Perhaps as an unintended result of Olympic glory arriving before true international organization, shooting competitions in the early 20th Century were chaotic. Mismatching scoring systems, differences in implements between nations, and rules that often limited fields to military officers led to a lot of confusion. At Paris 1900, for example, there were 38 different events.

One of those, live pigeon shooting, ended with over 300 dead birds. In the Olympic Movement's defense, this was more tied to the World's Fair than the concurrent Games, as a prize of 20,000 French francs was offered to the winner. The Games were strictly amateur in those days, and few Olympic historians consider that grisly event official.

More recently, shooting events have become increasingly uniform. There are indoor small-arms events such as the free pistol, in which competitors fire a .22 caliber handgun at a distance of 164 feet, aiming at a target that appears as small as a printed period. Other pistols used in Olympic competition are the smallbore sport pistol and the .177 air-powered lightweight gun.

Rifle events are held outdoors. Trap shooting involves flying clay discs ("pull!"), and skeet events feature "birds" that are really limestone Frisbees. No reason to revisit that controversy again.

For a while, men and women competed for the same championships. From 1968 through 1980, Olympic shooting events were gender-blind, until separate events were carved out for each.

Shooting Fun Facts:

• Antonius Limberkovits was a Hungarian competitor in the prone rifle event at Los Angeles 1932. He was on his way to gold, but hit the wrong target in the late rounds. He could have got away with it, but instead informed officials, who credited him with a miss that knocked him out of the medals.

• Karoly Takacs was a world champion shootist for Hungary in the 1930's, but his shooting hand (his right) was rendered useless in 1938 when a grenade exploded as he was holding it. So he taught himself to shoot left-handed. At London 1948 and Helsinki 1952, he won gold in the rapid-fire pistol.

• The addition of "extreme games" like BMX and snowboarding only enhances the fact that shooting is the Olympics' most challenging event -- for viewers. A shooting telecast is the sporting equivalent of C-SPAN, as no other discipline features as little physical movement from its athletes, or requires as much silence from those in the stands. To demonstrate, here is the final of the men's 10 meter air pistol at a World Cup stop last year in Sydney. Not to spoil the surprise, but Vladimir Gontcharov of Russia was the winner; he'll compete in Beijing next month.

  Not to belittle these athletes' efforts, certainly -- shooting competitions last over two-and-a-half hours and require prolonged concentration above and beyond anything seen in most other Olympic sports. As a response to its lack of telegenic qualities, the IOC pressured the ISSF to include head-to-head "shoot-off" finals in the 1980's.

In 2008:

Shooting events will begin on August 9 (Day 1) and end on August 17 (Day 9). Rifle and pistol competitions are at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall, while trap and skeet events will be held at the Beijing Shooting Range.

In all, 15 sets of medals will be awarded. For men, there will be competitions in 50m rifle (prone and three positions), 10m air rifle, 50m pistol, 25m rapid fire pistol, 10m air pistol, trap, double trap and skeet. On the women's side, the events will be 50m rifle (three positions), 10m air rifle, 25m air rifle, 25m pistol, 10m air pistol, trap and skeet. Two events that have been held in recent Olympiads, the men's 10-meter running target and the women's double trap, have been discontinued.

A total of 390 shootists will compete, representing 100 countries. Nations may enter up to two athletes for each event, but each must post a minimum qualification score to earn a "quota place" for his or her country.

As has been a recent tradition of sorts, the first medal of the Beijing Olympics will be won by a shootist. The 10m air rifle for women is scheduled to conclude at around 10:50 a.m. local time on Day 1.

All-Time Medal Standings:

Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
United States	48	27	22	97
Soviet Union	17	15	17	49
Sweden	14	22	18	54
China	14	9	11	31
Norway	13	7	11	31
Great Britain	12	15	16	43
France	10	13	8	31
Italy	9	7	11	27
Germany	8	7	3	18
Hungary	7	3	7	17
Switzerland	6	6	8	20
Romania	5	4	5	14
Unified Team	5	2	1	8
Bulgaria	4	6	6	16
West Germany	4	4	3	11
Czechoslovakia	4	3	2	9
Canada	4	3	2	9
Poland	4	2	5	11
Australia	4	1	4	9
Denmark	3	9	5	17
East Germany	3	8	5	16
Finland	3	7	9	19
Greece	3	4	4	11
Yugoslavia	3	2	7	9
South Korea	2	4	1	7
Ukraine	2	0	0	2
Belgium	1	3	3	7
Austria	1	2	5	8
Japan	1	2	3	6
Peru	1	2	0	3
Azerbaijan	1	0	2	3
North Korea	1	0	1	2
Lithuania	1	0	0	1
Slovenia	1	0	0	1
United Arab Emirates	1	0	0	1
Belarus	0	2	4	6
Czech Republic	0	2	3	5
Kazhakstan	0	2	1	3
Spain	0	2	1	3
Colombia	0	2	0	2
Brazil	0	1	1	2
Netherlands	0	1	1	2
Argentina	0	1	0	1
Chile	0	1	0	1
India	0	1	0	1
Latvia	0	1	0	1
Mexico	0	1	0	1
Moldova	0	1	0	1
Portugal	0	1	0	1
Serbia & Montenegro	0	1	0	1
South Africa	0	1	0	1
Cuba	0	0	2	2
Slovakia	0	0	0	2
Haiti	0	0	1	1
Kuwait	0	0	1	1
Mongolia	0	0	1	1
New Zealand	0	0	1	1
Venezuela	0	0	1	1

(Image via 1912 Official Report)