SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

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lone ringer
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SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by lone ringer »

Remember the name Sporting .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS Rifle Silhouette. It probable does not mean anything to most of you, although is an extremely popular SB rifle silhouette discipline in the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. I knew of the new sport because of the many friends I have in both of those states and in 2017 I was invited to compete at their "World's Rifle Silhouette Championships" held in Hermosillo, Sonora(only three or four of us Americans were in attendance). The Championships were held over two days and consisted in one 40 round HP, one 40 round SB Mira Abierta (.22 Open Sights) the first day and two 40 SB matches the second day.
I placed in the Senior class in all three matches, got second place Senior in the SB and won first place Senior in the HP and SB open sight events.
I was using borrowed rifles owned by my good friend Carlos Gongora from Ensenada, Mexico. The most popular rifles seen at the match were CZ and BRNO, although I also saw a few ANSCHUTZ, WALTER, REMINGTON, WINCHESTER, ETC. All of those factory unaltered sporting rifles with open sights.
Since they have been having this type of competition for the last ten years or so, the shooters have gotten so good at it that it almost requires a perfect score to win even monthly matches.

At any rate after thinking about it for some time I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the Sporting .22 RF Rifle Silhouette discipline to the USA. The rules are going to be the same as SB Lever Action Rifle Silhouette as far as classifications (if you do not have a classification in SB LA you will shoot unclassified and will be placed in a class depending on the score fired), distances, size of targets, number of shots fired, and time allowed.

The rifle requires the use of an unaltered Sporting .22 RF rifle with open sights as it came from the factory (MAYOR MANUFACTURER only) and no one of a kind rifle, all types of rifles included (single shot, bolt action, lever action, pump action and semi-auto). Not allowed: custom rifles, target rifles, bull barrels, thumb hole stocks and other items used in target/match rifle competition).


Targets are going to be the same targets used in Hunters Pistol and SB Lever Action which are Half Size shot at 40,50,75 and 100 meters, the time allowed will be 30 seconds to load and 2 minutes to fire 5 rounds and then repeat (unless the match like in Mexico is shot at the same time as the SB rifle silhouette then the time allowed would be 15 seconds to load and 2.5 minutes to fire 5 rounds.

This type of competition is not going to be sanctioned by any known organization such as NRA, so that their committees will not have the power to change these simple rules. The intent is to attract new shooters that do not want to spend $3000 or more in a silhouette rifle. If you would like to join me in my effort to introduce this new rifle silhouette discipline please do not hesitate to contact me at tony.tello at gmail.com, I am also in FB at TONY TELLO and have more than one FB page dedicated to the promotion of Rifle Silhouette.

I already talked in person to Jim Luke who organized the last two Western Nationals at the Whittington Center in Raton, NM to see if it would be possible for me to have a match before, during or after the next Western Nationals and he was very receptive to the idea of having an introductory Sporting .22 RF Open sight Rifle Silhouette at the national level.
Having seen the popularity of the event on all of the shooting ranges south of the border I don't doubt for a minute that this new discipline is going to be just as popular here in the US.
If you can, don't wait until next year when the sport is going to be introduced at Raton, NM. As far as I am concerned there are not going to be any mayor changes unless I made a mistake on what I wrote. I am going to copy and past this post and you will see it in some of me FB pages as well.
Last edited by lone ringer on Fri Oct 21, 2022 12:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by cedestech »

Because of range limitations the lever gun match I run at BRI is effectively just a smallbore match… We shoot a “Cheater Rifle Match” in honor of Larry Engle who always brings his CZ Ultra Lux… I bring mine, Pat Steiger rotates though one of the thousands of Walther pre-war training rifles he covets… It’s fun.

FWIW, is the Mexican open rifle match shot on regular silhouette targets? I thought they also used a ground squirrel and dove?
Emmett Dibble, Houston, Texas. Where's my buddy Jason? Keeper of electronic records and banisher of little pieces of paper?
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

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Count me in.
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by lone ringer »

Emmett
cedestech wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 3:24 pm Because of range limitations the lever gun match I run at BRI is effectively just a smallbore match… We shoot a “Cheater Rifle Match” in honor of Larry Engle who always brings his CZ Ultra Lux… I bring mine, Pat Steiger rotates though one of the thousands of Walther pre-war training rifles he covets… It’s fun.

