We should begin by explaining the name Schuetzen, because even though it’s also used in the United States for a particular type of target shooting, here it doesn’t mean quite the same thing. Properly, the word is Schützen, and it has a number of definitions, none of which really translate into English. For our purposes, we’ll call it marksmanship, and give it the common American spelling, “Schuetzen.”
In Germany, Schuetzen is, or was, until 1935, the highly formalized sport of shooting offhand at a target 300 meters away, using iron sights, with a rifle designed specifically for that activity and useless for anything else. Like the highly specialized American trap gun, the German Schuetzen does only one thing, but it does it exceedingly well.
It’s impossible to discuss Schuetzen competition,…