[shtrdave]

Smallbore silhouette is shot at 4 different distances.

Chickens at 40 meters (half dollar size)
Pigs at 60 meters (medium fist size looking at curled fingers and knuckles)
Turkeys at 77 meters (medium fist looking from the thumb side)
Rams at 100 meters (3x5 index card with legs and head)

Match is usually 40 shots (10 at each distance) You will come to the line with your 5 rounds and the range master will call ready, at this point you may pick up your gun, dry fire or load. 15 seconds later you get a fire command, and you have 2 minutes 30 seconds to fire your 5 shots starting left to right. One shot at each animal in order, hit or miss the next shot is shot at the animal to the right of the one you just shot at. (provided you did not shoot them out of order, this happens from time to time).

Then you will put your rifle down and wait and the procedure starts over again.

I don't remember what type of gun you said you had, but a Standard rifle is any safe trigger that weighs 10lb 2oz or less with any sights. A Hunter class is 2 lb trigger with a standard hunting or sporter style stock and any sights weighing 8.5 lb or less with empty mag it must also have a tapered barrel. There are some other aspects of the stock that may preclude you from shooting you particular gun such as adjustable cheek or butt, butt may be adjusted for length of pull i believe.

I am sure i have forgot something, but just getting ready to leave work, someone else will no doubt fix my mistakes if I have made any.

I would say go and talk to the people and just jump right in. It is a lot of fun, as things actually happen when you hit them, not just putting a hole in a piece of paper. I think this is the easiest game to get someone hooked on shooting on, because of the instant gratification of a hit.

I know i usually have an extra gun when I go to a match, and I'm sure others are the same way. A lot of us are more than happy to lend you a gun for the day if needed.

good luck.

 

[Fatstrat]

Thanks!

I have a Mossberg 46M, but I'm tinking I want to use my Mossberg 321K or Remington 510. Both single shots. I can't wait, it looks/sounds SO FUN!
Do you win prizes?

 

[shtrdave]

Usually they pay out money at local matches, and trophies and such at larger events.

It consists of 5 classes, and you usually shoot in the highest class on your first shoot, but a lot of places give you the first shoot free.

Class (standard) 40 shot match

B 0-14
A 15-20
AA 21-27
AAA 28-33
Master 34-40

Class ( Hunter) 40 shot match

B 0-14
A 15-19
AA 20-25
AAA 26-31
Master 32-40

If you start in B class it will take 2 shoots int the next higher class to move you up to that class. Once into the A,AA and so on it takes 3 in the next class to move up. If you shoot 2 classes above your current one you move automatically to the next class.

In my area the shoot is conducted in 80 shot format of shooting 2 forty shot course of fire, some will record them in your scorebook as 2 fortys and some just use the aggregate of the 2 and record that.

Cost around here is 10.00 for the shoot, with 50% going to the club and the rest paid back to the shooters. Some matches you reset your own targets and some will have youngsters come and set them, for a price, most that pay target setters have some sort of tip jar to help pay for them.

Not familiar with the models of 22 you have listed, but I am sure one of them will work fine for you to start out, then look out once the bug hits, you will be out looking for for better quality rifles and scopes.

By the way when sighting in at 40 meters you will need about a full turn to a turn plus to get to the rams. So if you get your gun sighted in and you don't have that much elevation you will need to shim the rear of the scope or get a set of Burris Signature rings with the inserts in them. A piece of folded Aluminum Foil works well in a pinch to get the scope shimmed, maybe .020 - .025 should be all that is needed.

Any other questions just ask.

 

[Fatstrat]

Is there an open sight class. I don't own a scope.

 

[shtrdave]

I have never seen anyone shoot this with open sights, but I am sure it could be done. Not sure what degree of sucess one would achieve.

 

[Fatstrat]

Well I thought 109 yrds was going to be a hellava shot w/open sights. Maybe it's time to buy a scope. In the meantime, are there any kind of compititions w/open sights. One of the gunclubs has a 50 yrd shoot?

 

[shtrdave]

I would talk to some of the people at your local clubs, and see what they have going on. I shoot some open sight in the winter in our leagues, we shoot a light rifle standing league at 50 feet. I use appeture sights.

 

[Remmy]

So there is just standard and hunter classes? looking at the weights, trigger pull, and barrel type, would my ruger with boyds blaster and GM .920 bbl be out of the question?

 

[shtrdave]

I don't see why it wouldn't be a useable gun for the match, as long as it makes weight. You may want to think about some sort of case deflector, as in this disipline it is your responsibility to keep the empties from pummelling the person next to you.

Unlike in Bullseye Pistol where it seems to be up to the guy you are going to pummel to protect themselves.

This gun would be in the standard class.

