While scoring systems vary between organizations, each measures the time in which the course is completed, with penalties for inaccurate shooting.

There are several international sanctioning bodies: Practical shooting evolved from experimentation with firearms for hunting and self-defense.

Some consider the previous Olympic event 100 meter running deer as the first practical rifle shooting competition,[6][7] which originated in Wimbledon, London in 1862.

[8][9] Around 1900, efforts were done to develop more effective uses of handguns in combat shooting, mainly through experiments by two Britons, Captain William E. Fairbairn and Sergeant Eric A.

[10] Shortly after the second world war a distinct combat shooting sport for handguns known as stridsskyting became popular in Norway.

Stridsskyting later also was used separately to describe the completely different sport of IPSC-style practical shooting during its infancy in Norway.

Competitions begun with the leather slap quick draw events, which had grown out of America's love affair with the TV westerns of that era.

Competitions were set up to test what had been learned, and they soon grew into a distinct sport, requiring competitors to deal with constantly changing scenarios.

The next year, the 1976 IPSC Handgun World Shoot followed with Jan Foss from Norway taking gold.

Finland pioneered IPSC Rifle in Scandinavia in the beginning of the 1980s,[13] and the discipline soon spread to Norway where the first competitions were held in Stavanger February 1984.

Today USPSA and IDPA matches are two of the most popular forums of practical handgun shooting in the United States, with more than 25,000 and 11,000 members respectively.

[citation needed] In 1977 the UKPSA was formed to promote and regulate practical pistol shooting in the UK, and became England's regional affiliate of the IPSC.

USPSA awards an extra point per scoring zone outside of Alpha for competitors shooting "major" power factor.