What happens when the gun does not fire?

• Allowable: a cartridge fails to fire, a bullet or pellet is lodged in the barrel, or the gun fails to work although the trigger mechanism was released.
• Non-allowable: the athlete opened the action, left the safety on, did not load properly or did not pull the trigger. So is any cause the athlete could reasonably have corrected, and a flat battery in an electronic trigger.
• Repair or replace: the athlete may repair the gun and continue. After an allowable malfunction they may continue with another gun of the same type and calibre.
• Time: "No extra competition time is allowed" in 10 m, 50 m and 300 m elimination or qualification rounds. The jury may allow extra sighting shots after an allowable malfunction.
• In a 10 m or 50 m final: one allowable malfunction for each finalist, with at most one minute to repair or replace the gun. A single shot is then repeated. A series is completed in the time that was left plus the repair time.
• Records: every malfunction is written up by the range officers.
• 25 m events, how many: one malfunction may be claimed in each 30-shot stage, and two in the 60-shot standard pistol match. None may be claimed in a sighting series.
• 25 m events, how to claim: the athlete keeps hold of the pistol, points it down the range and raises the free hand.
• 25 m events, trying to fix it: an athlete who tries to clear the fault and carry on gives up the claim, unless a part of the pistol is broken.
• 25 m events, the inspection: if the cause is not obvious, the range officer takes the pistol and pulls the trigger once in a safe direction to see whether the mechanism had been released.
• 25 m events, non-allowable: the shots not fired are misses, with no repeat.
• 25 m events, allowable in rapid fire pistol and standard pistol: the series is fired again. Rapid fire pistol scores the lowest hit on each target across the two series. Standard pistol scores the five lowest of all the shots.
• 25 m events, allowable in 25 m pistol: the series is completed with the next series, with 48 seconds a shot in the precision stage.
• A broken pistol: up to 15 minutes to repair or replace it, and an extra sighting series.

The line between the two kinds is who was at fault. A dud cartridge is bad luck, and the athlete is allowed to make good the shot. A safety catch left on is the athlete's own error. In the timed events a repeat series is scored on the lowest hits so that a jam can never work out better than a clean series.