearly impossible to shoot perfect scores all the time, there is always room for improvement, giving shooters a lifetime of enjoyment. This, of course, does not do the benefits of shooting justice, nor does it state all of them. I have been shooting for a while now and I still find new things to enjoy every day I am on the line.

I hope you enjoyed this and I urge you to do more research on shooting sports. If you are looking for an amazing sport to get into, there are few better. If you have any questions or comments, please ask them below. 

Up next will be a discussion of 10 Meter Air Rifle.