Does silhouette need an overhaul?

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xpilot
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by xpilot »

Mr. Ring, Please accept my invitation to shoot a HP match with us at Rio Salado. Jim B. will vouch for me as being very helpful, empathetic and politically correct.

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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by glen ring »

xpilot...I thank you sir and would love to shoot with you. I have no idea where Rio Salado is. I purchased a kimber 257 Roberts a couple of years ago to shoot highpower silhouette with and have yet to shoot a match. If a novice, like myself, wouldn't be too much of a bother then I would love to shoot. Politically correct, empathetic not a consideration...being able to answer many questions about the BC of bullets and required power for animal knockdown would be great. I would like to invite you to our Regional Cowboy Lever action match in Oklahoma City in May. We have a great range and we shoot with some of the friendliest people I have ever met.
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Jim Beckley
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by Jim Beckley »

Jimbo, In my very humble opinion, you are the patron saint of match directors!
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by glen ring »

Jim Beckly.. I think the start of this post by Dustin was to find out how to improve the numbers in silhouette. My comment wasn't meant to be a Red Herring...Only an observation. Lever Action silhouette and Highpower Silhouette are both governed by the NRA who apparently makes no effort to promote one more than the other . Highpower Silhouette numbers were 49 this year at the national championship ( feel free to correct me on any of my numbers if I am mistaken ) and were 178 at the Lever Action nationals this year. Our regional last year was attended by 48 shooters ( our capacity ) and we will probably be turning down folks in a few weeks for the 2015 match. I have been around and have shot competitively since 1980 . I approach any shooting sport as if I have never been around guns, but want to try. I have seen more than one shooter not continue in a sport because of some cranky old white guy. I have competed in pistol matches where the shooters are A ++ personality types and intense competitors who have occasionally invited another shooter to visit them behind the berm. I am no stranger to any of this. I just want to see shooting sports grow and I recruit as many folks as I can and I answer a LOT of questions that might appear to me and my buds as stupid...but we answer them. I want new shooters to seek me out to try any sport I'm involved with. I have found Lever action shooters to be the most friendly group of shooters I have ever been around. If you shoot Lever action silhouette I invite you to come to the Oklahoma City Gun Club and shoot with us. You'll encounter many very friendly guys and gals that will answer all of your questions and let you shoot any of our guns ....heck we'll even furnish the ammo.
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Jim Beckley
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by Jim Beckley »

Everyone would like to see this sport grow, and at one time it was the fastest growing shooting sport there was, but you can ask anyone who has been shooting this sport long enough to know what happened to that. Another thing is just pure numbers, I can personally think of 20-25 people who have passed on and I bet another 40-50 whose health has caught up with them and they no longer shoot. The short end of the numbers game is the low number of new shooters that have started shooting silhouettes to replace the ones that have left. There are many comments, suggestions and so forth on how to bring them in, but from what I've seen it's not happening. As far as match directors go, in the corporate world I have seen call it what you will office politics, backstabbing, ass kissing, so on and so forth to steal someone else's job, but I have yet to see one wolf at the door to steal a match directors job.
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by glen ring »

Lever action silhouette Has grown so I guess those shooters are coming over to shoot with us. Jeanne and I took over the match director's job at our range because we saw the potential of running off or discouraging shooters. It's not easy. I have trained professionals for years and THAT's damn sure not easy. I am an outsider in High power silhouette but I have stated I think highpower silhouette needs more ambassadors. Blaming the NRA or whatever is not the remedy as the same NRA is over Lever action and our sport is growing. You are still invited to come shoot Lever Action silhouette with us. We recruit new shooters and put on fun matches...which you'll see if you enter our regional. If you are unfamiliar with what it takes to shoot CLA send me a personal e-mail and I'll give you my personal number. We do matches right here and we've had some good models Like James Slusher in Van Buren Arkansas and Dave Brooks and the gang in Topeka Kansas.
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by Innocent »

JB, we need to rendezvous, so you can learn to shoot some lever action firearms. Shall we invite 259 and McAlice so they don't get jealous?