Briley makes or made a gun for silhouette from the 10/22. I think there may be one for sale in the classifieds right now.

 

[bass_singer]

Is there an open sight class. I don't own a scope.

Depends on where you shoot. At our range there is a silohette match the first Saturday of every month. But it is tube fed, open sights.

Tube fed to try to elimate target rifles. Iron sights (peep sights ok) to make it a skill contest instead of a money contest. Most of the shooters here shoot Marlin 39A's with peeps. Some Winchester 9422 and some other varieties. Even a couple Marlin model 60's (tube fed - open sights).

Find out what your club does and have fun...

Oh, our range uses score books - first shoot is no book ok but if you shoot again you are expected to buy the book ($11). They keep track of your scores that way. I don't think any one gets prize money but the fee ($5 per match) goes towards range fees and mailing costs. I haven't been able to get back but I got a nice little certicate from the rangemaster with my scores and category acknowledgement, etc.

 

[vepr762]

There is also "cowboy" class smallbore

Pros...correct me if I am wrong...I usually screw up some of the details.

"...any tube fed, leveraction, pump, or semi-auto with open iron sights."

"Cowboy" class shoots at "pistol" caliber leveraction silhouettes, but they are of a lighter steel. I think they are 6x(?) larger than regular smallbore targets. I found it easier to start off with a lever gun and build up some confidence before switching to those tiny targets that kept moving around in my scope.

 

[jnyork]

Vepr762, you are , I think, talking about Smallbore Cowboy Lever Action Silhouette. We shoot 1/2 scale targets, (1/2 the size of the standard silhouettes) There is a difference between "open sights" and "iron sights", iron sights includes receiver and tang sights, some call them "peep sights". The rules call for "iron sights". The .22 silhouettes are made from 1/4" and 3/32" steel, the pistol cartridge silhouettes are made from 3/8" and 1/4" steel. Smallbore Rifle silhouette targets are 1/5 scale of the standard targets. Tiny devils!! Shooting them with iron sights would be **** tough sledding. Best Regards..

 

[17004]

Homemade

Do any of you guys make homemade silhouette targets for practice? How?

 

[jnyork]

Shadowhunter, go to the NRA website under competitions, look for silhouette, download the PDF for the targets, you can scale them to any size you want. Make stencils out of Masonite or other hard board, use spray paint and some old paper bag paper to make targets. Works great!!

 

[Al D.]

Fastrat,
Dave had given a pretty good explaination of the smallbore silhouette game. If you have a good hunting style rifle that meets the requirements of the Silhouette Hunting Rifle class, you can also use that rifle in the Smallbore Silhouette Rifle class....but not the reverse.
As far as shooting this game without a scope, you will be at a distinct disadvantage. Since you must shoot down the targets in a certain order, you must be able to pick out the correct target to shoot. This is not too difficult to do with chickens or pigs, but it is definitely a challenge for the turkeys and rams. Been there and done that. I shot my first match with my Remington 514 (open sights). Then I tried my Remington 521T (peep sights). (Just because I happened to have these two in my collection and nothing else suitable to shoot). Then I got a Remington 541T and put a 20x scope on it. That gun is now history and I now use an Anschutz 1710D with 36x Weaver.
It is fairly essential that you know what your baseline zero is. That is usually your chicken setting. From there, you must know how many clicks to come up (or down since you may not start on chickens) for the other distances. So, a good quality scope with target type turrets on the adjusting knobs is a definite plus.
Hope you are not swamped with all of this info. Best thing to do is go to a match, watch what is going on and ask a lot of questions.
Al

 

[Magical]

Fastrat,
You might ask around to find a CMP match. It is a great compitition, 3 position shooting, and you can use your open sights. Only problem if all your rifles are single shot.
For single shot matches ask about for a prone match. Shot at 50 and 100 meters. 20 shots in 20 minutes repeated six times. Works well for your single shot rifles.
Ask your local gun shop about competitions in the area.
Hope you find lots of places and dates to shoot.
Have fun and be safe.

 

[vepr762]

JNYORK,
Thanks for clarifying the details. I usually get the details close and figure out the rest by watching and listening.

Our smallbore matches allow the shooter to compete in all 3 classes on the same day. We usually have 3-4 relays with "standard" rifle having the fewest shooters and "cowboy" having the most. It'a usually a 5-6 hour day.

We also have a monthly "pistol" caliber lever action matches and normally a "rifle" caliber lever action and/or "cast bullet" match. Our "cast bullet" matches allow shooters to use high power bolt guns only if they use jacketless cast lead bullets.

 

[jnyork]

Sounds like you have a good active club. Mind if I ask where it is located?

 

[vepr762]

jnyork,
I sent you a PM.