FWIW, is the Mexican open rifle match shot on regular silhouette targets? I thought they also used a ground squirrel and dove?
The targets used in Mexico are the same as the ones we use in SB Lever Action. In many of their other metallic silhouette competitions they use doves or chickens of different sizes depending on the distance. Those CZ rifles with the longer than normal barrels are the ones sought after by the Mexican shooters. Models 452, 455, 457 Lux, DeLux and Ultralux.
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by TheBugFather »

The idea is to introduce silhouette rifle shooting to the masses.

Common 22 LR sporting rifles with open sights, no tang or receiver or other fancy sights.

No aftermarket parts/triggers, no fancy stocks.

Just the plain old ladder/stock factory sights on inexpensive guns as they come from the factory.

Very simple rules and hopefully we will get a younger group and families participating.

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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by cedestech »

1/2 scale same distances?
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by 375Short »

Excellent concept with a proven record of enjoyment and success by our skilled, fun loving, southern friends. Looking forward to giving it a go. Kind of like SB Cowboy for the other open sight, SB sporting rifles.

It seems many of us are thinking about ways to keep silhouette viable and growing. We need to be vigilant and open minded to ideas that foster the growth of the sport and bring new shooters of all ages to our matches. Many clubs (if not most) hold types of matches with far less restrictive rules than formal NRA silhouette. At the club we most often attend, the club match holds the largest group of shooters and is the pool that keeps feeding the official NRA matches as the interest and skill level grows among those competitors. The SB Cowboy matches that also allow a simultaneous “Club” match are by far the most attended and before long the addiction is set and they show up with lever guns and often join the ranks of the NRA Smallbore shooters.
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by Grantmac »

In the US and Canada I think you'd get more traction by making Standard rifle much more open to chassis rifles etc. You see 5 of those for every open sighted rimfire.
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by cedestech »

Grantmac wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 9:54 am In the US and Canada I think you'd get more traction by making Standard rifle much more open to chassis rifles etc. You see 5 of those for every open sighted rimfire.
That is why we call it a “cheater” class…. Cheating is encouraged… firing early, 7 shots for 5 animals, shooting someone else’s animals out from under them…. ;)
Emmett Dibble, Houston, Texas. Where's my buddy Jason? Keeper of electronic records and banisher of little pieces of paper?
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by shooterer »

I like this idea, I would shoot the matches. It also gives me a reason to buy a new rifle 😎
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by psteiger »

cedestech wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 4:55 pm
Grantmac wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 9:54 am In the US and Canada I think you'd get more traction by making Standard rifle much more open to chassis rifles etc. You see 5 of those for every open sighted rimfire.
That is why we call it a “cheater” class…. Cheating is encouraged… firing early, 7 shots for 5 animals, shooting someone else’s animals out from under them…. ;)
speaking of firing early, I just shot a 35 in next sunday's match.....took me 50 shots, but hey.... =))
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by cedestech »

psteiger wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 9:07 pm
cedestech wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 4:55 pm
Grantmac wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 9:54 am In the US and Canada I think you'd get more traction by making Standard rifle much more open to chassis rifles etc. You see 5 of those for every open sighted rimfire.
That is why we call it a “cheater” class…. Cheating is encouraged… firing early, 7 shots for 5 animals, shooting someone else’s animals out from under them…. ;)
speaking of firing early, I just shot a 35 in next sunday's match.....took me 50 shots, but hey.... =))
I already had you down for a 39... you missed your first animal screwing with Larry and then ran the rest... (it only took you 43 shots)
Emmett Dibble, Houston, Texas. Where's my buddy Jason? Keeper of electronic records and banisher of little pieces of paper?
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by Grantmac »

I'm not talking about cheating, I'm talking about recognizing that the rifles used to hunt and compete have *gasp* CHANGED in the last 30 years.
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by psteiger »

Don't have a class for what you want to do, make one. The Mexicans have the right idea, a party with some shooting.
Last edited by psteiger on Thu Oct 20, 2022 8:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: SPORTING .22 RF OPEN SIGHTS RIFLE SILHOUETTE

Post by cedestech »

psteiger wrote: Wed Oct 19, 2022 11:41 am Ask Cathy how much she shot training for the Olympics. Don't have a class for what you want to do, make one. The Mexicans have the right idea, a party with some shooting.
Emmett only wins by being lucky as opposed to good...

Dustin, John and plenty of other people practice like crazy. Their mental and physical game shows it.

Agreed that a party with shooting is the way to go.... Dos Equis dressed please... I'll be over on the turkey line... :)
Emmett Dibble, Houston, Texas. Where's my buddy Jason? Keeper of electronic records and banisher of little pieces of paper?
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