25m Precision and 50m Pistol Target: Ring Sizes, Disciplines and Scoring

Where this target is used

The precision face appears in two ISSF disciplines:

• 25m pistol (women): an Olympic event since 1984, shot with a .22 sport pistol. It has two stages of 30 shots. In the precision stage you fire six series of five shots, five minutes per series, on this face. In the rapid-fire stage the shots are timed, in series of five, with each shot in a short window of about three seconds. The top eight go to a final of four rapid-fire series.
• 50m pistol: also called free pistol. It is shot with a .22 LR pistol, 60 shots in two hours, with open sights. The face is the same as at 25 m, at twice the distance. It was on the Olympic programme until 2016 and remains an ISSF event.

The men's Olympic 25m event is rapid fire pistol, which uses a different face designed for timed shooting. SportShooting does not include it. The only timed and rapid-fire face in the app is the NRA B-8.

Same face, different difficulty

At 50 m a hold that wobbles by the same amount lands five times as far from the centre as at 10 m, and the 10 ring does not get any bigger. To compare the disciplines fairly, scale each limit to what it would be at 10 m. The table shows how close the hole centre has to be to the middle of the target for a 10, and the same distance scaled to 10 m.

The last column is simple geometry: the 10 ring radius plus the hole radius, multiplied by 10 m and divided by the distance. It shows why 50m pistol is considered the hardest of the three: the limit for a 10 is equivalent to 5.6 mm at 10 m, about 30 percent tighter than on air pistol (8.0 mm) and half of 25m precision. Perfect scores are rare. A result of 570 out of 600 is regarded as world class in 50m pistol, which is an average of 9.5 per shot.

The same score at 10 m, 25 m and 50 m

The benchmarks on the 10m air pistol page are specific to 10 m. To compare, the table turns an average score per shot into the typical distance from the centre in millimetres, with inches in brackets. For 25 m and 50 m it also shows what the same miss would amount to at 10 m, because that is what your hold has to deliver. All figures are estimates derived from the ring sizes, for centred groups, not measured studies.

Two things stand out. At 50 m a given score equals a miss about 40 percent smaller at 10 m than the same score on air pistol, so the same 9.0 average takes a steadier hold (like 8 mm at 10 m, against 12 mm). And 25 m and 50 m have identical rings, so the 50 m shooter has to be twice as steady for the same score.

The 50m pistol world record is 583 out of 600, set by Jin Jong-oh in 2014. That is an average of 9.7 per shot and a typical distance of about 20 mm from the centre. At 10 m the same hold would put the shots only about 4 mm from the centre, tighter than the typical shot of an international air pistol shooter. At 50 m the pistol and the ammunition set their own limit on how tight a group can be, and outdoor ranges add wind and changing light, so the arm is not the only variable.

One more rule applies at all three distances: ISSF pistol events are shot with one hand, unsupported. Benchmarks from two-handed shooting are not comparable.

Beginner versus advanced on the precision face

• Beginner: shots spread across rings 6 to 9 with large vertical dispersion, and the group changes between series. Shooters who come from air pistol often anticipate the recoil of a .22 and jerk the pistol just before the shot.
• Advanced: a group that is much narrower than the black, a centre that barely moves, and an average of 9 or more per shot. They manage breathing and the five-minute series limit so they do not rush the last shots.

These are rules of thumb. Logging each series is the practical way to see which of the two descriptions fits you better, and whether you are improving.

Ring sizes at a glance

The 10 ring is 50 mm in diameter, and every ring outward adds 50 mm, up to 500 mm for the 1 ring. The black aiming area is 200 mm across, covering rings 7 to 10. A 25 mm inner-ten circle is printed in the middle. SportShooting draws it, but scores all hits inside the 10 ring as 10.

Metric and US targets

ISSF events, including every Olympic pistol event, are specified in millimetres and metres, so this guide and the tables above use metric units. US target shooting under NRA rules uses inches and yards instead. Ring sizes are quoted in inches, and the distance is 25 yards (22.86 m) or 50 yards rather than 25 m or 50 m. Conversions are 25.4 mm to the inch and 0.9144 m to the yard, so 10 m is about 10.9 yards, 25 m about 27.3 yards and 50 m about 54.7 yards. The 10m air pistol face is the same in every country, because air pistol is shot at 10 m everywhere.

The one US face in SportShooting is the NRA B-8, the 25 yard timed and rapid fire target. Its rings are much larger than the ISSF faces. The black bullseye is 5.54 in across and covers the 9, 10 and X rings. The X ring is a tie-break marker and scores 10. The face ends at the 5 ring.

Gauging on a larger target

The same rule as on the air pistol target applies: a shot scores the higher ring if the edge of the hole touches the line. SportShooting subtracts the hole radius from the shot's distance to the centre before choosing the ring. The app uses a 4.5 mm hole on all targets, which is exact for air pellets and a little small for .22 bullets (5.6 mm). If a result matters for a competition, gauge the paper target itself.

Using it in SportShooting

1. Start a session and pick the distance: 25 m or 50 m.
2. Swipe to the ISSF precision target for that distance.
3. Optionally enter the pistol and ammunition. The app remembers them for next time.
4. Shoot, then add a round: take a reference photo or skip it, and tap each hole on the replica target.
5. Review the score, ring counts and group measurements, then save the round.

Logging the distance with each round keeps your 25 m and 50 m results from getting mixed up. For what the group measurements mean, read shot group analysis. For the 10 m air pistol target, see 10m air pistol scoring.

Score 25m and 50m targets on iPhone

ISSF ring geometry, group statistics and a session history. No account needed.

Download on the App Store

Frequently asked questions

Related: digital shooting logbook and all guides.