Paralympic Shooting Events

Shooting has been a Paralympic Sport since the Toronto Paralympic Games in 1976 and Great Britain has won medals in every Paralympics since then.

Four different types of weapon are used: rifle, pistol, air rifle and air pistol.  The air weapons are powered by a compressed air cylinder which forces .177 (inch) pellets out of the gun, while the firearms shoot .22 cartridges.

There are 12 shooting events in the Paralympics – five with the air rifle, three with the rifle, and two each for the pistol and air pistol. 

All the air rifle events are 10m and take place indoors. The standing events are split into SH1 (men and women) and SH2 (mixed), while both prone categories (SH1 & SH2) are mixed. 

The air pistol events are also 10m indoors, split into men and women, while the pistol events take place outside and feature mixed groups shooting at targets of 25m and 50m. The rifle events are all 50m and held outside, with a mixed prone event and separate three position competitions for men and women.

Rifle and air rifle competitors can compete in the standing (the elbows are not supported so the competitors have to support the weight of the rifle themselves), the prone (elbows are supported on a table) and 3-Position (prone, standing and kneeling). 

In the men’s and mixed competitions, shooters fire 60 rounds, while in the women’s events they shoot 40. The men's three position event sees 40 shots in each position, making 120 in total, while the women's equivalent is 20 in each position.

The top eight shooters from qualification progress to a 10-shot final where  decimal scores are used to separate the shooters. 

There are different sized targets for each distance and weapon type, but all feature 10 concentric rings - with the centre worth a maximum 10 points.