What are Shooting Sports?
A collective group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in using various types of ranged weapons, mainly referring to firearms (such as handguns, rifles and shotguns).
Shooting sports may involve both team and individual competition, and team performance is usually assessed by summing the scores of the individual team members. Due to the noise of shooting and the high (and often lethal) impact energy of the projectiles, shooting sports are typically conducted at either designated permanent shooting ranges or temporary shooting fields in the area away from settlements.
Handguns are usually either semi-automatic pistols, single shot target pistols or revolvers. They have a shorter effective range and less accuracy compared to long guns such as rifles.
A rifle is a long gun with a rifled barrel, and requires the use of both hands to hold and brace against the shoulder via a stock in order to shoot steadily. They generally have a longer range and greater accuracy than handguns, and are popular for hunting. In shooting sports, bolt action rifles are the most commonly used, and semi-automatic rifles are generally not allowed with the exception of a few small-caliber and practical shooting disciplines.
A shotgun is smoothbore and larger in caliber, and typically fires either a shell containing many smaller scattering sub-projectiles called shots. In shooting sports, the majority of shotgun events are included in clay pigeon shooting.