Ammunition shortages have forced India’s shooters into an unusual balancing act ahead of the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, with athletes conserving newer ammunition while continuing their preparation with older stock. In a sport where a fraction of a millimetre can decide whether a shot lands inside the 10-ring or falls just outside it, India’s shooting contingent is having to manage a variable that has little to do with technique, fitness or mental preparation.
For India’s 50m rifle 3 positions shooters, the issue is particularly significant. Several of the country’s leading athletes rely on premium .22 LR ammunition such as Lapua’s Midas Plus and X-ACT, ammunition that is selected only after extensive testing with an individual rifle barrel. The global supply situation has made that process increasingly difficult. Lapua has previously acknowledged production pressures caused by the need to prioritise military and civilian requirements, creating shortages of some of its products in international markets.
For Indian shooters, what was once a procurement process lasting a few months has increasingly become a drawn-out exercise. Athletes first need barrel-testing appointments, with different ammunition lots fired through their individual rifles before the best-performing batch is identified. The preferred lot then has to be imported through the National Rifle Association of India.
The previous order placed by the Indian federation in June 2025 reached selected athletes only in August this year, and even then in limited quantities. An appointment at Lapua’s Berlin testing facility, regularly used by India’s elite shooters, is currently available only much later. That leaves coaches and athletes with an uncomfortable choice: train with older ammunition and conserve the newer stock for major competitions. A problem of precision. “The NRAI did think of replacements in Eley (Birmingham, UK) and RWS (Fuerth, Germany),” India’s 50m rifle head coach Manoj Kumar said.
The difficulty is that ammunition is not interchangeable simply because it fits the same rifle. “Accuracy matters. A grouping of 11-12 mm (average deviations from the mean mark on the target) while testing a particular barrel generally means the ammo is of very good quality. But when we ran the tests on Eley, we got groupings of 15-16 mm. On the scoresheet, if you take out human error, it would translate to your 10.1, 10.2, or 10.0s dropping to a 9.9 or 9.8,” Manoj said. For a discipline decided by tiny margins, that difference can be decisive.
Ashi Chouksey, one of India’s leading 50m rifle 3 positions shooters, knows the psychological cost of uncertainty. The ISSF currently lists her among India’s established competitors in the event, and she has also competed at the highest international level. At the Hangzhou World Cup, the shortage reportedly forced Chouksey to use older ammunition. She recalled one shot that immediately sounded different. “And I just stood transfixed,” Ashi recalled.
“I neither gave any clicks nor made any adjustment to my right foot because I knew it was not my mistake. When I asked the coach, he gave me a simple answer that we don’t have any ammunition other than this (the ones from Paris 2024 Olympics). He asked me to just finish it off. But that is not something an athlete wants to hear. I can’t just finish it off like that. I want to perform well. I can’t even forget about that day.” She eventually finished 23rd, but the episode highlighted a problem that cannot be solved by simply telling an athlete to shoot better.
Confidence becomes part of the equation. Olympian Joydeep Karmakar believes the effect goes beyond the physical characteristics of the ammunition.
“If you don’t get good ammunition in training, your confidence will go down. The score you get when shooting is a combination of a lot of things: your gut feel, senses, and muscle memory. And the score matters. No one has matured to the point where they have confidence in themselves to the point that they ignore the score altogether. Now, if there is bad ammunition, it will create self-doubt. You will be confused as to whether the bullet is the problem or you are technically doing something wrong.”
That uncertainty is particularly damaging in 50m rifle 3 positions, where athletes must shoot from kneeling, prone and standing positions and maintain consistency throughout a long qualification process.
India’s dependence on overseas ammunition manufacturers compounds the problem. “The best ammunitions are with the Europeans, Chinese and Americans. We don’t have an Indian maker. So, they will naturally reserve the best for their own,” said Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar. “Honestly, our federation has been trying its best. Now if the makers themselves don’t supply, what can the NRAI do? I am still training with old ammo, but I have been told the new lot (from 2025) arrives soon.”
Storage creates another challenge. Even once ammunition reaches India, the problem does not necessarily disappear. Smallbore ammunition can be highly sensitive to storage conditions. Temperature matters, but humidity can be particularly problematic in India’s climate. Karmakar explained the danger. “In India, people stress on having the AC on in the armoury. But if the dehumidifier breaks down in the storeroom, no one worries about it. These bullets don’t depend on temperature only. Moisture is the real killer. AC without a dehumidifier is even more dangerous.”
He offered an example from Olympic history. “My friend (Sergei Martynov of Belarus) won three Olympic medals—bronze in Sydney 2000, bronze in Athens 2004, and gold in London 2012. You know where he stored his bullets? In the bank locker so that it remained in a dehumidifier-controlled environment!” Despite the supply problems, India’s preparation is not without encouraging signs. Satguru Dass, a rifle coach at the National Centre of Excellence, said the newer ammunition available to the Asian Games squad had already been tested in Bhopal and produced encouraging results.
“They all have tested it themselves. And all of them have shot 93-plus. There is a difference (in the bullets’ age), yes, but what we have is good enough. All the ammo which arrived in the first lot was tested again in Bhopal. The best grouping which came was better than what we get for the Olympics. The ammo is old, but it won’t make an impact,” Dass assured.
That assessment will be crucial as India heads towards Aichi-Nagoya. The country’s shooters have continued to perform strongly on the international circuit. At the 2026 ISSF World Cup in Hangzhou, India finished third in the medal standings with one gold and one silver, underlining the depth of a squad that includes established names across rifle, pistol and shotgun. In men’s 50m rifle 3 positions, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Niraj Kumar were both listed among India’s competitors in Hangzhou, while Ashi Chouksey was part of the women’s field.
NRAI secretary general Pawan Kumar Singh said the federation is working with Lapua, Eley and RWS to establish more regular supplies and improve India’s testing infrastructure. “The Eley team recently visited India. The Sports Authority of India, Public Works Department, and all other concerned departments were also available. They have submitted a report on which we are actively working. The target is to get it done by December.
“For testing, you need ammunition. We have spoken to all the companies — Lapua, Eley and RWS — who have agreed to supply ammunition regularly. The bigger issue is the licence. We don’t have the required quota for the procurement of bullets (presently, elite athletes can import 15,000 ammo at a time and carry 1,200, which is roughly equivalent to 5kg, on flights).”
“But the good news is that the Government has already sanctioned it. Now the Delhi Licensing Department has to issue it. It is already approved. I hope that we get it by this month. As soon as we get it, we will start getting surplus batches from different companies. And once the testing facility is made, kids will be able to test it in India as well.”
For now, however, India’s shooters must work with what they have. They will arrive in Japan with access to newer ammunition than they had at some recent international competitions, but their preparation has exposed a larger weakness in India’s shooting ecosystem. The athletes can control their breathing, technique, equipment and nerves. They cannot control the global supply chain. India’s shooting ambitions have grown rapidly, but the ammunition shortage exposes the less glamorous infrastructure behind medal-winning performances.
A rifle can be world-class, an athlete can be technically flawless and a coach can have the perfect training plan, yet the final variable can still be a box of bullets. The immediate challenge is to ensure the Aichi-Nagoya-bound athletes have ammunition they trust. The bigger challenge is to build a domestic testing and procurement ecosystem so that India’s elite shooters are not forced to conserve ammunition, question their equipment or adapt their preparation around global supply constraints. In a sport where every shot counts, India cannot afford to leave even one variable to chance.
