I am the driving force for rim fire silhouette at our club. We started in April of this year. When reading the rule book it appared we could use meters or yards for target distances. I set us up in yards. I shot a match last weekend and their targets were set out at meters.

So, what is everyone using? Meters or yards? What is used for state and national matches?

Camp Sumter Sport Shooting Association in Andersonville, Georgia uses meters because all of our animals are scaled to meters. Some ranges use animals scaled to yards and some use a little of both. One range that I shoot at uses yards for pigs, but meters for the other 3 animals and another range uses yards for rams, and meters for the remaining animals.
There is so little difference that it probably doesn't matter much to the shooters, but most targets commercially available will be scaled to meters (in my experience) so meters is the logical distance to use when setting up a range. However, if you have a good source for yards scaled targets, then it shouldn't be a problem.
Thanks for keeping silhouette matches going in your area!
Bill

I have shot at a lot of ranges and have never seen one in yards. I am sure the do exist but I don't know where.

Out of the four ranges at which I've shot smallbore this year, all were set up in meters with one minor exception. The Louisiana state match was held on a 100-yard range so chickens, pigs, and turkeys were at normal distances (in meters) but the rams were at 100-yards (91.4 meters).

If your club has participants that shoot at other club matches then it would be better to set up your range to the same specifications as much as possible. If your club is very separated from other silhouette ranges then do whatever works for you.

Never noticed that (or yards) before. Huh. Go meters, its the standard and both Raton and Ridgeway (where the nationals have been the past bunch of years) are in meters.

Oh Boy, Uncle Grouch brought up something I hadn't thought of before.... animals scaled to yards or meters.

Our targets came from Quality Targets, listed at 1/5 scale. In the rule book they refer to yards or meters but only mention 1/5 scale targets and no difference in scaling.

Never have seen any mention other than "1/5".

I've never heard of two different size targets for meters vs. yards and can't imagine they would be different enough to matter. Not saying they don't exist but I highly doubt they are common.

For reference here are the distance differences...

Chickens 40m (43.7yds) -or- 40yds (36.5m)
Pigs 60m (65.6yds) -or- 60yds (54.8m)
Turkeys 77m (84.2yds) -or- 77yds (70.4m)
Rams 100m (109.3yds) -or- 100 yds (91.4m)

The resettable smallbore rams Allen shot at the Louisiana state match were at 100 yards and the actual ram targets were scaled down to 91 % of the normal 1/5 scale ram.

That 9.3 yard difference in 100 meters and 100 yards means 9 clicks difference on my wife's rifle with a 1/4 MOA click scope. That is a significant amount of over 2 inches at 100 yards. I just now looked at her rifle. I do not have 100 yard zeroes on my rifle because 100 yard ranges are not very common.

We were fortunate years ago to set up a new range with a Civil Engineer that had worked for our state highway department his whole adult life. We learned a lot that day. We had no clue as to how hard you really need pull on a tape to achieve an accurate measurement.
What our son experienced as a little kid with that engineer that day helped him decide that engineering was what he should major in.

I have always said that hobbies can teach a kid more than school at times.

Jackson , Tn is all yards.
Barley 100 yards on the range we currently use. All animals set in yards because I did not want to mix and match measurements.
Turkeys still suck.

If We could go to metets we would.

I feel like there is significant more wind effect on the bullet at 100 meters than 100 yards.
I know that a 100 meter wind call in certain conditions is more difficult than a 100 yard wind call in those same conditions.
Just that extra 9.3 yards makes things more difficult unless conditions are perfect.
Group size is smaller at 100 yards.
There are a lot of things to think about.

Daniel Boone Conservation League (AKA D'Boone) in Hubertus WI is in meters.

www.dbcl.org

jbzeus,
Welcome to the additction brother. You won't get anyone here to intervene! In fact we will ENABLE!!!

At Asheville Rifle & Pistol Club in the mountains of Asheville, NC, we have a "mixed measurement range." It is one of the ranges Uncle Grouch was talking about. Our Chikens, Pigs and Turkeys are at their metric distance, but the Rams are at 101 yds or 92.3 meters (because that is all the distance we had in front of the "100 yd" berm.

I have the animals on CAD, so I overlaid the "full size" 1/5 scale Ram over the top of a 8% smaller Ram and found there was approx .2" difference on the "nose side" of the Ram and the same on the "tail side" but less than half than on each side of Top and Bottom. I chose to just use the 1/5 scale animals at the 101 YDS and give the shooters that "extra" advantage.

I also am the guy who makes the NRA Approved, Cast-iron animals and it's not worth it to me to make the patterns for a specific (non-standard) distance, so I use them and at State Championship matches I hold, I publish a Match Director's Bulletin stating that our animals are NOT at 100 meters they are at 101 yards. Scores don't seem to be any higher than anywhere else with "all" that extra Ram material out there!

Atomicbrh is right, wind and settings are different at 100 yds vs meters. Most folks settings are about 1 minute lower at ARPC than at a true 100 meter range.

If you are in the area on the 2nd Saturday, stop in for one of our matches and you can experience it in all its glory!!!

ShootingStar
Greg

I've shot on both, the ones at 100 'Yards' were due to range limitations and being unable to go to the full 100 Meters so they set everything in yards. All the ranges I shoot at currently are in meters. I don't recall seeing anything for having to resize your targets if in yards Vs meters.

Test your rifle at the Lapua Test Ctr and if you have good 100 Meter groups it will be better at 100 yards ;)