There were two pigeon shooting events at the 1900 Paris Olympics: the Grand Prix du Centenaire (Centenary Grand Prize) and the Grand Prix de l'Exposition Universelle de 1900 (1900 World Expo Grand Prize). According to Wikipedia, each competition had an entrance fee: 20 francs and 200 francs respectively. There were 166 entrants for the Centenary and 54 for the World Expo.
Top End Sports says that "Six birds were released 27 meters in front of the participant. The participant was eliminated once they missed two birds. The winner was the competitor who shot down the most birds from the sky. Nearly 300 birds were killed. The event turned out to be quite messy in the end with dead or injured birds on the ground and blood and feathers all over the place. An award of 20,000 Francs was the prize for the winner, though the top four finishers agreed to split the winnings."
The World Expo Grand Prix was won by Leon de Lunden of Belgium, who managed to kill 21 birds; the winner of the Centenary was Donald MacIntosh of Australia, who went one better with 22 birds killed. Medals won in these events are no longer counted in Olympic records.
There were no shooting events at the 1904 Olympics. In 1908 there were 15 shooting events, including clay pigeon shooting (individual and team) and 'running deer' (shooting at deer-shaped targets).
© Haydn Thompson 2017