Is silhouette dying?

[teetertotter]

Oh, I get it!! My wife and I will be staying over night in Chattanooga next Thursday on our way to Newnan, GA and then over to Anniston, AL. and back home. Probably get into Chattanooga 6PM or so. We are always passing through couple times a year. 30 some years ago, we explored Chattanooga with our then elementary school kids.

[JoeD]

New to this forum, but thought I would add my 2 cents. I started the SB Silhouette match at our club back in the 80"s http://www.scssa.org/. It became evident to me after the first couple of matches that the targets were too small for the average shooter. Joe Average shoots a couple of matches and typically gets 15/40. Guess what? He does not come back. Sure the hardcore shooters shoot every match, but their number is usually pretty small. As match director I was one of the hardcore shooters. I averaged 33-34/40. Best I ever shot was a 36/40 - beat Troy Lawton that day.
That match has long since departed.

[bigmike6970]

I am new to the forum and to Silhouette shooting. But thought that I would put in my 2 cents as a new shooter.

I had thought about trying it for a while but did not know anything about it. But I went to a work party at our club and one of the projects was making improvements on the silouette range. Well I jumped in and started to help turn out a couple of the guys that were working on the project were the men that ran the matches. I express interest and they said come out, and give it a try. They asked if I had a rifle I said sure an old remington 581. they told me that would work, But I did not have a scope at the time. They said to come out anyway, so I did it was one of the practice sessions and one of the gentlemen let me borrow one of his rifles, and I was hooked. I did not make it out to a match for a couple months because of some other things that came up but I got a scope for my rifle, got is zeroed, and took my nephew out to the match with me, he was not going to shoot that day but just watch. Anyway when the same gentleman found out I had my nephew with me he was like well he should shoot if he is here, and he loaned my nephew a rifle to shoot with. Now my nephew is hooked after going out 1 time. I only hit 7 targets and my nephew hit 4 but we had a lot of fun. It sure if fun to see the targets fly when you hit them.

I think that if some of the regular shooters encourage new people to try it by having some loaner rifles handy and ammo it may get a few more people started.

There are a couple of other people I want to take out to shoot a match maybe they will get hooked also.

[teetertotter]

Welcome to SC big mike and to let us know how you became involved with our sport. We are all a nice bunch everywhere you might go. It is nice to hear you are becoming involved and being helpful to your range. Up keep at our silhouette range is always work in progress and a few of us do a little at a time as required. I will be developing a campaign to invite others at our club to try out our discipline, etc. I started out with only a Marlin 39a rifle with a $100.00 scope and used for 2 years until this past February where I replaced. First time I owned a fire arm was 4 years ago at age 65 and a year later decided to join our local club. Have loads of fun!

[silhouette13]

Their egos are crushed. Maybe a "Stock Class" will help

i have seen mention about "old" or "original" hunter class rules, what wre they and if some on has a digital copy i would love to read them.

not knocking anyones custom hunter builds, but they dont look like hunting rifles, they are in the rules so they are ok with me.

dave

[CZforlife]

Not to cause another mini battle, but everybody that is against the custom hunter builds are any of you beyond average as far as hieght and size goes? Personally being 6'7 my custom hunter is the first rifle that actually fit me! Besides aren't factory guns made for the average size guy? What about us big guys?

[Dee]

Not to cause another mini battle, but everybody that is against the custom hunter builds are any of you beyond average as far as hieght and size goes? Personally being 6'7 my custom hunter is the first rifle that actually fit me! Besides aren't factory guns made for the average size guy? What about us big guys?

You are right on the $ BH. I am also a larger shooter @ 6'4" and 225ish pounds those little stocks rifles come with are like using a broomstick for a stock. But even those that are more vertically challenged that I shoot with find the custom stock a world better with regards to how it fills the hands and feels like something more substantial when shoulder. Along with the bigger palm swells and thicker more pronounced cheek area and forearm the butt also drops nicely to get into the shoulder firmly while still maintaining a upright head position.

I think what most people who do no have a custom rifle do not realize is that it just helps to make you a better shooter it doesn't just make you a better shooter by taking ownership. This game is already hard enough as it is, having equipment that actually fits you is not to much to ask IMO.


Dee

[kevinbear]

Silhouette participation around here seems to wax and wane like the moon, one year were worried we don't have enough people so we go out and recruit new victims next thing you know we have 25 or 30 people and it takes all day to shoot a couple of matches.
It's pretty simple folks, if you don't have enough participation talk to your friends at work, at gunshows or just about anywhere and invite them out for a day of shooting. Shooting these little steel targets is addictive as hell for some of us, and you never know ahead of time who will get the bug so invite lots of people and downplay the seriousness of it the first time out.
Silhouette is certainly not dying around Denver right now if anything it's growing.
Kev

[Innocent]

It's in the prizes in Denver area Kevin. Some good folks running some great matches. Takes a bit of effort but it is worth it.

Mary

[kevinbear]

[quote="Innocent"]It's in the prizes in Denver area Kevin. Some good folks running some great matches. Takes a bit of effort but it is worth it.

Mary[/quote]
10-4, Bonner does a great job.








He paid me to write this!

[steveyacht]

I am new to this site as well as totally new to the sport. I haven't even so much as fired one round at a SB Target yet. I have been talking to the management at the one range I belong to and they are supportive, to a point. Most of this club are handgun shooters, primarily USPSA, Steel Challenge and IPSC. Out of the 8 seperate ranges, only one is designated as a Rifle range with a maximum didtance of 150 yards.

