Bullseye and Pierced Apples: The History of Shooting Sports
Humans possess a wondrous ability to turn every activity into a competition. Not that it is necessarily bad – we need to entertain ourselves, and many of the current competitive sports were once activities vital for our survival. The fastest person had more chances to run away, while the strongest and the most precise were the best hunters and brought more food back. Seeing somebody excelling at what they do may be an inspiring and fascinating sight to behold. So as showing the results of many-years hard and dedicated work. While one person holds their breath before making the winning shot, others watch the process with trepidation. And there is something very special about shooting sports, something that both participants and spectators can feel. And even if there is no competition involved, the element of recreation is always present.
But how old are shooting sports? Calling them a relatively new invention would be far from the truth, but at which point did they become a separate discipline? Is shooting a part of the Olympics? One humble online sports store has prepared this article to shed some light on the topic.
Arcum Et Sagitta: Shooting in Ancient Times
It would be very presumptuous of us to claim that our ancestors used bows and arrows for hunting and fighting only. People might think that our predecessors were dull and had no idea how to have fun. Sure thing, archery allowed them to acquire food and raw materials more safely since they could afford to stay far from the target and had fewer chances of being injured. But if they were creative enough to come up with a way to turn a stick and a string into a weapon, there’s no way they wouldn’t turn it into a recreational activity.
What started as a simple bet to shoot farther, faster, or more precisely than the others soon transformed into a competition. And where there is a competition, there are those willing to look at it. There are records of Chinese nobles attending sports archery tournaments, dating back to the times of the Zhou dynasty (1027-256 BC). Homer’s Iliad, written sometime around 800 BC., tells us a story of how Achilles holds a feast to commemorate his late friend. The celebration includes, among other things, an archery competition to hit a pigeon tied to a ship mast. The historical proofs are not that numerous, but it is safe to assume people began conducting shooting tournaments at least three thousand years ago.
Bolts, Arrows, and Musket Balls: Shooting in Middle Ages
Even though the earliest mentions of crossbows in China and Greece go back to BC times, it wasn’t until the 10th century that they became referenced in Europe. They were mentioned as weapons during the sieges of several French cities in the 10th century, made an appearance in the battle of Hastings, and became usual battlefield weapons by the 12th century.
Crossbows replaced hand bows in many European armies, but England remained true to its traditions. Beginning with the reign of William the Conqueror in 1066, longbows remained the primary weapon of the English for many centuries. It is hard to overestimate the importance of archery in the life of British people. King Edward issued a royal decree in 1363, obliging all Englishmen to practice archery on Sundays and holidays while abolishing football and ‘other vain games of no value.’ Many shooting techniques were developed at that time, resulting in the appearance of new shooting contests. Some techniques were progenitors of what we see today in sports archery.
One of those techniques is clout shooting. It is different from regular hitting the mark shooting in that the arrows are arched high into the air to score the target that lays horizontal, not vertical. This variety of shooting survived to our days and is often practiced with traditional bows.
Another style that is somewhat similar to modern-day golf is roving. Archers chose some natural targets on the field, like tree stumps or anthills, and shot from one to the next. The goal was to complete the whole course with the minimum amount of arrows shot.
Last but not least, traditional ‘butt’ shooting. And no, it didn’t involve people as living targets. Butts were man-made earth mounds, clad with turf, that archers shoot. They were permanent features in towns and villages and made for free yet long-lasting targets for practicing.
Even though crossbows and longbows served humanity well for many a millennium, the course of time is irrevocable. Firearms were destined to become their substitute and change the way battles are fought. With that, they also brought more variety to the world of shooting competitions. Matchlocks were introduced at the beginning of the 15th century and became universally used by the 16th. The first recorded shooting competition involving matchlocks took place in 1477 in Bavaria. At this event, people competed at target shooting from 220 yards. The Swiss painting of 1504 depicts a modern tournament setup, with contestants using rifles for shooting.
