In the Northern region, Poland (1168), Norway (1167), Finland (1166), Denmark (1163) and Sweden (1163) qualified from the 2008 preliminary air rifle rounds while Latvia (1142) and Lithuania (1139) were eliminated.

In air pistol, all five teams (Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, Finland and Norway) qualified.

In the Western region, joint preliminary rounds were held in 2008 at Nitra (Slovakia) and Fleury-les-Aubrais (France).

In air rifle, Spain (1166), Italy (1164), Hungary (1163), Slovakia (1159) and Slovenia (1157) qualified for the group stage while France (1153), Austria (1148), Luxembourg (1111) and Belgium (1096) were eliminated.

Spain (1116), Italy (1100) and Slovenia (1094) also had qualified in air pistol, along with Belgium (1096) and France (1094).

They were originally scheduled for Copenhagen but had to be moved because of weapon regulations surrounding the 13th Olympic Congress, held simultaneously in the capital.

Serbia had qualified for this group but withdrew; to compensate for this, the remaining teams faced each other twice.