The men's free rifle was one of the five sport shooting

Shooting sports

A shooting sport is a competitive sport involving tests of proficiency using various types of guns such as firearms and airguns . Hunting is also a shooting sport, and indeed shooting live pigeons was an Olympic event...

 events on the Shooting at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Shooting at the 1896 Summer Olympics

At the 1896 Summer Olympics, five sport shooting events were contested. These events took place at the newly constructed shooting range at Kallithea. They were organized and prepared by the Sub-Committee for Shooting...

programme. The second rifle event and last of the shooting events, the free rifle was begun on 11 April. Each marksman fired 40 shots, in four strings of ten. 25 men entered the event, though only 20 actually competed. They represented three nations. Phrangoudis led after the first day, but when the event was continued on 12 April, Orphanidis took the lead and held on to win first place. He hit the target 37 times.

Results

Place	Shooter	Score	Hits	1	2	3	4
1		1,583	37	328	520	420	315
2		1,312	31	470	192	440	210
3		1,305	31	392	423	280	210
4		1,102	Unknown
5		1,039	Unknown
6-18		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
		Unknown
–		DNF
		DNF