South African Pistol Federation (formerly known as South African Pistol Association)
SAPF has 3 different sports which form the structure of the registered body. These are International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), National Pistol Association (NPA) and Precision Piston Competition (PPC).
The main focus on SAPF events is precision, scoring is purely based on hits on target.
All events are shot shoulder to shoulder.
Members can take part in any number of the different sports and shoot as many different categories as they would like.
Each category has a specific set of rules and a course of fire.

International Shooting Sports Federation
The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) is the international governing body responsible for both promoting international shooting sport and for providing its Rules and Regulations. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes the ISSF as the international body representing shooting and 15 ISSF Events are included in the Olympic Games. National Governing Bodies are responsible for the sport within their own country and for selecting eligible athletes to appear in international events including Intershoot, the World Cup and the Olympic Games.

The sport is open to both men and women and takes many forms (disciplines) including pistol, rifle and shotgun shooting. Most of these events apart from air pistol and centre-fire are shot with .22lr pistols.

Categories in ISSF
Free Pistol
Olympic Rapid Fire
Centre Fire
Standard Pistol
Air Pistol
Sports Pistol


National Pistol Association


During the late 1970’s it began to become apparent that the then National Shooting Associations did not really cater for the needs and aspirations of the growing body of full bore pistol shooters in Britain. The National Pistol Association was born. In the 1980's the NPA was introduced to South Africa. Probably the greatest legacy that the NPA gave shooting was the Annual National Pistol Meeting held at Bisley over the late Spring Bank Holiday weekend in the UK. The meeting still lives on today as the Phoenix Meeting.

The meeting became the largest pistol-shooting event in Europe and regularly attracted teams from Europe and individual shooters from all parts of the Globe. Since the 1980's Western Province Pistol Association has continued to be involved and actively promote the sport.

Shortly after the new gun laws were introduced in Great Britain sadly the NPA discipline faded away in the UK. However due to a lot of international interest the sport continues to gain popularity. Many international shooting organisations are adopting NPA as it provide exciting competition to many shooters that have standard hand guns.


Categories in NPA
Police Pistol A
Police Pistol B
Police Pistol Optical
Police Pistol 2
Service Pistol A
Service Pistol B
Service Pistol Optical
Pocket Gun
Carry Gun
Super Magnum/Optical


Precision Pistol Competition


PPC gets its roots from very similar NRA events. The competition is demanding and shot over a variety of distances from 7 meters out to 50 meters. The shooter also uses a number of positions to shoot from, kneeling and prone positions included. PPC shooters use full size revolvers and pistols.
PPC is the forerunner of modern Practical shooting sports
WA1500 is the international sanctioning body for PPC events

The competition format was founded in the U.S. between 1957 and 1958 and was intended to help police officers improve their firearms skills in the line of duty. Originally this was a revolver-specific competition because most police officers carried this type of sidearm, but was later expanded to include auto-loading pistols. The sport has become popular in the United States, Sweden, Germany and Canada, and official matches are no longer restricted to police officers or military personnel.

Categories in PPC
1500 Main Match
Distinguished Revolver Match
Distinguished Pistol Match
Standard Semi Automatic Pistol
Standard Revolver 4”
900 match