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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

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McAlice for sure, 259 if you insist!
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by Jerry G »

"Highpower Silhouette numbers were 49 this year at the national championship"

And about twice that for small bore. Please tell me why there has to be at least 10 shooting points for each animal. Why does the championship have to be held after school is out? Why does the host club have to host the SB and HP back to back?

None of that is any help to turnouts. There are six shooting points at Pe Ell and they handle 100 SB shooters with time left over. There are many ranges that could host the SB nationals and give people all over the country to compete at the national level. If we were allowed to hold the SB nationals in March, April, October, or November there are many ranges in the southern part of the US that could be used.

Rifle silhouette does need some changes and the equipment used has nothing to do with it. Many of the moderate priced rifles do preform just fine along with the less expensive scopes. SB ammo is another matter.

I also think all the money spent on 'men on sticks' and 'rocks' could be better used in buying prizes and reduct the number if awards given out. With the small turnouts we have now there is no way you can justify the number of trophies given out. I'm not sure the money spent on people keeping score is well spent either.
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by cslcAl »

"Highpower Silhouette numbers were 49 this year at the national championship

Just to set the record straight, I am looking at my results bulletin from the 2014 Nationals and there were 70 shooters for HP and 63 for HPHR.
I was going to correct this from the other post and it slipped my mind.

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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by Jerry G »

Thanks for the correction Al. That number still doesn't change my post. I ran a state HP match in Idaho back in the mid 80s where we had 70 shooters and only 3 shooting positions for each animal. Some of the restrictions put on national matches have hurt the sport.
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by Another Dang 9 »

The gas prices this summer I'm sure were a big factor too. Hopefully it will stay were it is now for the foreseeable future. I will plan on shooting both HP and SB this year if it does.
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chuckjordan2
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by chuckjordan2 »

I think you're all wrong, Silhouette is on the increase!

Don't believe me? Read the ShootingUSA BenchRest Silhouette article here: http://www.shootingusa.com/TV_SCHEDULE/ ... 34-02.html

Read specifically the last paragraph "At Ridgway’s first Varmint Bench Rest Silhouette match in 2009, 28 shooters participated. Five years later, nearly 120 attend regular monthly matches. It’s long range shooting with precision bench rest rifles, high-end optics, and advanced rests, in a new and fun sport for the entire family"

If you think about that this article says, it tells a lot. We just need to sell our existing equipment and buy new.

Hey, why isn't there a BenchRest section here on SC?
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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by cslcAl »

Chuck, I'm glad you brought up this new event. While the print article is informative, you need to watch the TV show to really get why this works. Four individuals came up with this concept, and had the desire and passion to expand the range, make the targets, and promote the game to attract new shooters. When you watch the show you can hear the passion in Fred Kielbowicks voice.
Now for the lecture. This is what it takes to make programs work. Typing a few world on this forum won't get it done. It takes your time, sweat, and passion full time ( not just on match day ) to grow the sport at your location. If no one else wants to do it, guess what your it. I have been involved running silhouette matches at our club since 1984. While there is work involved on match day, I spend a lot of time at home doing promotioninal tasks. ( phone calls, emails,posts on here and other sites, ect. ). And don't forget my favorite tasks club meetings, and correspondence with the NRA.
If anyone thinks this is easy, it's not. And neither is silhouette, but it can be done, and you can be successful. You just need to at least try.

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Re: Does silhouette need an overhaul?

Post by Kevin6q »

I used to shoot matches but found them to take too long. More time was spent walking or driving to reset the targets then to shoot them. If I remember there is 2'30" per string of 5 shots or 20 minutes per match. Each round took over an hour so we were standing around doing nothing for 2/3 of each match. My kids like to shoot and the clubs were great helping them learn the ropes but the kids were bored and didn't want to attend matches any more. We have a full set of 1/5 animals and a 150 yd. range at the house and shoot silo at home instead of going to matches.

What was interesting about the benchrest shooting was having the setters in a bunker to reduce the time needed to reset. If a match could be shot in 30 minutes so the down time was drastically reduced we'd most likely start attending matches again.
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