How to start off in shooting sports?

[mundaire]

How to start off in shooting sports?
I get a fair amount of queries in this regard from people who have an interest in shooting sports, but no one to guide them and absolutely no clue as to where and how they should start. Through this article I'll attempt to put down a short step by step guide, which (hopefully) would be able to help people get started.

Before you start
Before you ever even hold a gun in your hand, MEMORISE the rules of firearms safety. These should be so well ingrained in your mind that they become an instinctive part of you! I cannot emphasise enough the importance of practising proper and safe handling of firearm in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. Not adhering to these rules would at the very least make you extremely unpopular at the shooting ranges - worst case scenario you could end up injuring/ killing yourself or others! Firearms are NOT TOYS - and even low powered airguns can cause serious injury. TREAT THEM WITH RESPECT AT ALL TIMES AND SHOOT SAFE.

What are the various events?

It is important to understand that NOT ALL forms of shooting sports are available in India. The governing body of shooting sports in India is the NRAI and they only conduct sporting events following the ISSF rule book. The following is a list of events that are conducted in India and for which shooting facilities are available in the country:

Airguns
10M Rifle
10M Pistol

Pistol
25M Rapid Fire Pistol
50M Free Pistol
25M Centre Fire Pistol
25M Standard Pistol

Shotguns
Clay Pigeon Trap
Clay Pigeon Double Trap
Clay Pigeon Skeet

.22 Rifle
50M Rifle 3 Position
50M Rifle Prone

Big Bore Rifle
300M Rifle 3 Position
300M Rifle Prone
300M Rifle Standard Rifle

For detailed rules on each event, please download the rulebook from the NRAI OR the ISSF websites.

Where to shoot?
Another thing to keep in mind is NOT ALL locations have suitable shooting ranges to conduct ALL of the above events. It is most common to find shooting ranges for 10 meter (airgun) events, 25 meter (pistol) events and 50 meter (.22 rifle and free pistol) events. While MOST of the shooting ranges in India are owned and run by the security forces (military/ paramilitary/ police) these are usually NOT open to the general public.

Shooting ranges that are open to the public are typically owned and operated by local shooting associations/ rifle clubs. These could be state/ district/ tehsil etc. shooting associations/ clubs and each will have it's own policy as to whether non-members are allowed to use their facilities.

Therefore at the outset one would typically have to become a member of the local shooting association/ club. A partial list of shooting clubs/ associations in India can be found in the shooting sports section of this website.

Some cities may have alternate shooting locations as well, for example DDA runs a 10 meter (airguns only) shooting range at the DDA Sports Complex at Shri Fort in South Delhi. (Edit: this is defunct for the past few years)

By shooting at a shooting range, one has the additional (IMHO huge) benefit of picking up on advice from other shooters. This advice may be to do with shooting technique, upcoming competitions, target guns which are coming up for sale etc. etc.

What event should I start with?

There is no hard and fast rule on this, BUT I almost always recommend that a newcomer start their shooting with airguns (air-rifle or air-pistol as per personal choice). There are a few reasons for this:

1. Safety: Airguns allow one to get used to handling a gun and ingraining the rules of firearm safety while using a relatively low powered gun. Still it is IMPORTANT to keep in mind that even these low powered airguns can cause serious injury and EACH AND EVERY rule of safe firearms handling applies here! I NEVER shoot with people who disregard firearms safety, and I strongly suggest you don't either!

2. No recoil: Airguns have no recoil and are therefore best suited for teaching newcomers the art of shooting without them developing bad habits like flinching.

3. Cost: While Olympic grade airguns don't come cheap, one can start off learning at a much lower cost by buying a decent airgun at a substantially lower price than those expensive models. Once a certain level of marksmanship has been achieved, one can then always upgrade to a competition gun. So if you are using airguns merely as a stepping stone for learning you don't get stuck with an expensive investment up front; also, if you later decide that you don't have the time/ effort/ money to invest in taking up shooting as a serious sport, you get off relatively cheaply. The other aspect of cost is ammunition, in this respect too airguns are much cheaper to shoot than firearms - Indian made pellets are quite cheap and even imported pellets sell for a fraction of the price of imported ammunition for firearms.

