American Style Rules

In general, the rules follow NRA established regulations which have varied over the years.

The following summarized rules depict the most common matches. Because of specialty matches and individually applied rules, these will not be addressed.

Smallbore Prone: Olympic events do not permit optical sights; however, some matches do allow scopes. Ammo limited to standard velocity 22 long rifle. Time limit of one minute per shot and number of shots is generally 60.

Smallbore Position: Same as SB Prone except that the time limits are: Prone - one minute, Kneeling - one and one-half minutes, Standing - two minutes. On occasion, the match may also contain the Sit position.

Highpower Rifle: Generally accepted course of fire is 20 shots Prone with one minute per shot, Rapid Fire Prone & Rapid Fire Sitting with 70 seconds & 10 shots each, including a reload of 8 for the Garand or 5 for other semi-auto rifles and bolt actions and Standing 10 shots with one minute per shot. Range of fire: Prone 600 yards, 300 yards Rapid Prone and 200 yards for Sitting & Standing or reduced targets when the shooting range can't provide the proper yardages.

Pistol - Rim Fire 22 and Center Fire: Generally accepted course of fire is either 10 or 20 shots each in Slow, Timed and Rapid. Slow permits one minute per shot at 50 yards, Timed allows 20 seconds per 5 shot string and Rapid allows 10 seconds per 5 shot string, these at 25 yards.

Trap: Fired from 16 to 27 yards based on the competitor's handicap or as designated by the match director for a particular match. The shotgun may be in a mounted position prior to calling for the target and only one shot per target permitted, except in Doubles. The target must be presented immediately upon the call. The competitor fires 5 shots each from 5 different positions but there is only one target throwing machine, as opposed to International Trap. Total targets per match segment is 25 and the customary match consists of 100 targets per competitor.

Skeet: Contains 8 stations located in a semi- circular range. The competitor will normally singularly fire one shot each from the low and high house and then fire a double with a low and a high house target simultaneously in the air from Station One. This is repeated from Station Two. Station Three, Four and Five have no doubles. Station Six and Seven are the same as One and Two. Station Eight is in the center of the field in line with the low and high houses and requires two singular shots. Because the course of fire is 25 targets, the competitor now has the option of taking his 25th target from any Station he chooses; however, if he has missed a target along the way, that missed shot is taken as his option. The shotgun may be in the mounted position and there is no 3 second delay.