Tir Du Soleil

Lev Chif was an Olympic calibre marksman who grew up in Russia and moved to Montreal in the ’90s. There was no place in Montreal for him to practice the sport he loved, so in 2014, he decided to create one: Tir du Soleil. To make it more accessible, Tir du Soleil uses airguns instead of real bullets. “It’s a replica,” explains Lev. “It is just like a real gun, but it shoots with compressed air. It has the same feeling as a gun, but you can’t kill. Our philosophy is never shoot at living creatures. This is [simply] great fun and a great sport.”

There are two ranges at Tir du Soleil to keep things interesting. There’s a six-metre range and a ten-metre Olympic size. “You can shoot different kinds of targets: moving targets, interactive targets,” says Lev. “When you hit the bullseye, new things might pop up or something else will start moving. You can shoot rifles, rifles with scopes, pistols, revolvers – so it’s just great fun.”