Target shooting, using a shotgun, rifle, or pistol, is popular both as a sport and as practice to hone shooting skills. It has been an Olympic sport for over a century. There are many forms of target shooting using a range of firearms. Shooting ranges can be either indoor or outdoor, with indoor ranges most often found in urban areas.
Target shooting with shotguns uses primarily moving targets such as clay disks thrown by a machine. Target shooting shotguns should have a long barrel and a choke. The choke determines the range of the pellets. A tight choke results in a tighter concentration of pellets. Shotguns can be double barreled, with the two barrels either side by side or one on top of the other.
Rifle target shooting can use a wide variety of targets from paper printed with one or more black or red circles to steel targets that need to be reset after hitting. Target shooting can be done from a prone, standing, sitting, or kneeling position. One of the most popular forms of rifle target shooting is "small bore" where the shooter is credited for shots that hit the center of the bullseye.
In competitive pistol shooting, under International Shooting Union (UIT) rules, the shooter stands and holds the gun in one hand. Target shooting pistols have longer barrels than regular pistols; this increases its accuracy. The target is a black circle on a white background. Some events use pistols that only fire single shoots, while others fire multiple shots, but not usually more than five.
