Smallbore rifle shooting

Organised rifle shooting for sport largely developed in the 19th century. Switzerland was one of the first countries to establish a national shooting federation, in 1824.[2] Similar organisations were founded in Britain, France and Germany in the mid-nineteenth century, followed by the National Rifle Association of America in 1871.[3] Smallbore shooting first became possible in 1845, when the French gun-maker Nicholas Flaubert developed the first .22 calibre rimfire rifle cartridge. However, it was originally treated largely as a recreational pastime, and considered the "poor cousin" of fullbore shooting, conducted with military-style rifles.[4] This began to change in the United Kingdom from the turn of the 20th century, in the United States from 1918, and in Germany from the early 1920s.

The Essex County team shooting at the 1978 NSRA National Smallbore Meeting at Bisley

In the United Kingdom, the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899 saw a series of defeats for the British Army, particularly during the so-called Black Week of 10–15 December 1899, in which British forces were defeated at Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso.[5] British veterans of and commentators on the war considered the high standard of Boer marksmanship to have been a decisive factor in their success, and identified this marksmanship as a consequence of the "rifle culture" of Boer society, leading to efforts to encourage British soldiers and civilians to gain a similar familiarity and practice with firearms.[6] A particularly prominent critic of British marksmanship was Lord Frederick Roberts, who considered that accurate shooting should be the primary aim of military training.[7]

Britain's National Rifle Association had been founded in 1859 "for the encouragement of the Volunteer Rifle corps, and the promotion of Rifle-Shooting throughout Great Britain."[8] However, the popularity of shooting with large-calibre military rifles was constrained by the inaccessibility of suitable ranges, which required large open spaces that could only be found in rural areas, and by the cost of ammunition. Two parallel developments in the 1880s opened the possibility that marksmanship training could be made available more cheaply and to those living in towns and cities: the development of the Morris aiming tube in 1883, which could be fitted inside the barrel of a large-calibre rifle to allow it to fire small-calibre ammunition, and that of the successful .22 Long Rifle cartridge in 1887.[9] By 1900, a smallbore rifle could be purchased for £1 or less (equivalent to £115 in 2021), within the reach of skilled urban workers and the middle classes.[10]

In 1901, the Society of Working Men's Rifle Clubs was founded. By the end of 1902, it had nearly 80 affiliated clubs. In 1903, the SWMRC joined with the British Rifle League, itself founded in 1900, in holding a "miniature Bisley" — a shooting competition for smallbore rifles — in Crystal Palace in late March 1903. In May, the SWMRC and BRL amalgamated to form the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs.[10] The first National Rifle Meeting was first held at Bisley in 1922.[11] The Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs changed its name to the National Small-bore Rifle Association in 1947.[10]

In the United States, smallbore shooting is documented from the mid-1870s, predominantly as a means of continuing to shoot during the winter months, when outdoor ranges were too cold.[12] It grew in popularity after the First World War, and the US National Rifle Association established the first national smallbore matches in August 1919.[4] These early national smallbore matches were organised by Edward Cathcart Crossman, an officer of the US Army, with the assistance of E.J.D. Nesbitt, a British official of the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs who had been involved in organising smallbore competitions at Bisley.[13] The growing popularity of smallbore shooting led to demand for rifles which mirrored those used in military service but which could be used safely on shorter indoor ranges: the Winchester Model 52 rifle, manufactured from 1918 and sold commercially from 1920, was first exhibited at the 1919 National Rifle Matches,[14] and remained one of the world's leading smallbore target rifles until the 1960s, when it was overtaken by newer rifles manufactured in West Germany by Anschütz, Feinwerkbau and Walther.[15]

From 1926 until 1933, recruits into the US Army's infantry and cavalry were required to carry out a qualification shoot with a small bore rifle.[16]

French primary schools began to teach boys military drill, including skill at arms and shooting, from the 1880s. In 1881, the government ordered the production of 52,600 smallbore rifles suitable for training school pupils in marksmanship; from 1887, boys aged ten and older were required to be taught to shoot at 10 metres (11 yd) with the Flobert rifle, which used a low-powered 6mm cartridge. The practice of marksmanship training in schools was reinvigorated in 1907,[17] but fell into abeyance after 1925.

