50 meter pistol, formerly and unofficially still often called Free Pistol, is one of the ISSF shooting events. It is one of the oldest shooting disciplines, dating back to the 19th century and only having seen marginal rule changes since 1936. It is considered to provide some of the purest precision shooting among the pistol events. The target of this event has not changed since 1900, and the 50m distance has remained the standard since 1912. The sport traced back to the beginning of indoor Flobert pistol parlour shooting in Europe during the 1870s.
Most shooters excelling in 50 m pistol also compete at the same level in 10 meter air pistol, a similar precision event. Free pistol was removed from the Olympic programme following the 2016 Olympic Games.
Equipment The pistol used must be chambered in caliber .22 Long Rifle ammunition, may only be loaded with one round at a time, and must have conventional "open" or "iron" sights (i.e. optical and laser sights are not allowed). It must also be held and operated by one hand, the trigger actuated by squeezing (not releasing), and may not be supported by any other part of the shooter's body.
Apart from that, there are practically no rules for the pistol, explaining the former name of the event. Trigger weight may be as low as the shooter pleases, the grip may be designed in any way to enhance comfortable ergonomic fit as long as it does not touch the wrist for support, and there are no restrictions on size and weight. Precision pistols with long barrels, grips fitted to the shooter's hand, very light trigger pull, etc., are often themselves called free pistols.
Competitors have been using the small-bore, rim-fire cartridge since 1908.
Course of fire The course of fire is 60 shots within a maximum time of two hours. The target is the same as in 25 meter center-fire pistol, but at double the distance, resulting in a lower result level. 570 out of the maximum 600 is considered a world-class result. The current world record, 583, was achieved in the World shooting Championships Granada in 2014 by the South Korean Jin Jong-oh. The previous world record of 581 points was scored by Kyrgyzstan-born Alexander Melentyev in the 1980 Moscow games, stood for 34 years, and still remains the Olympic record.
Most of the historic changes concern distance (30m, 50m, 50 yards), caliber (.22 .22lr .44CF), type of pistol (revolver only, revolver or pistol, any pistol), time allowed (16 hours, 6 hours, 3 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour and 15 minutes), and most recently, format of the finals (carry over scores, start from zero, number of shots fired in the finals).
50 m Pistol was officially removed as an Olympic medal event in 2017, making the Rio games of 2016 the last for the "Free Pistol" shooters. However, it is still part of other major ISSF competitions; most notably the World Shooting Championships.
World Championships, Men
Year Place Gold Silver Bronze1900 Paris1901 Luzern1902 Rome1903 Buenos Aires1904 Lyon1905 Brussels1906 Milan1907 Zürich1908 Vienna1909 Hamburg1910 Loosduinen1911 Rome1912 Bayonne Biarritz1913 Camp Perry1914 Viborg1921 Lyon1922 Milan1923 Camp Perry1924 Reims1925 St. Gallen1927 Rome1928 Loosduinen1929 Stockholm1930 Antwerp1931 Lvov1933 Granada1935 Rome1937 Helsinki1939 Luzern1947 Stockholm1949 Buenos Aires1952 Oslo1954 Caracas1958 Moscow1962 Cairo1966 Wiesbaden1970 Phoenix1974 Thun1978 Seoul1982 Caracas1986 Suhl1990 Moscow1994 Milan1998 Barcelona2002 Lahti2006 Zagreb2010 Munich2014 Granada2018 Changwon2022 New Administrative Capital
World Championships, Men Team