# How ISSF 10m Air Pistol Scoring Works > ISSF 10m air pistol is scored on a 17 cm target with ten concentric rings. Qualification uses whole-number scoring (1 to 10) across 60 shots, while the top-eight final divides each ring into decimal tenths for scores up to 10.9. - Canonical URL: https://target-log.net/blog/how-issf-10m-air-pistol-scoring-works/ - Published: 2026-07-22 (updated 2026-07-22) - Category: Scoring rules - Tags: issf, scoring, air-pistol, beginner - Read time: ~6 min ## Key takeaways - The 10 ring is 11.5 mm across; the inner ten (5 mm) counts only for tiebreaking in qualification. - Finals scoring splits every ring into tenths, so a single shot can score anywhere from 10.0 to 10.9. - TargetLog reads your paper targets and applies these exact ISSF rules automatically. ## The target you are shooting at Pick up any ISSF 10m air pistol target and you will see the same thing: a 17 by 17 cm card with ten concentric scoring rings printed on it. The black area, which covers rings 7 through 10, is what you actually aim at. It is roughly 59.5 mm across, and sitting dead center is the ten ring at just 11.5 mm in diameter. Each ring zone is 8 mm wide, measured radially from the center outward. So the 9 ring spans from 5.75 mm to 13.75 mm radius, the 8 ring from 13.75 mm to 21.75 mm, and so on down to the 1 ring near the card edges. If your pellet hole touches or crosses a scoring line, it earns the higher score. A hole that clips the edge of the 9 ring still gets you a 9. Inside the ten ring sits a smaller circle called the inner ten. It is only 5 mm across. In qualification scoring, the inner ten is worth exactly the same 10 points as any other hit in the ten ring. Its job is tiebreaking, which we will get to shortly. > TargetLog uses on-device ML to detect your target and score every hole according to these ISSF dimensions. Point your phone at a shot-up target, and the app handles the measuring for you. [Download TargetLog](/#download) to try it. ## How qualification scoring works A standard ISSF 10m air pistol qualification match consists of 60 shots fired within 75 minutes on electronic targets (90 minutes on paper). Each shot receives a single whole-number score from 1 to 10. There is no decimal scoring in qualification. Your running total climbs shot by shot, and at the end the highest possible score is 600. When shooters finish with identical totals, the ISSF uses a specific tiebreaking sequence. First, the shooter with more inner tens ranks higher. If that number is also tied, the shooter with the better score in their last 10-shot series wins. This is why you will sometimes see a 10 marked with an asterisk (10*) on scorecards: it tells the scorer that the shot landed inside the inner ten ring and should be counted separately. For a sense of the level involved, the men's qualification world record stands at 594 out of 600, set by Jin Jong-oh in 2009. That means only six shots landed outside the innermost ring across an entire hour of shooting. On the women's side, Jiang Ranxin holds the record at 591 from the 2022 World Championships. ## Finals scoring: tenths change everything The top eight shooters from qualification advance to the final, and the scoring system shifts. The same physical ring zones are used, but each zone is now subdivided into ten equal parts. A hit in the ten ring can score anything from 10.0 to 10.9, depending on how close to dead center it lands. The same logic applies to every ring: a 9-zone hit might be 9.3, a 7-zone hit might be 7.8, and so on. This decimal scoring is why finals scores look completely different from qualification scores. A qualification result of 575 might translate to a finals score in the 240s, because each shot in the final can earn fractional points that simply do not exist in qualification. The final format itself has changed over the years. Under the current rules, introduced after the 2016 Olympics, the eight finalists shoot two five-shot series (250 seconds each), then transition to single shots at 50 seconds each. After every two shots, the lowest-scoring athlete is eliminated until two shooters remain to contest the final two shots for gold and silver. Electronic targets are mandatory for ISSF finals at the Olympic Games, World Cups, and World Championships. These systems detect the exact impact point acoustically and calculate the decimal score instantly, which is displayed on monitors for both athletes and spectators. ## Paper versus electronic scoring If you shoot at a club that still uses paper targets, scoring works