I plan on taking my target, target stands and four of my Rimfire rifles...... Winchester model 61, Remington 597 w/3-9 scope, Henry Lever and my Remington 541T. I will set up 20 targets at 50 Meters, start shooting and see who comes on over to take a look. Hell, if no one even watches, I will get some practice in..... and set up at 100 meters. Matter of fact I plan on trying this on Sunday when they have a steel challenge match. I need to sight in at 40 meters and then perform an ammo test to see what shoots best at 100 meters.

Hopefully, I can stir up some interest in the game!

[pbansen]

I'm also a total noob to both the sport and the forum and maybe the fact that new people like me and Steve and others are turning up here is a hopeful sign, eh?

I was able to find a club that shoots smallbore silhouette in Portola, California, which is about 35 miles from where I live, thanks to an inquiry on this forum and the replies that I received from all of you - thanks! I went to their last smallbore match of the season and met a very cordial and encouraging group of people. I will definitely shoot with them at every opportunity once the season starts up again in the spring. There is also what appears to be a very active club and smallbore schedule at a club near Burney, California. This is a significantly longer drive for me, but I'll go up there to one of their matches and see what's going on.

There is an excellent, County-owned range in Washoe County, Nevada and a club (Palomino Valley Gun Club) that has a regular competition schedule - including silhouette - at that range. The catch is that they don't currently shoot any smallbore silhouette. I've e-mailed the club president asking if they would revive smallbore if there was interest and if I can assist in any way. Smallbore seems promising, because it's the most accessible, least expensive point of entry into the sport - it would be my guess that virtually everyone who shoots has a .22 rifle in their inventory.

I'm also going to try to get something started locally (Truckee, California, which is a little north of Lake Tahoe). There's pretty significant cost involved in getting the targets and other materials, but I think it's manageable. We're working on getting a little group together to get this started - I may try to get this going as a challenge between fire departments (I'm a fire chief) and hope that it will catch on and expand from there (we can challenge the cops...).

Bottom line? Even in an area where we have about 6 months of serious winter every year, there is interest. I sure envy those of you who live in an area where it's mild enough to shoot year 'round, though.

Pete Bansen
Truckee, California

[Innocent]

Pete,
Welcome to the crazy addictive sport! It would be fun to get law enforcement and firefighters competing against each other, I have often thought about trying to get a group of air rifle version going on the college campus I work on. Smallbore is fun, but when you try the dark side you will be even more addicted, but we will take them from all disciplines. Good luck in getting a group together there are quite a few of us with experience out here that are more than willing to offer advice! I have yet to shoot in CA, so maybe I'll make it to your corner of the state soon.

Mary

[pbansen]

It would be fun to get law enforcement and firefighters competing against each other

Oh, I think the concept could be quite promising! Cops usually think they are wonderful shots. I'll leave it at that.

Here's a question for you. The club in Portola uses 4" by 4" steel square tubing to support the targets. The square tubing sits on the ground and has small welded tabs to designate the target positions. The tubes for chickens and pigs are filled with concrete; those for the turkeys and rams are empty. This is a great and very stable method, but a four foot long chunk of 4 by 4 box tubing full of concrete is somewhat less than portable. They also have low (like 16" high), dirt berms behind the targets, which is a great setup, but probably not something I'm going to be able to pull off at the local Forest Service range.

What have you seen used as a target support that would be stable, but still reasonably portable? I could fabricate something out of steel flat stock with legs to support it above the ground (like 6 or 8" high) and make the legs removable. The steel shelf for the targets has to be thick and wide enough to have enough mass that the targets don't get dislodged due to a bullet strike on the front edge of the shelf or on the shelf itself, but that shouldn't be hard to determine - I would think that 5/16" or 3/8" by 4" flat stock would be heavy enough to work. I guess a railroad tie would work also, if the top was smooth enough to keep the targets plumb, but there's that portability issue again.

I haven't found a rule that states the height at which targets must be set - is there a standard, required height (or acceptable range of heights)? From the pictures I've seen of other clubs, it seems like there's some variation in what is used.

Thanks for your help,
Pete

[ShootingStar]

I haven't found a rule that states the height at which targets must be set - is there a standard, required height (or acceptable range of heights)?

There are rules about spacing between targets horizontally (Section 4.3 Targets should be placed a minimum of one target width apart, but no more than 3 1/2", widths tails to head.)

There's nothing in the rules that I have seen about target height, but there are some things to consider from a functional standpoint. Backstops help to stop animal flight and show impacts of misses and as such dictate the height at which you can/should place the animal targets. From a shooters perspective, the best height is one which allows the most neutral (natural) body position for shooting. BUT depending on the lay of the land, the targets may be relatively high or low. From a target setter/resetter perspective they/I would not want to reach way down to pick up a fallen target then have to reach waaaaay up high to set it because it would take many up/down trips to reset rams because I can't hold all 10 in my hands at the same time.

So in general all around reasonable heights for the stands are somewhere between knee height (hard for us old folks to bend waaaay down and set a bunch of animals) and chest height. If you are looking for portability of stands, probably the lower the better for less overall mass to carry, lift and set up.

Probably not much help, nothing very specific, just general thoughts.

ShootingStar