4. Legalities: Owning a firearm in India REQUIRES one to have a valid arms license. By starting out with airguns, you remove this requirement as a hurdle to your entry into the sport.

5. Accessibility/ facilities: With airguns, one can safely set up a shooting range at home - at a pretty low cost. Removing the requirement to hunt out a suitable shooting range close to your place of residence. However, I'd still recommend that if you are serious about shooting, you make a trip to the local shooting range at least on weekends (when there are maximum people around) - as mentioned earlier, you'll be able to pick up advice and pointers from more experienced shooters there

Which Airgun to start off with?
Please see the knowledge base article - Which airgun should I buy? for advice on this.

Hope this helps get you started

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[HSharief]

Excellent !!!

[OverUnderPump]

Good one Sir !

Regards

OUP

[Sakobav]

Great

Cheers

[shooter]

good one. keep it up.

[sivarjun]

thank u sir...

[HSharief]

Abhijeet, I think the next step should be to write more about each of the disciplines.

[shooter]

nice avataar

[nagarifle]

grearrrt one man, good basic advice.

[mundaire]

Glad y'all found it interesting...

Abhijeet, I think the next step should be to write more about each of the disciplines.

Sharief, I would be seriously hard pressed to write about each and every one of the disciplines! I have not even participated in all of them, let alone know enough about each... I could put in a bit about 1 or 2 but I was really hoping that others would chip in and add their knowledge here... could be as simple as adding relevant weblinks along with a short paragraph on the particular discipline...

nice avataar

Hopefully I'll be calling you soon to fix up something across the Atlantic...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[sagar]

Hello All,
It will be VERY Useful to the New Entrants in the Field of Shooting Sports to have Information regarding :-
1.) The different categories of Shooting Sports in India.
2.) The Callibre of Weapon/Airgun required for a particular category.
3.) The Approximate cost of the Weapon/Airgun and Ammunition/Pellets.
4.) Availability in India or Abroad.
5.) Places/Regions where the different categories are generally conducted.
6.) Other Accessories required for a particular Event.

Thank you.

-- Thu Feb 26, 2009 14:33 --

Hello,
Sir, but these queries are still not clear.
2.) The Callibre of Weapon/Airgun required for a particular category.
3.) The Approximate cost of the Weapon/Airgun and Ammunition/Pellets.
4.) Availability in India or Abroad.
Thanks.

-- Thu Feb 26, 2009 14:35 --

Hello,
Sir, but these queries are still not clear.
2.) The Callibre of Weapon/Airgun required for a particular category.
3.) The Approximate cost of the Weapon/Airgun and Ammunition/Pellets.
4.) Availability in India or Abroad.
Thanks.

[dev]

Sagar,

Please try to read up on the ISSF sports for the details that you want. Google ISSF and you will get the rule book and the sports too. All air competitions use a .177 wadcutter pellet. The weight varies between air rifle ammo and air pistol ammo. The air pistols used are normally Morini , Steyr, Feinwerkbau. Air rifles are Anschutz, Walther.
In Standard pistol one uses the .22 Lr round. Centerfire pistol is shot with a .32 caliber bullet.
Pistols vary and you can easily read up about it on the net.

[Subal das]

here is approximate set up for 10m air rifle

rifle Walther Lg300xt alutech (Gagan Narang used same rifle to make few world records, so you can try too) - 90K
Kit custom made by Kapapie (spell) jacket, trousers, boots, glow - 25K
rifle stand - 3K
pellets H&N Match Kugeln Selected Air rifle pellets .177 - 7K (for about 5K of pellets will last for 3-4 month)
targets 2K
suite case for kit -2K
you may need also elevation base for sights - 6K

total inr 135-140K

price can change depending on exchange rate

[gverma]

In case you are interested in 10 m rifle shooting (standing pos). Please reffer to http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12161 and http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12177

[varunik]

Please correct the nrai link. Its wrong almost every where.

It www.thenrai.in and not www.nrai.in