Hi Guy's
I am new to this forum and indeed new to shooting silhouette. I have shot one match with a friends rifle.
I have a new Anschutz 1712 coming in 3 weeks.
I already have a new Leupold 6.5-20 X 40 efr ready to fit to it.
I also have New mounts to which I have modified to give me zero crossover at 14 meters and if the tradjectory I have picked is correct a zero crossover at 77 meters. This should give me +3.7moa at 40 meters, +3.0moa at 60 meter and -3.1 moa at 100 meters (this means the scope should remain closest to it centre I hope).

I have done a lot of reading on this site and also rimfirecentral. From this I have devised a plan as follows.

When I get the rifle I will clean it and set the trigger weights. Then mount the scope in the correct position for eye relief and vertical. Then bore sight it at 14 meters down the hallway of the house to check that I have in fact got my mount engineering correct. If not Correct it.
Then off to the range with 100 rounds of each of a variety of selected ammo.
At the range I am going to shoot a couple of groups at 50 meters and a couple of groups at 100 meters again to test if all my mount work was worth it.
Then sight in at 50 meters and 100 meters and test the ammo.
After I have made an ammo selection and purchased more of the same I will move to the silhouette range and sight in at 40, 60, 77, 100 meters.
Then go shooting silhouette's.

As shooting is new to me and the knowledge I have has come from reading and a little shooting in my youth (I am now retired) I guess I am looking for some input from those of you with experience.
Is the plan above correct?
Are there things missing?

Any advise to someone just starting out would be greatly appreciated.

Regards to all and thanks to anyone who cares to offer help.

Tinchicken,

First congratulations on buying excellant equipment. You will love your set-up and can feel assured that your equipment will not let you down or limit your ability to score well and progress in the sport.

Here is how my wife (she is a Master in RF Silhouette) and I set up our guns. We sight them in and zero the elevation knob at 40 meters (the chicken setting). Then we get our "come-ups" for pigs, turkeys, and rams. We then use a small orange stick-on dot and write our sight settings down for each range and stick these to the top front of our scopes. This is not an original idea as you will see many guns set up with these stickies.

When we go to the range for a Match, we re-check our chicken zero and if needed re-set our scope turret zero for that day's weather conditions. Rememebr that the zero's may change during the day as the weather changes.

Setting the chicken distance to zero on the elevation turret seems to stop confusion where as having to set a -3.75 MOA for chickes would really set you up for a problem in my opinion. Chichens zero, everything else up.

One other thing we recommend - always reset your sight setting for the next animal when you finish the relay you just shot - you should have the time and you will be safe to handle your rifle if "cease fire" has not been called. That way the sights will be ready for you at the next animal and you should not start shooting with the incorrect setting.

That is just how we do it,
George

Congratulations and great starter set up. It sounds like you have researched well. There is a wealth of information from both the sites and I believe you have captured the main points. Your ammo selection is key and it also sounds like you understand that well. However, once you find your best ammo remember to purchase as much of that lot number as you can, as there is a variance lot to lot, some time it's minimal but everyone will tell you that sometimes there can be big swings in performance lot to lot, so what you find what works best in your rifle try to get that same lot number.

One thing you will learn down there quickly is to watch those 'Ramslammers' you'll know the ones whe you read on the Cowboy Lever Action forum here, and above all keep your wallet firmly in your pocket when shooting with those boys down there


Hope to meet you on one of my visits to ANZ

I hope George won’t mind me disagreeing with him on one point. I always find it best to set the elevation knobs just prior to shooting the animal I’m looking at. If you do set it before, you should at least double check when you’re on the line during the ready period.
And, Bob259 what do you have against the cowboys…oh wait by your avatar picture you’re and Indian….okay.

First, I agree with both ppkny and George, actually. I always set my elevation and objective for the next animal right after I finish shooting the previous animal. Then I check to make sure it's been done, and done correctly (i.e.- not for the wrong animal/distance), when I bring my rifle to the line for the next animal. Separately, there can easily be something that happens to disrupt my normal rhythm and keeps it from getting done. With two checks, there's redundancy that has caught a forgotten step a few times over the past couple of years.

Also, you'll need a couple other things to help shoots go smoothly, especially at first. It sounds like you have a good handle on getting everything set up, but I'd also add a notebook, extra magazine(s), a kitchen timer, and a shooting vest to your growing pile of silhouette gear. The notebook is to have somewhere other than the stick-on dot, masking tape, or whatever your primary source of scope settings is. That way you'll have something, other than just memory, to refer to if that primary way falls off, gets smudged, or otherwise fails. The extra magazines take away the rush to reload between banks of animals and gives insurance in case a magazine, or even a round in a magazine fails. The kitchen timer is to always have the time remaining handy and help you relax while you're getting comfortable in your shot sequence. This is especially useful if something disrupts a shot (equipment malfunction, something like wind kept you from getting steady on target before breath started running out, etc.) and you need to restart a particular shot sequence. The vest's primary contribution is to just make it easier to get consistent placement of the butt of the rifle on your shoulder. It also provides some friction against your body/hip for your forward arm. I use Hardscrabble vest, but I'm sure there are manufacturers over on your side of the big ponds.

For me, silhouette shooting is all about keeping your head clear of distractions and having only the spot that needs to have a bullet hit it to concentrate on. Even though you truly can't buy your way into better scores in silhouette like you can in some other events, you can indeed get equipment that doesn't cause you any disruptions during a match. You have a very good start on getting equipment that "just works" every time. Now you just need to gather the other necessities for keeping your mind clear and practice until everything but concentrating on that spot on the target gets done subconsciously.