Asian Games 2026: Indian shooters are taking year-old bullets to Aichi-Nagoya; here’s why

Most 50m rifle 3 positions shooters use Midas Plus and X-ACT, two premium variants of .22 Long Rifle (5.6mm) rimfire ammunition manufactured by Lapua. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR

An ammunition supply crunch has left Indian shooters training with ageing bullets to preserve the newer, year-old stock for the upcoming Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

For the 50m rifle 3 positions shooters, the problem is particularly acute. Most use Midas Plus and X-ACT, two premium variants of .22 Long Rifle (5.6mm) rimfire ammunition manufactured by Lapua.

The military adoption of .338 Magnum sniper systems by Ukrainian forces during the Russian invasion and other wartime demands severely crippled Lapua’s global commercial manufacturing. In a statement from 2022, the Finnish company acknowledged the issue: “To better serve our civilian and military obligations, some of our components will be temporarily suspended from production. This is due to prioritising production lines. Some Lapua products will probably be out of stock in many places in the world for some time to come.”

What was already a cumbersome procurement process has become more arduous. Shooters first secure an appointment with Lapua for barrel testing, during which multiple ammunition lots are fired to determine which performs best with a particular rifle. Once the preferred lots are identified, the ammunition is marked for dispatch to India through the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI). A cycle that could earlier be completed in roughly three to four months has now stretched beyond a year.

Incidentally, the previous order placed by the Indian federation in June 2025 has only reached selected athletes this August and in limited quantities. Meanwhile, an appointment request with Lapua’s Berlin facility, the testing centre regularly used by India’s top shooters, currently returns a slot in December 2026.

A like-for-like?

The obvious solution would be to find alternatives. That, however, has proved easier said than done.

“The NRAI did think of replacements in Eley (Birmingham, UK) and RWS (Fuerth, Germany),” India’s 50m rifle head coach Manoj Kumar said.

Eley is largely available to Indian shooters, but there are reservations over its performance. “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.

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That, however, does not render Eley unusable. Several shooters continue to prefer it. In India’s 25m pistol team, for instance, Esha Singh and Manu Bhaker prefer Lapua’s softer recoil, while Rahi Sarnobat is more comfortable with Eley.

Bibaswan Ganguly, chief rifle coach of the Meghalaya State team, says RWS’ R50 ammunition, although widely available, is difficult to bring into India because of contractual and import-related issues involving the NRAI.

“One of my students recently sent a request to use their test facility. While they were willing to arrange that for free, importing would have been an issue,” Ganguly says. “I haven’t seen the R50 in India, perhaps in the last 15 years or so. The only way we can use RWS is going abroad and buying, shooting and depositing the empties there before flying back.”

For shooters, the consequences of the shortage go beyond procurement headaches. Ammunition is part of the athlete’s confidence, believes Olympian Joydeep Karmakar. He said, “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.”

FILE PHOTO: Joydeep Karmakar oversees 50m rifle 3 positions shooters at the MP State Shooting Academy. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

A shadow of doubt

Ashi Chouksey knows that feeling only too well. The Asiad-bound shooter has established herself as one of India’s leading 3P competitors. She shot a 598 at last year’s Dehradun National Games and has since continued to perform at a high level.

Ashi Chouksey during the Paris 2024 selection trials. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR

At the recently concluded World Cup in Hangzhou, she was forced to use three-year-old ammunition because newer stock was unavailable. The consequences became clear during the event.

After shooting a strong 193 in kneeling despite fluctuating winds, Chouksey began her prone series with three inner-10s. Then came a shot that sounded different. She immediately knew something was wrong. The display showed an 8. “And I just stood transfixed,” Ashi recalled.

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“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 finished 23rd that day; the lone 8 had planted a seed of doubt. In a precision sport, fractions of a millimetre can separate finalists from the rest.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar is the 50m rifle 3 positions positions spearhead. | Photo Credit: A.M. FARUQUI

For Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, the men’s 3P spearhead, the issue is also a consequence of India’s dependence on foreign manufacturers. He said, “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.” Tomar believes the Chinese have been more proactive in securing supplies, recalling information he received during a previous visit to Lapua’s Berlin facility. But he is reluctant to turn the criticism entirely towards the NRAI.

“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 troubles

The problem is more complicated than India simply running out of quality bullets. Smallbore ammunition is also highly individual to a barrel. A lot that performs exceptionally well in one rifle may not perform nearly as well in another.

There is also the question of storage. India’s humid climate can affect ammunition over time, especially Eley and Lapua ammunition, which are understood to have limited shelf life if not stored in tightly controlled conditions.

Karmakar stressed that simply keeping bullets in an air-conditioned armoury is not enough. He said, “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.”

The former India coach offered a memorable example. “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!”

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Besides oxidation, older pellets may get deformed if stored under pressure. They may develop slightly flattened skirts, damaged heads, and dents around the waist. In 50m, tiny differences almost invisible to the naked eye can become increasingly measurable on the target. Differences in pellet shape or aerodynamics can contribute to both vertical and horizontal dispersion.

There is, however, a silver lining. Satguru Dass, a National Centre of Excellence rifle coach, said Tilottama Sen recently surpassed the world record mark behind closed doors during the Asian Games camp in Bhopal while using 2025 ammunition, the same lot earmarked for use at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in a few days from now.

“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.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

NRAI secretary general Pawan Kumar Singh also offered hope, saying that the federation is actively working with all the ammo manufacturers to make India less dependent on overseas testing and sporadic imports. He said, “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.”

So, all is not lost. India’s marksmen and markswomen will touch down in Japan with better ammunition than they had at the last major ISSF event. But that belies how much of their preparation has been shaped by a constraint beyond their control.