A World Trip Around Shooting Milestones
It’s not an easy task to determine which shooting club was the first to appear. We won’t be bold in our claims so as not to misinform you and will only give a brief review of the shooting clubs and events development in some places of the world.
Russia
In 1737, Russian empress Anna established a target shooting range at her court. At the time, live birds often served as targets for competitive shooters all over the world. The Empress granted the most proficient marksmen chalices, embellished with gold and jewels. Such royal shooting competitions soon became a tradition. In 1806 military officers founded the Society of Shooting Amateurs in St. Petersburg. In some thirty years, the first public shooting range saw the light of day in the same city. By the end of the 1850s, more public shooting grounds opened. The end of the century witnessed the birth of several organized shooting societies, including the Russian Athletic Society, the St. Petersburg Club of Sports Amateurs, the St. Petersburg Society of Salon Shooting, and the Riga Shooting Society.
America
The history of American shooting tradition is intertwined with the American frontier. It began when German and Swiss rifle makers began producing flintlock guns around 1710. They helped colonists proceed westward and were extremely useful for self-protection and hunting. Clearly, target shooting was also a part of their routine. And where there is target shooting, there is a competition. The initial contests included target shooting, with prizes being beef, turkey, and other provisions. Practically every settlement hosted shooting matches on weekends and holidays. By 1830, both heavily populated East and Midwest witnessed the foundation of shooting clubs. In 1871 National Guard officers founded the renowned National Rifle Association to give shooters a place to enhance their marksmanship.
1825 was the year trap shooting was introduced. With live pigeons as the targets at the time, the first recorded match was conducted in Ohio in 1831. Soon live targets were replaced by artificial ones: people were to shoot glass balls stuffed with feathers but later switched to clay targets. Trapshooting remains one of the three main disciplines of competitive clay pigeon shooting, the other two being skeet shooting and sporting clays.
Skeet shooting was also born in America, approximately in the 1910s. It was introduced as a simulation of upland game shooting. Whereas in trapshooting the targets are launched from a single launching machine, skeet shooting involves firing at targets, launched from two different machines in sideway paths, that intersect in front of the shooter.
Great Britain
Even though historically target and game shooting was the activity heavily dominated by the upper-class and the gentry, with time, its availability increased. By the 1800s, target shooting became a popular sport, with the first book dedicated to the subject published in 1808. Great Britain’s National Rifle Association appeared 12 years before its American namesake. The initial target was to raise funds for an annual national rifle meeting and to ‘promote and encourage marksmanship throughout the Queen’s dominions.’
Olympic Firearm: How shooting became an Olympic sport
You couldn’t call it a mere coincidence that the person who founded the International Olympic Committee was an avid marksman himself. Inspired by the Olympian Games, held by the Wenlock Olympian Society in 1890, Pierre de Coubertin proposed establishing internationally rotating Olympic Games that would take place once every four years. The idea was approved by the members of the first Olympic Congress, and the first games were conducted in 1896. The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens became the venue of this remarkable event. The Games brought together more than 240 athletes who competed in nine sports. Shooting, unsurprisingly, was one of them. Throughout the history of the Olympics, it was absent from the sports list only five times.
It would be unjust not to pay tribute to the predecessor of the shooting. Archery debuted at the 1900 Summer Olympics and has been contested sixteen times. There was a long break between 1920 and 1972 since no generally accepted rules were established, but after the standardization of the rules, the sport has returned to the Games.
Throughout the Olympics, American sportsmen have earned the most medals in shooting, outpacing China with almost twice the amount of awards. The USA also enjoys a second place in the total amount of medals for archery. Olympic Games have played a crucial role in the popularization of shooting as a sport. Today, there are dozens of International and hundreds of national tournaments held annually. The International Shooting Sports Federation alone has 24 championships planned for 2022. And there are countless shooting tournaments currently held in America.
Shooting sports have been part of our lives for thousands of years. They have changed their forms and means but never stopped being close. Today, the variety of instruments and styles cannot but fascinate every passionate shooter.