First silhouette match

[acorneau]

I “unintentionally” shot my first small-bore silhouette match today. I had gone to see a match at Bayou Rifles, just to observe and learn how it all worked but one of the organizers I met told me watching was unacceptable and I should just jump right in and try it out, so I did.


I was shooting my only rig, my 10/22 with a Nikon Target EFR scope (9X power) with SK Standard Plus. Luckily I had time to get my scope settings for each of the four distances and practice setting the elevation and focus before the match started as well as taking a some practice shots at swinger plates at each distance.


We shot two full rounds. First round I got a 12 with 4 chickens, 4 pigs, 2 turkeys, and 2 rams.
The second round wasn’t as good for me, I got a 9 with 4 chickens, 3 pigs, no turkeys, and 2 rams.


There were 20 or so people there, three of us in the “B” division (the starter group) and I managed to take first place in my division!


I also had a chance to shoot a few other guy’s rigs including an Anschutz and a “Franken-hunter” built on a single-shot Anshutz action, a Lilja barrel, and a home-made/copied stock. Both had scopes worth more than my whole rig and were very nice to shoot. I’m thinking my step up from the 10/22 will be a CZ 455 (combo) and a bump up in the scope department.


I had a great time and I think I’m hooked on continuing to try this out, although I will have to get in a lot more practice with some paper targets before the next match next month.


Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

[Vaquero]

Congrats!
Sounds like yer hooked.

 

[Tejano Scott]

Awesome. I've always wanted to shoot one of these.

 

[jrbfishn]

Sounds like a lot of fun.

From an idjit coffeeholic

 

[Younggun]

Cool.

Is it a imed event?

 

[benenglish]

Pow-clink! It never gets old.

 

[Younggun]

What range were the targets at?

 

[Major Kong]

Man I am jealous. Kudos on your 1st place in your division!

Sent from a B-52 flying over Russia.

 

[orbitup]

Congrats. Sounds like fun, although I would have gotten smoked.

 

[acorneau]

Cool.

Is it a [t]imed event?

What range were the targets at?

You get 15 seconds to "make ready" then 2.5 minutes to shoot at five separate targets, which is plenty of time to wait for the wind, reset your stance, etc, and still have a bit of time left over.

Chickens are at 40 meters (43.7 yards), pigs are at 60 meters (65.6 yards), turkeys are at 77 meters (84.2 yards) and rams are at 100 meters (109.4 yards).

Read all about it here:

http://www.steelchickens.com/index....ouette-rifle-rules&catid=31:general&Itemid=29

 

[benenglish]

Today I talked Moonpie into competing next time I shoot a silhouette match at his home range. Of course, that'll be a long range pistol match with the targets at 50, 100, 150, and 200 meters.

If you want to shoot it, say so. I'll happily lend you a gun and all the gear.

 

[acorneau]

Thanks for the invitation Ben.

I'm not very good (or experienced) at pistol shooting so those kind of distances would be way out of my league, but I'd be willing to give it a shot.

 

[benenglish]

The targets are really big. But even if you just knock over one, you'll be hooked.

 

[MetalCutter]

I'll pile on to Ben's offer. Anyone who wants to shoot a pistol silhouette big bore or small bore match just say the word. I've got lots of stuff for you to shoot and I'll even spot for you.

 

[robertc1024]

Sweet Allen - good shooting. Frankly, I would expect nothing less from TGT's rimfire guru.

 

[jrbfishn]

You two are a bad influence.

On wallets. For those even mildly interested, that's a nice offer.

From an idjit coffeeholic

 

[acorneau]

... I would expect nothing less from TGT's rimfire guru.

Ha! I'm no where near "guru" status... more like "enthusiastic newbie".

 

[40Arpent]

Allen, on the rams, do you have to knock them down? Or is there a spotter that notes the hits? Those suckers can be hard to knock down....I have better luck "spinning" them off with a hit either on the front or back end of the ram.

 

[acorneau]

When I actually hit the rams they fell without any problem using 40-grain standard velocity ammo.

When I've done the "Plinkathon" on the pistol-sized animals (twice as big?) I have to hit the rams two, three, or even four times to get them to drop, and that's with 40-grain Mini Mags.

If you're needing a little more down-range energy you might try the new Eley Contact which is a 42 grain pill.

 

[40Arpent]

I am talking about the big rams that are chained to the posts. I guess those aren't the ones used in the silhouette match?

For the big rams, I usually use one of my .22WMR rifles. ;-)