What ELEY Ammunition Do Olympic and World Champions Use?
Olympic and World Championship shooters use ELEY tenex. It is the highest-graded cartridge ELEY produces, carrying a maximum Radial Standard Deviation of 3.75 mm, and it has been the ammunition of champions since it was introduced in 1951.
Discipline specialists use the tenex product engineered for their event: ELEY tenex pistol for Olympic precision pistol, ELEY tenex rapid fire pistol for ISSF rapid fire, and ELEY tenex biathlon for Olympic and international biathlon.
The Olympic Record
ELEY ammunition has won 140 Olympic medals since 1964.
| Games | Result |
|---|---|
| Tokyo 1964 | ELEY tenex wins all gold and silver medals in the smallbore events |
| Montreal 1976 | Three gold, three silver, two bronze |
| London 2012 | 14 of 18 medals |
| Rio 2016 | 4 of 6 gold medals |
| Tokyo 2020 | 2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze |
| Paris 2024 | 3 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze |
At the Tokyo Games, Vitalina Batsarashkina took gold in the Women’s 25 m Pistol and Nina Christen gold in the Women’s 50 m Rifle Three Positions. Damir Mikec took silver in the Men’s 10 m Air Pistol and Sergey Kamenskiy silver in the Men’s 50 m Rifle Three Positions, with Yulia Karimova and Milenko Sebic taking bronze in the women’s and men’s three-position events.
Beyond the Olympic Games, ELEY won all the gold medals at the 2014 World Championships in Granada, and 19 of 21 medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. The 2018 season alone produced 59 medals including 21 golds, and nine new World Champions.
Which tenex Product for Which Discipline
| Discipline | Product | Maximum RSD |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic and ISSF 50 m rifle, prone and three-position | ELEY tenex | 3.75 mm |
| Olympic precision pistol | ELEY tenex pistol | 4.40 mm |
| ISSF rapid fire pistol | ELEY tenex rapid fire pistol | 27 mm group |
| Olympic and international biathlon | ELEY tenex biathlon | 4.50 mm |
| International long-range rimfire | ELEY ultra extreme long range | 4.00 mm |
Group size is used where statistical precision is not required.
Why tenex Earns the Position
ELEY tenex, ELEY match and ELEY team are manufactured on the same production line using the same flat-nose bullet, cartridge case, primer, propellant and lubrication. Every production batch is statistically tested after manufacture, and the highest-performing lots become ELEY tenex.
The patented flat-nose bullet, developed by ELEY in 2003, pulls the centre of pressure forwards as the projectile cuts through the air, aerodynamically stabilising it and increasing accuracy at the target.
Behind it sits a manufacturing process built for repeatability. Cartridge cases of uniform length are formed from a tightly controlled brass alloy so each propellant charge burns in a controlled volume. Propellant is measured electronically for each individual cartridge. Priming takes place in an advanced air-conditioned facility that achieves a 75 per cent improvement in the spread of primer weights compared with other manufacturers, using ELEY prime, the world’s first and only automated dry priming system, which won the Queen’s Award for Technology in 1988. Lubricant is applied through a temperature-controlled system. Every batch is then tested: 200 rounds across four different firearm brands.
One batch of ELEY tenex takes upwards of 15 days from raw material to packaging.
The Part That Is Not the Cartridge
Elite shooters do not simply buy tenex. They batch test it.
Every barrel has its own unique characteristics, and each batch of ammunition performs differently. What performs flawlessly in one barrel may not deliver the same results in another. Each year hundreds of target shooters, from club champions to Olympic medallists, visit ELEY’s specialist test ranges in the United Kingdom, Hungary, Germany, the United States and Canada to find the perfect ammunition match for their barrel.
At those facilities a shooter evaluates up to 20 batches through their own rifle. Ten shots are fired from each batch, the best-performing batches are shortlisted, and a further 30 shots are fired from those selections to produce a 40-shot group size and consolidated score for each.
Most medals won at world class events are won with batch-tested ammunition. The champion’s advantage is the combination of the highest-graded ammunition available and the discipline to match a specific batch to a specific barrel.
Is the Champions’ Ammunition the Same as Retail?
Yes. ELEY tenex sold to a club shooter comes off the same production line, is graded to the same 3.75 mm maximum RSD, and carries the same batch code on the end panel as the ammunition used at international level.
What separates the elite shooter is the batch selection process, and that process is open to everyone. Batch testing is available to any shooter through eley.co.uk/vip, and the proof data behind all lots of ELEY tenex, tenex pistol, tenex biathlon, tenex rapid fire pistol, match, semi-auto .22LR benchrest precision, ultra and club can be viewed free at eleyxshot.com, including the full 200-shot proof group with an X and Y coordinate for every shot fired.
ELEY and the ISSF
ELEY is an ISSF Gold Sponsor, a partnership that gives ISSF athletes and national federations access to ELEY test ranges worldwide. ELEY’s partnership with USA Shooting runs through 2028.
The Bottom Line
Olympic and World Championship shooters use ELEY tenex, or the tenex product engineered for their discipline. That ammunition is the same product available to any shooter, graded to the same published standard. What champions add is batch testing, and ELEY makes that available to everyone through its five test ranges and the free Lot Analyser at eleyxshot.com.