I feel we are missing something by not having an AR platform specific match, and Dennis and I want to see if there is interest for this kind of a match down the road. So, if you will be at nationals in ridgway for smallbore and Highpower, please bring you ideas and your AR in .22cal and lets see what we can come up with as a starting point. On August 5th , which is the practice day for high power, I will be at the smallbore range looking to work with competitors on a new match for smallbore rifle. This match will be centered around an AR platform in .22cal. I will have some ammo, and an AR with me and would ask any of those that will be at nationals, that have an AR in .22cal to please bring it with you.

As of right now I am hoping to make this a production style match. I do not want this to become an equipment race. I want this to come down to shooter ability. Target wise, I do not want to change targets. We currently use smallbore targets, so those will be used for this as well. Distances for this planning phase will be what is currently used for smallbore as well. What I am looking to figure out is what kind of course of fire we want to run. Do we make this a match where you shoot all your animals and its a timed event? Or do we stick to the same idea with relays like now. I want to hear what you all think.

Tactical Silhouette, I like the idea! Limit them to iron or non-magnification Redot type of sights.

Will the scoring be a combination of elasped time and targets knocked over? Sort like 3-gun with an added dimension?

Sorry but I have another question. Last year on the morning of high-power practice day there was a .22 caliber shooting clinic put on by several of the shooters from the Master Class. It was a wonderful experience for those of use who attended. Will that happen again this year or does the AR platform-match event prevent the shooting clinic from taking place?

I'm going to stirr the pot!
Why not any semi -auto .22lr? This brings in lots of new people (Ar,10/22,ect.)
In N.H. we have the Cowboy targets at the same time as NRA smallbore anyway. Iron sights or non-magnified red dot/reflex.

Or for added fun..... you have to run a few laps around the parking lot, then shoot. (I like this one. And Im Fat guy.) Tactial-silhouette-athalon.
And no I'm not kidding.

Why do any of this? Simple.
Bring in new people. After they play the bigger targets game (club rifle, cowboy, tactical zombie chickens)
Then you hand the a scoped rifle and say "now try the small animals) ...... then they are hooked.
Like drugs. Hahahahaha.

I don't know much about the .22 AR style rifles, but my experience with a number of other semi-auto .22's, is that cycling of the action is much more reliable with HV ammo. If that is the case with the .22 AR's, what is the answer for the resulting target damage? Those cast iron targets will not hold up to a lot of pounding from HV ammo.

branney wrote:I feel we are missing something by not having an AR platform specific match, I want to hear what you all think.

So would the 10-22s have to shoot with the 1712s while the ARs get their own match?
If you really want to draw the AR guys you should build some zombie silhouettes.

I like the idea of this. Lets to it right.

Instead of specifying it to be an AR class, why not just make it a 'Non-scoped semi automatic' class. Include the 10-22's along with the black guns.
And they don't need more powerful ammo to cycle. My 10-22 cycles fine with CCI SV. But most folks will shoot mini mags anyways I'm guessing.

I started the other thread on this and have done a fair amount of market analysis (read: asking a bunch of shooters who are and aren't silhouette shooters). We are a go sometime later this year for smallbore "tactical silhouette" on the smallbore cowboy rifle targets, but we will not be having them shoot at the 1/5 scale smallbore silhouette targets for two reasons. The first is that even with full-on custom target rifles the targets are still very hard to hit. The second is that most owners of semi-automatic rifles with non-magnifying scopes or sights use high velocity ammo almost exclusively.

Here's the link to the other thread that I started for "tactical smallbore silhouette" matches.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10031

The AR crowd will need zombie targets.

I know this is the sb silhouette forum but a natural follow on would be a .223- 5.56 AR silhouette. Use the standard silhouettes at a reduced range.

DavidABQ,
I'm thinking the targets would have to be made of different materials - that little 223 has got some pep to it!
It can go right through a surprisingly thick plate of steel!

Maybe I can get in the business of making a mold and targets out of clay/pitch (like shotgun's clay pigeons) but silhouette shapes! Then instead of flying about, they just shatter (and folks have to buy more and more)!! If those AR boys blast them, I'll make them and sell them!
Much better than my current business model - I make my SB targets so well the last a loooooooooooong time!!!

ShootingStar
Greg Chandler

Greg, you might be onto something!
I like the idea of grouping the 10-22 crowd in with the AR crowd.

I know this is the sb silhouette forum but a natural follow on would be a .223- 5.56 AR silhouette. Use the standard silhouettes at a reduced range.

DavidABQ on Fri Jun 26, 2015 10:51 pm

Some of us have been tossing that one around but.............. What do you make the targets out of?

For SB semi-auto:

1. Larger targets
2. less time - 5 sec ready and 30 seconds for 5 shots
3. Restrict optic power to 4?

We have been running some fun 6 inch dia. plate shoots at 30M for the AR platform and ten targets have gone down with 20 shots in under 8 seconds. Do the math on that one.