Nostalgia

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Bob Mc Alice
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Nostalgia

Post by Bob Mc Alice »

Dateline: June 1979 at the Gateway Rifle and Pistol Club in Watkins, CO.

RELAY ONE to the line, shouts the always grouchy MD. (that's how I remember him) READY! .....I shoulder my Remington 788 in a wildcat cartridge known as the 7mm-.308. The bold heavy duplex reticle inside the Redfield 10X Silhouette Target scope settles inside the 1st pig on the rail. FIRE....Boom, "a miss over the hump" says my spotter. Damn it.

Fast forward to now. Actually, some of that content is made up. My first match that day was with my Win. 70 .30-06 elk rifle topped with a steel Weaver 3-9 X. My load was a Speer 180 gr. Hot Core really cooking along. The MD says "you will never hit anything with that outfit". What a dick he was to a new guy. I posted a 14 on the score sheet, not bad for a newbie getting pounded with the wrong gun. The Remington 788 in .308 came a couple of years later wearing a Leupold 12X target.

Last weekend at Lander I bought a like new condition Redfield 10X Silhouette Target for just $100.00....what I call a smoking good deal. The locking objective is marked 50 yd., 100 yd., 200 YM, 300 YM, 385 YM and 500 YM.

I pulled the Leupold 12X with no target knobs from my 788 in 7-08 and installed the Redfield. Today at sunrise I got it on the 200 M gong in six shots. The practice load is a 140 gr. Sierra pro hunter, 41.0 IMR 4320, CCI 200's in R-P brass. It tracks perfectly with the 35 shots I fired from the bench at 200 through 500 M back and forth. I saved the last 15 shots for some off hand shooting at the gongs. I hit my usual percentage.

The re settable target knobs lack the reference numbers on most scopes. Counting clicks while turning is the only way for me to get the right setting. Zero at 200 M....up 10 clicks for pigs....up 16 clicks for turkeys....up 30 clicks for rams.

I love this 10X Redfield. It's old school like me. 8)
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ShootingStar
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by ShootingStar »

Bob,
I love it!
Nothing wrong with "old school"!
In so many endevaors, "modern" man is realizing those "old wive's tales" really knew what they were talking about!

Keep the old stuff - the good stuff - alive all you want. I'll cheer you on!

ShootingStar
aka - Greg Chandler
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BrentD
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by BrentD »

Not sure I'd call that old school, but if it holds a zero, what else really matters?
Bob Mc Alice
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Bob Mc Alice »

That Redfield is "old school" for sure. In my Speer #10 1979 reloading manual there are a few pages dedicated to the silhouette game. The three pictures on pages 91 and 92 show a female shooter with one on her rifle and a guy with one on his on pg.92. Both rifles appear to be long actions. The gentleman's scope on top of pg.91 looks what appears to be a Leupold M8-16X. I can not find any manufacturing history on this 10X Redfield scope. A little research said it has 1/3 min. clicks with 12 MOA per turn.

The article was about silhouette history and the first organized HP match in the US at the Tucson, AZ range in 1967. The photos had to be taken at a later date.

https://books.google.com/books?id=ksO70 ... pe&f=false I found this advertisement in a 1977 magazine.

I have three 7-08's packed for Raton. The two nice match guns and a very accurate practice gun. Could I be the only reported 7-08 used in the equipment survey for 2018 ? I'm OK with that. 8)
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lone ringer
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by lone ringer »

Hello Bob, I started shooting HP silhouettes with a 308 Ruger M77 and a Redfield 3X9 with external adjustments and in my first registered match I shot 6X40, the second time I did much better when I found out early where to hold on the rams to hit them and got a bunch of them ending with a 16X20.
My rig was good enough to win the three day CA State class A Champion trophy on a shoot off and I was hooked for life. That was 40 years ago and have not lost my passion for shooting steel.
Bob Mc Alice
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Bob Mc Alice »

The Ruger M77 is a great rifle,Tony. Mine was a tang safety 7x57 for 4800 shots. At the time it wore a 6.5 x 20 Leupold with fine duplex. It helped put my name three times on a Wyoming State Championship trophy, and a CO State Champ trophy, too. 8) And, it was the very same rifle Mr.Bonner used for his first ever HP match at CRC way back in '07, I think. He cut his HP teeth in with a 7mm. :D He shot mid teens with it in the wind. Look at him now......a high power rifle NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!! :-bd (psssst, it was all spotter :-$ )

The old Ruger gets shot all the time now wearing a fitted Remington 7mm-08 barrel and Leupold 12x with knobs. 150 Sierra GameKings at all targets. Great rifle. I will probably use it for this Sundays match. I can't get enough of banging steel, either.
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by EQ Guy »

