In France, all the shooting sports are managed by a single body: the French Shooting Federation (Fédération Française de Tir, FFTir, http://www.fftir.asso.fr). It is governed by the French law of 1901, which allows people to freely associate for different lawful purposes (charity, sport, culture, science and sometimes politics) on a non-profit basis. There are more than 500 000 associations of this type in France.

The FFTir is 140 000 members strong. Its resources are mainly constituted by the membership fees and by a subsidy from the Ministry of Sports, like all other sporting federations of our country.

Among its 140 000 members, the FFTir counts 800 to 1000 regular silhouette shooters, plus many others who practise our sport occasionally. It is difficult to know the exact number due to the fact that FFTir membership allows the practise of all the 56 shooting events managed by the federation. Every year, to attend the Silhouette National Championships, each competitor must go through a three level qualification matches system. Once the qualification matches are over, there are about 250 competitors qualified for the Silhouette National Championships.

There are approximately 2 000 shooting clubs spread all over the French territory. Many clubs have a range limited to 25 metres, but there is also a fair amount of 50 and 100 metre ranges. The 200 metre ranges are not so numerous but are well represented. The 300 metre ranges are pretty scarce and 500 metre ranges are found only in military shooting ranges.

A permanent 500 metre range requires a lot of space and money. Temporary 500 metre ranges are set when France hosts an International Silhouette Championship.

Silhouette shooting is practised in many of the clubs mentioned above, but ranges having the required capacity to host an all events silhouette competition (all pistol and rifle events) at national or international level number less than ten.

The silhouette shooting season begins in March and is over by October, after the National Championships and the autumn matches organised by some shooting clubs.