Det frivillige Skyttervesen (DFS), also known as the National Rifle Association of Norway, is a civilian marksmanship association in Norway and the largest shooting sport organization in Norway. It was created on July 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 by educating shooting instructors. They also lend their shooting ranges for free to the Norwegian Home Guard. DFS is under the patronage of Harald V of Norway.
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.
DFS competitions are only shot with rifles, and the competition formats are the following.
- Bullseye shooting (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 (feltskyting), a long range shooting 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) 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 shooting indoor at 15 m for all classes with .22 Long Rifle rifles at a 10 ring target, popular in the winter.
- Ski Field-Shooting (skifeltskyting), a form of biathlon in the winter with skiing and shooting.
- Field-Run with Shooting (skogsløp), 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, a previous Norwegian Minister of Defence.
