Free Pistols are still being made .. ?

[coker]

looking at the new Morninis air pistols we noticed also that Morini keeps making and upgrading its Free Pistol
it seems to me, at least in Europe, Free Pistol competition is still a valid/popular thing... sadly, not so here in the US

any thoughts??

[Gwhite]

The Massachusetts State Olympics, the "Bay State Games" still includes free pistol. There are also occasional local matches. It's not dead, it's just resting...

[FWB_700_Alu]

We are still active here in Germany but its popularity has sure fallen off since its death in 2016.

[BobGee]

We're now down to only three FP regulars at our club of 500+ members.

Our shooting scene is changing. We are a competitive pistol shooting club, just north of Sydney, and traditionally (since founded in 1964) focussed on the Olympic/ISSF disciplines. A lot of the new shooters joining the club now seem (despite all our coaching and training warnings to the contrary) to want to get into centrefire shooting as soon as they can; after their mandatory probationary period is over (during which they shoot AP and Standard or Sport Pistol at 25m, usually not very well) they rush off and buy themselves a Glock or some such 9mm pistol, usually with fixed sights, and a swag of factory ammo. They then come onto the range to try their new acquisitions amongst the ISSF shooters to everyone's annoyance. As might be expected, they have difficulty in even hitting the target and succeed only in pissing everyone else off. It is highly unlikely that they will ever revert to ISSF and, unless someone from our IPSC or Service Pistol fraternity take them under their wing, will eventually leave the sport. We suspect that a number of them get their licence and pistol to keep in the bedside table though having a firearm for self defence is not an allowable Genuine Reason under Australian law.

Sad. Rant over.

Bob

[Grippy]

The development around this is really strange. People always talk about how FP died when it was dropped from the Olympics. Really? That was relevant for 100 people globally that were competing for the 30 or so spots every four years. Why would that cause it to die out at the amateur level?

For that or some other reason the amount of competitions went down a lot though. So while I still shoot FP I don't train it that much since there is like three relevant competitions per year now. I'd like it in theory but the training time is better spent in the 10 and 25m ranges where there is regular competitions. Including more casual ones.

[merlin32]

Bob, I am seeing this a bit in my club as well, though we're a much smaller club in regional vic. Everyone wants to do IPSC. It's me and 1 or 2 other members who are doing ISSF comps. I'd really like to encourage more people to join me in the ISSF comps, but it's just not as cool as IPSC, so I guess I'm probably seen as the ISSF nerd... It suits me, particularly air pistol. And, I also don't want to spend a fortune on ammo and spend all of my evenings reloading! Not to mention, I'm also not keen on putting myself in the orthopaedic ward after I trip and fall on an IPSC stage.

[Mike M.]

The precision shooting sports are under pressure from the Taktikewl Tommies. All over the world.

[FWB_700_Alu]

Laser Guns are being pushed really hard here in Germany. Lead free ammo is also being pushed and even partly accepted by the Gun "Lobbys".

[sparky]

The development around this is really strange. People always talk about how FP died when it was dropped from the Olympics. Really? That was relevant for 100 people globally that were competing for the 30 or so spots every four years. Why would that cause it to die out at the amateur level?

For that or some other reason the amount of competitions went down a lot though. So while I still shoot FP I don't train it that much since there is like three relevant competitions per year now. I'd like it in theory but the training time is better spent in the 10 and 25m ranges where there is regular competitions. Including more casual ones.

There are a few factors that probably play into this:

1. While few go to the Olympics, some countries with more draconian gun laws only allow firearms that are used in Olympic events. For them, no more free pistol event means no more free pistols, so no more local competitions.

2. While few go to the Olympics, lots of folks like to imagine that if they practice enough, they might be able to do well enough to qualify one day. With the event gone, that dream dies, along with the will to practice for it.

3. With it gone from the Olympics, it's largely faded from the limelight, so fewer newer shooters will know about it, so fewer folks will start shooting it.

[Grippy]

I guess so. It's lots of compounding factors. I have this slightly cynical theory that many of the organizations involved think all their legitimacy comes from the sport being in the Olympics. So they tunnel vision on that and deprioritize everything that isn't an Olympic event?

I never really buy anything like the third point. What "limelight"? Not even people that are into shooting actively follow international competition in my experience. On Olympic broadcasts it usually barely makes it into some summary segment and you only ever see the finals televised when an athlete of the broadcasters country is competing for medals. I highly doubt too many people watched FP finals and then went straight to that as their sport of choice. The sport gets something like 10minutes of broadcast time in total every four years.

Here in Switzerland 25m pistol is probably the most popular of the small bore pistol events. But it's only an Olympic event for women. In fact not only is it not an Olympic event for men. It's not an event for men at all as far as the ISSF is concerned. There are no European or World championships for it. Yet in terms of participation on the local amateur level it beats out every single other event other than air pistol. Standard pistol is highly exotic. So is centerfire (there it's understandable since you need different equipment and ammo is ruinously expensive). And Olympic rapid fire is basically nonexistent at the amateur level.

I just feel "well it's not in the Olympics" is not really a sufficient explanation by itself. Was this an event no one really liked and just put up with because of the status? Is it a logistics issue being the only 50m pistol event? Is it too hard (it has the lowest scores typically)? Is needing a special pistol too much of an imposition?

[gn303]

Abolishing free pistol from the Olympics was the most 'anti-gun' rule that ISSF has ever taken (so far ?). David Levene told me that it was because ISSF wanted to have the same number of disciplines for men and women. But free pistol was exactly that! It was FREE for men and women. Luckily some still organize 50 m pistol events. There still may be hope.
The problem is (especially in my country Belgium) the lack of 50 m ranges.

[Grippy]

Was that really the ISSFs will? I highly doubt they would intentionally reduce the number of Olympic events. I always heard it as the IOC requiring that the number of shooting events be reduced and the ISSF had to name their least favorite child. At the same time they also dropped Double Trap and 50m Prone Rifle. Dropping FP sorta made sense from the perspective that it's somewhat redundant with 10m AP compared to the 25m events.

[Gwhite]

I think part of it was that they had to make room for the "team" events with men & women.

[rmca]

This topic has been debated to death...
15 - Olympic shooting events divided like this until 2016:
5 - Pistol (3 men + 2 women)
5 - Rifle (3 men + 2 women)
5 - Shotgun (3 men + 2 women)
IOC (International Olympic Committee) wants (demands!) equal number of events for men and women.
5 doesn't divide by men and women equally...
Result, Pistol, Rifle and Shotgun gave up a men's event and all added a mix team event.
This brings us to the current state of affairs, 2 men, 2 women and one mix team for all three disciplines.
I don't think the solution was the best, but it was what most countries agreed too at the ISSF meting that changed the rules.
Turning the event that was demoted into a mix team event would be a better solution in my view.

Hope this helps