Tax Rebate Special

[Bob259]

My custom rifles have done little with my scores, but as said you can take a box stock rifle and the top shooters will still win and get impressive scores. For some the custom rifle are just wanting something to fit them right, look good and while shooting Master scores would be great A, AA and a possible AAA score is good enough, because we, at least I, are having FUN and it's what we chose to do.

Custom rifles & high scores are not the problem everyone makes it out to be, but it's easy to blame them for the lower number of shooters. Lets look at some of the real reasons, double digit price increases in registration fees (look at what it costs alone just to shoot both SB and HP at the Nationals), failing eye sight, 'other' new hobbies, kids in every imaginable sport at school that seems to run year round now, high gas, food and travel/hotel prices are taking their toll on every activity along with increased pressures to keep your job, if you haven't lost yours yet. Now more recently add the high price of ammo and components to this mix. If you try and ban custom guns now you will kill this sport, almost like what they did when they banned the 'chin' rifle. But some times with what the NRA does I'm not sure if that's what they try to do with Silhouette, we seem no where near as organized as HP or 3P.

Like Lone Ringer said we are seeing tremendous increase in participation in Cowboy Silhouette, it's just a natural migration and what we need to do is make sure the NRA Silhouette committee doesn't screw that up too.In my opinion it's already started with the allowing of fiber optic sights and conversions that people are doing to the sights.

[Gator]

I agree with most all the comments of Lone Ringer and the others.

One more comment from one that has been in the Silhouette game for almost as long as LR has, (in the early

[BlauBear]

Custom rifles actually add interest to the sport by letting us pursue and enjoy mechanical perfection even if our scores can't keep up! Just ask Evelio how much I hate custom rifles... But there's also a fascination in wringing the last bit of performance from a budget stocker, a less noble motive than lowering the entry threshold for beginners, but then this is all about fun and more fun will attract more players.

When I began, custom rifles intimidated me but now I just admire them. Equipment is not holding me back at this stage of my development, and after lots of practice, proper fit and function are the most important factors and those can be had for surprisingly little!

[lone ringer]

Bob, what you said regarding the Silhouette Committee screwing up the sport has some truth to it although it seems that the sights you describe are not making their owners win matches. It does bother some of us to see fiber optic sights specially the ones where they rap the fiber optic material around the outside of the hood or run it along side of the barrel to gather more light and also some one of a kind very expensive vernier sights that some shooters are using on their Cowboy rifles.

I also believe the Committee opened a can of worms when they took the words

[Quonset Hut]

I have asked the Silhouette Committee in the past that they should announce the suggested changes one year in advance to give everybody around the country a chance to argue pro or against those changes rather than making them and suffering the consequences because most of the time the changes are not good or necessary but since they meet only once a year for two days to read the letters and recommendations we send them they probably figure they need to justify being there by agreeing to make some changes to the rules.

This should be the norm. In the early 90's one rifle I was going to buy for SB Sil and another family rifle I was going to use for XTC HP were both outlawed by the NRA with no warning. Some shooters were assembling Anschutz 54 sporter triggers in an illegal to the rules way to obtain a two stage trigger. This caused all two stage triggers to be banned, stopping my purchase of an otherwise fine $250 starter smallbore hunter rifle by Mauser. Around the same time, some XTC and Long Range HP people were worried that the new .50 BMG rifles would somehow take over and ruin their sport. So they, without warning, went back to a .30 cal max rule that had not existed for perhaps ten years. This now made illegal the 8MM and our Rem 8 in .35 Rem, which I was going to use to qualify for the Garand.

Sometimes pressure on the committee ends up helping shooters. When an American manufacturer (I think Cooper) couldn't get their hunter rifle to 7.5 lbs, they cried and moaned to the committee, asserting they "couldn't survive" without a silhouette gun. So the limit went up to 8.5 lbs, allowing a mid-level gun I later bought, the NS522.

I don't want to make illegal what someone shot last year, Nor can the sport support three classes. I think the $600 starter gun can be too much in the eyes of someone not used to the sport. That is why folks should bring what is in the closet, even if it is a stock 10/22, to try things out. And we let newbies shoot our guns in practice and have some decent available to lend at matches.

[BlauBear]

This is meant in the way of a challenge, a mental exercise, not a proposal to establish a third class. The present system of rifle classes and shooter classes is enough to keep people interested and challenged, so variants like this, if ever actually done, would be on the order of a club fun shoot unless someone just wants to take on the challenge of shooting in the upper ranks with one of these rigs.

[cslcAl]

I had a discussion recently with Greg about the vest omission in the rules. He told me there was a lengthy discussion at the committe meeting about vests and the use of the Past recoil shields. The Past shields are now officially allowed and when they re- worded that section the shooting vest part was left out by mistake. He was of the opinion that it would be put back in next year. ( sounds like air rifle doesn't it )
I am not going to fuss about people wearing vests at the matches I run this year, but I am not going to encourage them either.
I was also asked last year by a committe member my opinion on rebarreling and odd calibers for cowboy silhouette. It seems there was a faction lobbying for this type of rule change. I am DEAD set againt this and sent a letter stating so. We have a real nice simple sport with the lever guns; and there is absolutely no reason to complicate it by pushing the envelope as in hunter rifle. At the distances we shoot with these guns the factory offerings will perform quite well, with some good handloads. I shoot a lot, and have popped 4000 rounds through my 94 Win in the last 3 years. I don't know how many rounds it's good for, probably many many more; but I allready have a Buffalo Bill in the safe ready to go if need be. Al Foust