Det frivillige Skyttervesen (DFS) (), known in English as the National Rifle Association of Norway, and by DFS themselves as the Norwegian Civilian Marksmanship Association since 2020, is a civilian marksmanship association in Norway and the largest shooting sport organization in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. It was created in 1893 by Norway's Storting to promote practical shooting skills within the Norwegian people, thereby empowering the national defence. DFS is sponsored by the Norwegian parliament and receives annually about 30 million Norwegian krones to fulfil their purpose. DFS collaborates with various departments in the

Norwegian Armed Forces The Norwegian Armed Forces ( no, Forsvaret, , The Defence) is the military organization responsible for the defence of Norway. It consists of five branches, the Norwegian Army, the Royal Norwegian Navy, which includes the Coast Guard, the Royal ...

by educating shooting instructors. They also lend their shooting ranges for free to the Norwegian

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting w ...

.Norwegian Government Documents, Handbooks and brochures – Norwegian Defence 2004 – Chapter 14
"The National Rifle Association of Norway was established in 1893 with the objective of fostering practical shooting skills among the Norwegian people in case such skills should be needed in the cause of national defence." DFS is under the patronage of

Harald V of Norway Harald V ( no, Harald den femte, ; born 21 February 1937) is King of Norway. He acceded to the throne on 17 January 1991. Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second in the li ...

. DFS organizes over 750 shooting clubs all over Norway and had in 2017 approximately 138,000 members. This makes it one of the largest sports organizations in Norway. The 6.5×55mm cartridge has been the main standard cartridge in the organization for more than 120 years. The current main standard rifle is the

Sig Sauer 200 STR The SIG Sauer 200 STR (Scandinavian Target Rifle), also known as the SIG Sauer 200 STR Match, is a bolt-action rifle mostly used as a target/competition rifle for national competitions by Norwegian, Swedish and Danish sport shooters. It is a var ...

in 6.5×55mm and

.22 LR The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smooth ...

, and before that

Krag–Jørgensen The Krag–Jørgensen is a repeating bolt-action rifle designed by the Norwegians Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jørgensen in the late 19th century. It was adopted as a standard arm by Norway, Denmark, and the United States. About 300 we ...

and various Mauser variants (i.e. M67, M59 and

K98k The Karabiner 98 kurz (; "carbine 98 short"), often abbreviated Karabiner 98k, Kar98k or K98k and also sometimes incorrectly referred to as a K98 (a K98 is a Polish carbine and copy of the Kar98a), is a bolt-action rifle chambered for the 7.92×57 ...

"Heimeverns-Mauser") were used. Det frivillige Skyttervesen can be compared to the American

Civilian Marksmanship Program The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is a U.S. government-chartered program intended to promote firearm safety training and rifle practice for all qualified U.S. citizens with a specific emphasis on youth. Any U.S. citizen not otherwise legall ...

History

Shooting sports in Norway can be traced back to Det bergenske Skydeselskab (''Bergen Shooting Club'') which was founded in 1769. During the 1800s, the defense oriented shooting movement began, and in 1861 this form of shooting was gathered under the Centralforeningen for Udbrædelse af Legemsøvelser og Vaabenbrug (later ''The Norwegian Confederation of Sports''). In 1882, the shooting sports in Norway was split with the founding of the Folkevæpningssamlags as a competing organisation to Centralforeningen. In 1893, the Norwegian Civilian Marksmanship Association (''Det frivillige Skyttervesen'') was founded, with all the shooting clubs in the Centralforeningen and Folkevæpningssamlags being gathered under one organisation with the goal to strengthen Norway's defense capabilities, especially by training the people in shooting and by ensuring that modern firearms became widespread.folkevæpningssamlag – Great Norwegian Encyclopedia
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Mission statement

The mission of Det frivillige Skyttervesen is to promote a healthy gun culture and marksmanship skills, as well as to secure a decentralization of shooting ranges, for the benefit of the Norwegian Armed Forces and the Norwegian society.

Competitions

DFS competitions are only shot with rifles, and the competition formats are the following. *

Bullseye shooting Bullseye shooting is a category of shooting sport disciplines where the objective is to score points with carefully placed precision fire by hitting a target as close to its center as possible. The name refers to the target center's nickname — ...

(''baneskyting''), the most popular discipline in DFS with some similarities to NRA High power. Shot at a 10 ring target at the distances of 100 m for juniors and veterans, and 200–300 m for seniors. *

Field shooting Field-Shooting or Terrain-Shooting (Danish: ''terrænskydning'', Norwegian: ''feltskyting'', Swedish: ''fältskytte''{{Cite web , url=http://www.sandvikensskyttegille.se/fs_info.php , title=Swedish: Fältskytte gevär förklarat {{! Sandvikens Sk ...

(''feltskyting''), a

long range shooting Long range shooting is a collective term for shooting disciplines where the distance to target is significant enough that shooter has to put effort into calculating various ballistic factors, especially in regards to the deviating effects ...

discipline arranged outside in the terrain in the winter. Targets are scored either hit, inner hit or miss. Juniors and veterans shoot at 100 m, while seniors shoot at varying unknown distances up to 600 m. *

Field rapid shooting Felthurtigskyting, literally field-rapid-shooting, is a practical rifle competition popular in Scandinavia, where the shooter has to engage three different targets placed at different distances with one shot each in the shortest time possible. ...

(''felthurtigskyting'') is a speed shooting event where the shooter has to engage three different targets placed at different unknown distances with one shot each in the shortest time possible. *

Small-bore Small-bore refers to calibers with a diameter of .32 inches or smaller. It may also refer to small-bore rifle competition. The medium-bore refers to calibers with a diameter between .33 inches up to .39 inches and large-bore refers to calibers with ...

shooting indoor at 15 m for all classes with

.22 lr The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smooth ...

rifles at a 10 ring target, popular in the winter. * Nordic field biathlon ''skifeltskyting''), a form of

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not time ...

in the winter with

ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...

ing and shooting. * Nordic shooting with cross-country running (''skogsløp'' or ''springskytte''), a form of biathlon in the summer with running and shooting. * Stang shooting (''stangskyting''), a speed shooting competition where the shooter has two periods of 25 seconds to get as many hits as possible on a target at an unknown distance, with an unlimited number of rounds. Stang shooting is named after

Georg Stang Hans Georg Jacob Stang (17 February 1858 – 11 September 1907) was a Norwegian military officer and politician from the Liberal Party. He served as the Norwegian Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet o ...

, a previous Norwegian

Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

Landsskytterstevnet

Every year, the National Championship

Landsskytterstevnet Landsskytterstevnet it is the Norway, Norwegian national rifle championship for all the disciplines within Det frivillige Skyttervesen, and is one of Norway's largest annual sporting events. Men and women of all ages contend for the title as either ...

is held in different cities in Norway. The event has between 4000 and 6000 participants and is shown on national television. Landsskytterstevnet is one of the largest sporting events in Norway.

References

External links