Shooting Sport Organizations

• Accuracy Shooting
• Distance Shooting
• Action Shooting
• Combat Shooting
• Practical Shooting
• Tactical Shooting
• Non-Standard Shooting
• Olympic Shooting

• Youth Shooting Sports

History of Shooting Sports

• 1831 • First recorded Trap Shooting Match – Cincinnati, Ohio (used live pigeons)
• 1860 • National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom (NRA) founded
• 1860 • First recorded Pistol Match
• 1860 • Glass balls used as targets in Trap Shooting
• 1865 • Buffalo Bill Cody began Pistol Shooting Exhibitions
• 1871 • National Rifle Association founded
• 1872 • Creedmoor range opened, in New York
• 1873 • United States National Rifle Team
• 1876 • first PALMA Trophy Match held at Creedmoor Range, New York
• 1880 • Clay Birds (disks) invented by Fred Kimble (credited to George Ligowsky)
• 1882 •  NRA’s matches moved to Sea Girt, New Jersey (Creedmoor Range closes)
• 1885 • First national trapshoot in New Orleans
• 1892 -1919: Interstate Trapshooting Association ITA
• 1896 • First modern Olympic Games with nine sports in Greece
   (4 pistol events & 2 high-power rifle events)
• 1897 • First World Shooting Championships
• 1900 • U.S. Revolver Association founded
• 1903 • Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) founded
• 1904 • One of only Two Olympics where there were no Shooting Competitions
• 1906 • NRA’s youth program in full swing
• 1906 • Camp Perry founded
• 1907 • International Shooting Union (UIT) founded (U.S. joined in 1908)
• 1907 • First NRA national matches held at Camp Perry, Ohio
• 1908 • U.S. joined International Shooting Union (UIT)
• 1909 • First automatic trap machine to launch clay targets
• 1910 • Skeet Shooting originated
• 1910 • Boy Scouts of America incorporated 
  – “Marksman” was one of the first 14 Badges of Merit
• 1912 • Jay Graham, 1st American to win gold medal in doubles trap
• 1915 • American Amateur Trapshooting Association (AATA) founded
• 1919 • American Amateur Trapshooting Association (AATA) disbanded & absorbed by American Trapshooting Association
• 1923 • American Trapshooting Association renamed Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA)
• 1926 • first National Skeet Championship
• 1928 • National Skeet Shooting Association (NSSA) founded
• 1928 • One of only Two Olympics where there were no Shooting Competitions
• 1928 • Missouri Sport Shooting Association
• 1920s • Rhode Island Trapshooting Association
• 1931 • Pacific International Trapshooting Association (PITA) founded
• 1933 • National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMRA)
• 1948 • Olympic Team Shooting contests were eliminated by the UIT.
• 1948 • first silhouette match that used steel targets instead of livestock was held in Mexico City
• 1950s • “Leather Slap” pistol Competitions start
  – Jack Weaver starts shooting two handed
• 1956 • United States Army Marksmanship Unit
• 1958 • First Women’s Events at the World Shooting Championships
• 1964 • Southwest Combat Pistol League (SWCPL)
  – later Southwest Pistol League (SWPL)
• 1962 first NRA National Police Revolver Championships (NPRC)
• 1968 • Tucson Rifle Club introduced silhouette shooting into the U.S.
• 1970 • National Skeet Shooters Association Hall of Fame
• 1970 • International Benchrest Shooters (IBS)
• 1973 • NRA recognized silhouette as an official shooting discipline
• 1973 • First National Silhouette Championships 
• 1976 • Paralympic Shooting
• 1976 • World Fast Draw Association
• 1976 • International Practical Shooting Confederation
• 1976 • International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Assoc (IHMSA)
• 1976 • Margaret Thompson Murdock first markswoman in history to win an Olympic medal (men and women competed against her)
• 1976 • Gunsite Academy founded (1st shooting school)
• 1978 • Amateur Sports Act – provides governing bodies for each Olympic sport
• 1978 • NRA selected as sole governing body for Olympic-style shooting in U.S.
• 1978 • NRA’s International Competitions Committee (ICC) founded
• 1979 • U.S. Olympic Shooting Center begins in Colorado Springs, Colorado
• 1980 • National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
• 1981 • Steel Challenge (SCSA)
• 1981 • Single Action Shooting Society (SASS)
• 1984 • Olympic has three separate women’s events
• 1984 • Pat Spurgin first markswoman in history to win Olympic Gold medal
• 1984 • United States Practical Shooting Association
• 1985 • Fifty Caliber Shooters Association
• 1988 • 4-H Shooting Sports
• 1989 • National Sporting Clays Association
• 1990 • American Legion Junior Shooting Sports Program
• 1990 • USPSA is won with a Red Dot
• 1991 • U.S. International Shooting Hall of Fame established
• 1991 • International Confederation of Revolver Enthusiasts
• 1991 • GLOCK Sport Shooting Foundation (GSSF) started
• 1994 • Military Marksmanship Association (MMA)
• 1995 • USA Shooting was formed
• 1990s • Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association (CMSA)
• 1996 • International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) founded
• 1996 • Civilian Marksmanship Program
• 1990s • National Benchrest Shooters Association (NBSA)
• 1998 • Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA)
• 1999 • U.S. Veterans Rifle Team
• 1999 • DIVA Women Outdoors Worldwide
• 2000 • Scholastic Clay Target Program
• 2000 – 2010 • Sharing of information on the internet
• 2001 • Mounted Shooters of America (MSA)
• 2003 • International Confederation of Fullbore Rifle Associations
• 2005 • American Confederation of Tactical Shooters (ACTS)
• 2005 • Great American Defensive Pistol Association
• 2006 • Project Appleseed began
• 2007 • Youth Shooting Sports Alliance
• 2007 • NRA National Police Shooting Championships 
• 2009 • 3-Gun Nation
• 2010 • STRIDE Adaptive Sports
• 2010 – 2020 • Sharing of video & techniques on the internet
• 2010 • A Girl & A Gun
• 2012 • United States Carbine Association (USCA)
• 2012 • Precision Rifle Series (PRS)
• 2015 • Revere’s Riders
• 2016 • United Mounted Shooters
• 2017 • NRA Adaptive Shooting
• 2018 • United Shooting Sports Leagues
• 2018 • Rimfire Challenge Shooting Association

1964 photo: Ray Chapman, Elden Carl, Thell Reed, Jeff Cooper, and Jack Weaver
taken by San Diego Sheriff’s Department crime lab technician Bennie Ramsey
September/October 1986 issue of American Handgunner Magazine
https://topgunmotorcycles.com/new/?p=1465

• William “Bill” Foster
  – co- invented skeet shooting
• Charles Davis
  – co- invented skeet shooting

Great Resources: