[1] Historically, smallbore shooting has been most popular in the United Kingdom and the former British Empire, particularly Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand.

It forms part of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and has a world championships hosted by the International Shooting Sport Federation.

[2] Similar organisations were founded in Britain, France and Germany in the mid-nineteenth century, followed by the National Rifle Association of America in 1871.

[3] Smallbore shooting first became possible in 1845, when the French gun-maker Nicholas Flaubert developed the first .22 calibre rimfire rifle cartridge.

However, it was originally treated largely as a recreational pastime, and considered the "poor cousin" of fullbore shooting, conducted with military-style rifles.

[5] British veterans of and commentators on the war considered the high standard of Boer marksmanship to have been a decisive factor in their success, and identified this marksmanship as a consequence of the "rifle culture" of Boer society, leading to efforts to encourage British soldiers and civilians to gain a similar familiarity and practice with firearms.

[6] A particularly prominent critic of British marksmanship was Lord Frederick Roberts, who considered that accurate shooting should be the primary aim of military training.

"[8] However, the popularity of shooting with large-calibre military rifles was constrained by the inaccessibility of suitable ranges, which required large open spaces that could only be found in rural areas, and by the cost of ammunition.

Two parallel developments in the 1880s opened the possibility that marksmanship training could be made available more cheaply and to those living in towns and cities: the development of the Morris aiming tube in 1883, which could be fitted inside the barrel of a large-calibre rifle to allow it to fire small-calibre ammunition, and that of the successful .22 Long Rifle cartridge in 1887.

[4] These early national smallbore matches were organised by Edward Cathcart Crossman, an officer of the US Army, with the assistance of E.J.D.

Nesbitt, a British official of the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs who had been involved in organising smallbore competitions at Bisley.

[15] From 1926 until 1933, recruits into the US Army's infantry and cavalry were required to carry out a qualification shoot with a small bore rifle.

[16] French primary schools began to teach boys military drill, including skill at arms and shooting, from the 1880s.

Smallbore shooting began in Australia in the mid-nineteenth century, and rifle clubs existed in every Australian state by 1914.

[19] In Germany, 'sharpshooting clubs' developed from a long-standing tradition of Schützenfeste, and became particularly popular in the 1920s as a means of recreation and in connection with various political ideologies, from republicanism to atavistic, conservative nationalism.

[22] The gun-maker J. G. Anschütz, originally established in Mehlis in Thuringia in 1856, moved to Ulm in western Germany after the end of the Second World War.

[24] The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) was formed in the wake of the 1896 Olympics, and conducted its first world championship in 1897.

The rifle is supported with the aid of a stiff jacket, usually made of canvas or leather, with high-grip pads on the elbows and shoulder.

ISSF rules govern the equipment and positions that can be used in international matches, which sometimes diverge from the national traditions or habits adopted in domestic competition.

It is usual practice for pre-allocated competition stickers to be affixed behind one of the target diagrams, to ensure that the shooter does not attempt to cheat by shooting multiple cards and afterwards selecting the best one.