differently in practice. Each pellet leaves a clean, round hole thanks to the wadcutter shape of match pellets. A trained scorer (or a scoring gauge) checks whether the hole touches each ring line and assigns the highest value touched. On paper, there is no decimal subdivision, so every shot in a qualification-style match gets a whole number. Most serious competitions now use electronic scoring targets (EST). These systems detect pellet impact acoustically and calculate the precise score, including the decimal values needed for finals. The ISSF requires electronic targets for finals at major events, and many national competitions use them for qualification as well. This is where an app like [TargetLog](/#download) bridges the gap for club-level shooters. Even on paper targets, the app photographs your target and runs ML-based detection to find each hole, then applies ISSF scoring rules including the inner ten count. You get decimal-level scoring feedback without needing an electronic target system. ## What the inner ten actually means for you Beginners often hear about the inner ten and assume it gives bonus points. It does not. In qualification, a 10 in the inner ring and a 10 in the outer part of the ten ring both count as exactly 10 points. The inner ten matters only when you are trying to break a tie with another shooter. That said, tracking your inner tens is a useful training metric on its own. If you are consistently hitting the ten ring but rarely landing inside the inner ten, your group is slightly off-center. That information tells you something about your hold or trigger release that your total score alone would mask. TargetLog counts inner tens automatically on every session, so you can watch that number climb as your technique improves. You can see the full breakdown in the [app features](/#features). ## Common scoring misconceptions A few things trip up newer shooters when they start reading their scores: **"I hit the line, so I get the higher ring."** Correct. If any part of the pellet hole touches or crosses a scoring ring, you receive the higher value. This applies to both paper and electronic scoring. **"Inner tens are worth extra points."** They are not, at least not in qualification. Both a 10 and a 10* are worth 10 points on your total. The asterisk matters only for tiebreaking. **"Finals scores should be higher than qualification scores because of decimals."** Not directly comparable. Qualification uses 60 shots scored 1 to 10 (max 600). Finals use 24 shots scored with decimals (typical winning totals around 240 to 250). The scales are completely different. **"The black area is the whole scoring zone."** The black covers only rings 7 through 10. Rings 1 through 6 are printed on the white surrounding area. A shot that lands well outside the black can still score a 4, 5, or 6. ## Using TargetLog to track your scoring Whether you train at a range with electronic targets or still shoot on paper, keeping a record of your scores matters. TargetLog photographs your target after each session, scores every hole using ISSF rules, and stores the results on your device. Over time you get a clear picture of where your groups sit on the target, how often you reach the inner ten, and whether your scores are trending in the right direction. The app supports 10m air pistol alongside a range of other ISSF disciplines, so if you compete in multiple events your history stays organized in one place. Check out the [download page](/#download) to get started, or read through the [features overview](/#features) for a closer look at what the app tracks. ## FAQ **Q: What is the inner ten ring on a 10m air pistol target?** A: The inner ten is a 5 mm circle inside the standard 11.5 mm ten ring. It has no extra point value in qualification; it is used solely as the first tiebreaker when two shooters finish with the same total score. **Q: How is scoring different in the finals compared to qualification?** A: In qualification, each shot scores a whole number from 1 to 10. In the final, the same ring zones are divided into decimal tenths, so a hit in the ten ring can score 10.0 through 10.9 depending on exactly where it lands. **Q: What size is the 10m air pistol target?** A: The official ISSF 10m air pistol target measures 17 by 17 cm. The black aiming area covers the 7 through 10 rings and is about 59.5 mm in diameter. --- Part of the [TargetLog blog](https://target-log.net/blog/). Site index for AI/LLM agents: https://target-log.net/llms.txt ยท all articles: https://target-log.net/llms-full.txt.