My first silhouette rifle was my Sako Finbear 270 topped with a 2-7 power Hurricane scope. The first match I shot with it my score was a 7/40. I shot in the first California State match shot at the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center's Ione range. During the match I managed to have that magic moment when the rifle held still on the animals and I got my first 5 in a row on both rams and chickens and also shot my first AA score and was booted to A class from B class. That was my favorite memory of silhouette shooting. Unfortunately those "magic" moments are few and far between. Also I discovered that the rifle I used to hunt deer with was too heavy to be legal in "hunter" rifle silhouette class so I had to sit out the hunter rifle match.
Bob Mc Alice
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Bob Mc Alice »

EQ Guy, I am familiar with that range you mention having shot there several times. I lived in Reno, NV and worked in Sparks during a two year job transfer from spring '96 through spring '98. Finding silhouette matches was not a problem in the area. I shot two seasons of HP and SB at SVSC and also SB in Portola and HP/SB north of Reno at Palomino Valley. Those were rainy winter and springs if I remember and you needed a row boat or chest waders to set up HP turkeys and rams at Sacramento. A few matches were canceled due to bad weather or getting over the pass was impossible during east side snow storms.

It was at SVSC that I met the late great Dan Theodore and his side kick Tim K.
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by jnyork »

Bob, I fired in the Nevada State High Power Silhouette championship in 1979 or 1980, it was held in one of those little towns south of Reno, Gardnerville maybe. Anyway, fewer than 20 participants, the winner IIRC hit around 17-18 out of 40 one day, same the next. He was shooting a 30.06 in one of those old Remington pump actions, model 742? I think , Weaver 6X scope.

Times have certainly changed. :D
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by EQ Guy »

Bob
I used to carpool to Sacto with Dan, Tim and Drew. I sure do miss those days. They no longer shoot high power or smallbore silhouette there. Drew is also responsible for Dan getting into BPCR as Drew let him shoot his Shilo 45-70 at a match and Dan was hooked.
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Siluetas55 »

Brother McAlice,

I realize that I'm way late to the party but I understand the "nostalgia" factor big time. I was introduced to silhouette and was shooting smallbore from June 1979 through April 1980 at the old Bakersfield Rifle Club in south central CA. I was using a borrowed Anshutz 64, Lyman 10X scope and Remington 22 Target ammo. I finally girded my loins and went to Avenal Rifle Club to shoot "with the big boys" in January of 1980. While there, I watched guys like Ralph Corral, Chuey Galban, Tony Tello and Jimmy Goodnight warm-up for high power. Needless to say, I was enthralled!!!

I decided to meet "the boys" down in the dirt parking lot and, after listening to what they had to say (at max volume due to the fact that most of them were a bit deaf from years of hp shooting), I decided to stick my neck out and let them know that I was interested in high power. This was a big deal...they were studs and I was an also ran in comparison...lol.

Jack Hill was in attendance and looked me dead in the eye. He asked me if I was serious. I said "Hell, yes." He smiled, told me to un-f myself, sign up for HP and to meet him at the back of his Chevy Suburban (many of you "old bastards" will remember Jack's Suburban). Jack handed me a Mexican Mauser with a Lyman 6x Alaskan, in his stock, and .308 Win to compete with. I screwed up big time when I asked him what I owed him for the use of the rig and ammo. You would have thought that I asked him if he had the clap!!! Regardless, I shot a whopping 15x40, won Unclassified, gained my "A" class classification and, as they say, the rest was history!

I won't go into how many barrels Jack put on my actions (In the 80's and 90's I was shooting a lot) or what else transpired between then and now. Lots of silhouette water under the bridge...as it were. Lot of history there, of both sides of the border (and I will tell you straight-up, I loved shooting in Mexico). I loved every second of it and wouldn't trade a day on the firing line for anything else.

Bottom line, I want to share with you the following. Jack Hill passed in 2007. Several years later, his son Keith Hill came by the house (Reno, NV) with a soft rifle case and several boxes of ammo. He shared with me that he had no clue what to do with this "particular" rifle and ammo. He thought that Jack would appreciate my having it and shooting same. Guess what, it was the same rig from 1980!!! With the 1973 National HP Championship sticker on the right-side of the butt-stock. Will tell you that I cried all afternoon post receipt!

Once this COVID19 crap backs off, I plan to take this rig to Hat Creek in NorCal and see if I can still get them to hit the ground...In Jack's memory!

Wish me luck!

Sincerely,
Last edited by Siluetas55 on Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Steve Harris
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Siluetas55 »

Brother McAlice,

Two other guys that were standing in the Avenal Gun Club parking lot dirt were Charlie Gill (Jared Perry's grandpa) and Martin Hull.

Got to love "old school."
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by TheBugFather »

Love this stuff, keep it going please.

Dennis
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Pete »

Hey Bob, it was great to see you in St. Louis. When I ran those "Redfield's" I wrapped white friction tape around the knobs and made my own marks.

Pete
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