ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol


25 metre rapid fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events and is shot with.22 LR pistols. The event has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after which they were only slightly changed until the two major revisions of 1989 and 2005. The latter restricted the event to sport pistols, thereby banning.22 Short cartridges as well as encircling grips and low trigger-pull weight. This caused a decline in results, as evidenced by a comparison of the world records under the pre-2005 rules and post-2005 rules.
Instead of dropping specialized rapid fire pistols, manufacturers designed new pistols, such as the Walther SSP, conforming to the standard pistol requirements, but optimized for the rapid fire event.

Course of fire

Traditionally, RFP competitions use paper targets that are able to turn 90 degrees to appear to the shooter and then turn back to disappear when the shooting time is up. During the last few decades, these targets have gradually been replaced by electronic devices which use red and green lights to indicate the beginning and the end of the shooting time, and which automatically handle late shots. As these systems are expensive, they are normally only used in international competitions.
A series consists of five shots fired at one target each within a limited time. The targets stand next to each other at a 25 m distance from the shooter. As with all ISSF pistol disciplines, all firing must be done with one unsupported hand. When the targets appear or when the green light comes on, the competitor must raise his arm from a 45 degree angle starting position and fire his five shots. If a shot is too late, it will score as a miss.
There are three different time limits for the series: 8 seconds, 6 seconds, and 4 seconds. A stage consists of two series of each type, and a full course of fire comprises two such stages, or a total of 60 shots. Since the targets are divided into concentric score zones with 10 being the most central part, the total maximum score is 600.
In major competitions, the top six shooters qualify for a final round of four additional 4-second series, with a shot scoring at or above 9.7 being counted as a hit, or a miss otherwise. The results of the qualification round and the final are added together, and any ties are broken by firing an additional 4-second series.

World Championships, Men

YearPlaceGoldSilverBronze
1933 Granada
1935 Rome
1937 Helsinki
1939 Luzern
1947 Stockholm
1949 Buenos Aires
1952 Oslo
1954 Caracas
1958 Moscow
1962 Cairo
1966 Wiesbaden
1970 Phoenix
1974 Thun
1978 Seoul
1982 Caracas
1986 Suhl
1990 Moscow
1994 Milan
1998 Barcelona
2002 Lahti
2006 Zagreb
2010 Munich
2014 Granada
2018 Changwon

World Championships, Men Team

World Championships, total medals

Current world records

Olympic and World Champions

The dominant shooter of the event has been Ralf Schumann of Germany with a total of five major World-level Championship titles, with three Olympic gold medals and two Individual World titles. He is the first and one of the only two shooters to have won a particular Olympic event three times, and is the first of three shooters to have won three individual Olympic titles. Karoly Takacs and Jozef Zapedzki also won two consecutive Olympic titles. Huelet Benner won two consecutive World Championships.
A rare double is that between this rapid fire event and its direct opposite 50 metre pistol; this has only been accomplished by Alfred Lane, Torsten Ullman, Huelet Benner and Pentti Linnosvuo, with Lane and Linnosvuo using only Olympic titles. Benner, on the other hand, is the only shooter with two titles in both events.