Smallbore shooting began in Australia in the mid-nineteenth century, and rifle clubs existed in every Australian state by 1914. The sport of smallbore gained a reputation for being accepting towards female shooters. Although women's fullbore rifle matches were recorded as early as 1899, women were excluded when the Department of the Army took control of fullbore rifle clubs in 1903.[18] Consequently, fullbore remained a male-dominated sport into the 1960s. By contrast, in 1914, every state had at least one women's smallbore shooting club.[19]

In Germany, 'sharpshooting clubs' developed from a long-standing tradition of Schützenfeste, and became particularly popular in the 1920s as a means of recreation and in connection with various political ideologies, from republicanism to atavistic, conservative nationalism.[20] While traditional shooting clubs (Schützenvereine) focused on fullbore shooting and generally drew their members from conservative, middle-class men, the 1920s saw the rise of 'sport shooting' clubs, often more working-class and left-wing in composition, which practised largely or entirely with smallbore rifles.[21] In November 1925, the Reich Centre for Promoting Small-Bore Shooting in Germany was established.[22]

The gun-maker J. G. Anschütz, originally established in Mehlis in Thuringia in 1856, moved to Ulm in western Germany after the end of the Second World War.[23] Its Match 54 action became established as the world's leading smallbore action in the 1960s,[15] and remains popular among smallbore shooters worldwide.[23]

The three medallists in 50m men's prone rifle at the 1960 Summer Olympics: Enrico Forcella, Peter Kohnke and James Enoch Hill.

Shooting featured at first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.[24] The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) was formed in the wake of the 1896 Olympics, and conducted its first world championship in 1897. However, the only ISSF rifle events were in fullbore shooting until the 1924 games, hosted by France, in which 50m rifle was added as a women's event.[25]

The first smallbore events at the Olympic Games were contested in 1908.[26] These games included smallbore shoots at disappearing and moving targets, which were not repeated. With the exception of 1928, smallbore shooting has featured in some capacity at every Olympics since.[24] After 1924, smallbore dropped from the ISSF's roster until 1928, when 50m prone rifle was added to the games at Loosduinen as a test event; it remained for the 1929 games at Stockholm and has been contested ever since. The same year, the men's 50m three position rifle event was added, in which 40 shots were fired in each of the prone, kneeling and standing positions.[25]

In 1947, the ISSF World Championships in Stockholm added an 'English Match' event, then consisting of 30 shots at 50 metres (55 yd) and 30 at 100 metres (110 yd). From the 1958 Moscow games, women were allowed to compete in this event, which was changed to 60 shots at 50 metres (55 yd) in 1962. From 1966, the ISSF world championships included women's events in both prone and three-position smallbore shooting, though women could also enter the other 'open' events. This changed from 1982, when the 'open' events were re-categorised as men's events.[25] At the Olympic Games, prone and three-position smallbore shooting were made into mixed events between 1972 and 1980. In 1984, they reverted to men's events with a three-position smallbore shooting match for women.[24] After the 2016 Olympics, the men's 50m prone event was removed, leaving only the men's and women's three-position events.[27]

The ISSF's junior world championship was first contested in 1994.[25] In 2004, the first FISU World University Shooting Championships were held. Smallbore shooting first featured at the Commonwealth Games in 1966, and continued at every games until 2018. In the Paralympic Games, smallbore shooting has featured since 1996, when smallbore events were added to the air rifle events that had existed since 1976.

Major annual international team matches in smallbore shooting include:

• The Drew Match, an international competition for shooters aged under twenty-one. Each nation enters three teams: a mixed team of ten, a men's team of three, and a women's team of three.[34] The competition uses the 'English Match' course.
• The Dewar Trophy, considered the world's most prestigious postal match.[35] The Dewar was inaugurated in 1908 as a challenge between the British Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs and the National Rifle Association of America, which developed into a three-way match between Great Britain, the United States and Australia. It is named for Thomas Dewar, who donated its trophy.[36] From 1910, entry was opened to British colonies and dependencies,[37] and it has since been contested at various times by Australia, Canada, Ceylon, India, New Zealand and South Africa.[37][34]
• The Pershing and Roberts Matches, a shoulder-to-shoulder fixture between Great Britain and the United States. Each is normally contested every eight years, on a four-year offset: the Pershing at the National Rifle Association of America's National Matches, and the Roberts at Bisley at the NSRA's National Rifle Meeting. Both are shot to a 'Single Dewar' course of fire.[34]
• The Randle Match, a women's match shot to a 'Single Dewar' course of fire. It is contested between teams of ten from Great Britain and the United States on American-sized targets.[34]
• The Wakefield Match, shot to an 'English Match' course of fire at 50 m (55 yd). Begun in 1933 as a postal match between Great Britain and Sweden, the match went into abeyance in 1984, and was resurrected in 1991 as a fixture between Great Britain and various Anglosphere nations.[34]

The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics included both 50m rifle three positions and 50m rifle prone,[38] but only the three-position event was included for Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.[27] As of the 2020 Summer Olympics, the competitive standard of the various smallbore disciplines is as follows: