10 meter air rifle is an International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) shooting event, shot at a bullseye target over a distance of 10 meters (10.94 yards) using a 4.5 mm (0.177 in) calibre air rifle with a maximum weight of 5.5 kg (12.13 lb).

The use of specialized rigidly padded vest is allowed to prevent chronic back injury, which can be caused by prolonged asymmetric load on the spinal column.

During the 1970s, technical advances in the employed match air rifles made the ISSF, known as the International Shooting Union or UIT (French: Union Internationale de Tir) back then, decide to significantly reduce the size of the 10-meter air rifle target to its current dimensions.

Top competitors sometimes achieved maximum results (a "possible") for the initial or qualification phase (600 for men and 400 for women).

Most of these full marks were achieved non-directly ISSF supervised international and national-level matches and championships, where official ISSF-recognized world records cannot be set.

ISSF rules introduced in 2018 ended gender differences, expanding the 40-shot qualification phase for women to 60 shots and setting the highest possible 60-shot score at 654.0 points.

Modern PCP match rifles feature regulated powerplants to minimize shot-to-shot variation in output pressure and resulting muzzle velocity.

Weight and balance can be tailored via an adjustable stock and various accessories to the individual shooter's preferences, promoting comfortable and accurate shooting.

This leaves smooth-edged round holes in paper targets and allows easy gauging for scoring.

Match pellets are offered in tins and more elaborate packaging, avoiding deformation and other damage that could impair their uniformity.

However at higher and top competitive levels, even these variations are thought too coarse-grained and match pellets are batch-tested; that is, the specific gun is mounted in a machine rest test rig and pellets from a particular production run on a specific machine with the same ingredients fed into the process (a batch) are test-fired through the gun.

[6] Unbatched ammunition, especially if the air gun is not regularly cleaned, is generally thought to be capable of only 8.0 mm (0.315 in) diameter group sizes.