ISSF Air Pistol

The Air Pistol match is a slow-ire match demanding similar levels of precision to Free Pistol except that it is shot at 10m on a target with a 12mm bullseye. The match consists of 60 shots in the open event and 40 shots for ladies and juniors.

Air Pistol is a great teacher of handgun shooting fundamentals, as the highly accurate handguns with their minimum allowable trigger weight of 500g are easy to control and have no recoil. They are also very economical to shoot and are noiseless compared to cartridge firearms.

There are three types of Air Pistol operating systems used on target air arms: spring and piston, pneumatic and gas powered. All spring and piston
handguns have to have some recoil compensating system built into the mechanism to dampen recoil. The pneumatic air arms have a built-in pump
that highly compresses air into a pressure chamber, from where it is released with a trigger-operated valve. These types of handguns require more cocking effort than the others. The gas-operated systems use carbon dioxide (CO2) and are easy to operate, but require a separate gas supply and can be lucky in extreme weather conditions.

All good-quality target air handguns have adjustable grips, sights and triggers and are highly reined shooting tools that leave the shooter in no doubt who is at fault if scores are down.
Most Air Pistol ranges are indoors and this offers shooters the advantage of shooting of an evening and getting plenty of low-cost practice.