NRA Sets the Record Straight

How many National Records do you think NRA’s Competitive Shooting Division keeps track of, 50? 100? Higher than that. 500? 800? Keep going. 1,000? You’ll get there eventually.

The National Rifle Association keeps track of nearly 7,000 national shooting records.

Yeah, that’s a lot of records. But once broken down the number makes sense.

NRA doesn’t just keep track of “pistols” and “rifles.” There’s Air Pistol, Action Pistol, High Power Rifle, Silhouette Pistol, Smallbore Rifle, Fullbore and so many more. From there it breaks down even further.

Records must keep track of metallic sight, any sight, rapid fire, slow fire, prone, standing and all the variations of ways to shoot. Don’t forget about shooting indoor, outdoor, distance and number of shots fired. You must also take into account these records being stored for both individuals and teams. Lastly, each of these records are kept for all of the possible categories a shooter can be classified as: Open, Civilian, Service, Woman, Junior, Senior, Police, etc.

It all adds up very quick and before you know it there is a mountain’s worth of records and certificates to keep track of. Go to Competitive Shooting’s National Records site for yourself and play around with the different combinations of searches.

Each time a new record comes in it must be verified and checked against the archive. And with nearly 7,000 records and NRA sanctioning over 11,000 tournaments each year, there are always new requests coming in.

It’s a lot of work, but our Competitive Shooting staff gets it done. Do you think you have what it takes to set a National Record? See any you think you can break? You better get out to the range and start practicing because you’re going up against the greatest names in the history of the shooting sports. With enough practice and a little luck your name could be up there too one day.

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NRAblog covers the 178 programs of the National Rifle Association. Whether it's the Youth Hunter Education Challenge, Women On Target, Hunters Rights, our National Competitions or a look at one of the thousands of guns in the National Firearms Museum, NRAblog is there to provide you an inside look to how it all happens at the NRA.