National Shooting Championship 2025: Record 16,000+ shooters set to participate in Delhi and Bhopal

The 68th National Shooting Championship features dedicated categories for Para-athletes and Deaf athletes.

The 68th National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) got underway in Delhi at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range, with a record 16,000 plus shooters qualifying to participate across categories in rifle, pistol and shotgun events.

The NSCC traditionally heralds the beginning of a new season for Indian shooting and Group 5 Trap qualifiers in the Shotgun discipline were the first to fire. The previous 67th National Shooting Championship saw 13,522 shooters qualify.

All top Indian shooters have entered the fray and the schedule, spread over one month, has been finalized, keeping in mind the ISSF World Cup Finals, which will take place in Doha between Dec 04-09 and where 15 Indians have qualified to compete.

Along with Shotgun, the Pistol events will also be conducted at the Karni Singh Ranges while the Rifleevents will be held at Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy in Bhopal.

The Pistol events will begin on 11th December and will run until 4th January, 2026, while the Rifle eventswill also start on 11th December and conclude on 2nd January, 2026. The Shotgun nationals will runthroughout December and conclude on 5th January, 2026.

The competitions will be conducted in seven categories including Super Masters (70 years and above).Senior Masters (60-70 years), Masters (45-60 years), Seniors (Open), Juniors (21 years), Youth (19 yearsor before), Sub-Youth (16 years or before) in all three disciplines.

Regardless of the category or categories under which the shooters have registered, each athlete is permitted to shoot only once throughout the competition but their scores will be counted towards any other category they have registered. The competition will also feature dedicated categories for Para-athletes and Deaf athletes.

Also Read: Deaflympics 2025: Indian shooters wrap cmpaign with 16 medals in Tokyo

The athletes who took part in the 66th and 67th National Shooting Championship, Zonal Championships 2025, 34 th G.V Mavlankar Shooting Championship 2025, India Open Competitions 2025 and 27th All India Kumar Surendra Singh Shooting Championships 2025 and have achieved qualifying scores as per Rule 17.6 of NRAI Match Book are allowed to participated in the 68th National Shooting Championship.

All top shooters of the country will be participating in the nationals, whose scores will be counted whenthe Indian team for the 2026 international season is picked.

A total of 40 teams will be represented at the nationals, including almost all states and union territories as well as those representing the armed forces of the country and public institutions like the ONGC and the Railways.

The Women and Junior Women Skeet finals will be held on 13th December and the Men and Junior Menfinals will be held on 16th December. The mixed team events for both seniors and juniors will be held on17th December.

In Trap, the finals for Women, Junior Women and Junior Men will be held on 29th December and theMen’s final will be held on 2nd January, 2026.

The mixed team finals will be held on 3rd January, 2026 and the Shotgun events will come to a conclusion on 5th January, 2026 with the double trap events.

The Pistol events will kick-start on 11th December with the qualification rounds of the 10m Air Pistol and25m Sports events. The finals of the 25m Pistol event will be held on 15th December and the 10m AirPistol finals will be held on 18th December.

The 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s qualification will start on 23rd December and finals will be held on 26thDecember. The qualifying rounds of the men’s 10m Air Pistol will start on 20th December and will go onuntil 4 th January, 2026, with the finals scheduled on the same day.

The 10m Mixed Team finals will be held on 19th December. Finals will be conducted only for theOlympic events and the non-Olympic medals will be decided based on the qualification rounds.

The Rifle Nationals commence in Bhopal on 11th December, with the qualification rounds of the men’s10m Air Rifle Men and 50m Rifle 3Positions Men events.

The finals of the 50m Rifle 3P will be held on 16th December and the 10m Air Rifle finals will be held on 22nd December, after a marathon qualifying round which includes 51 relays.

The mixed team finals will be held on 23rd December. The qualifying rounds of 50m Rifle 3P Women willstart on 24 th December and the 10m Air Rifle Women event will start on Christmas day.

The finals of 50m 3P will be held on 27th December and after another 40-relay qualification, the finals of the 10m Rifle Women will be held on 2 nd January, 2026.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram