Well, today I received our 2011 classification books. There is always a memorandum on any rule changes along with the books. I guess this is the official word on fiber optic sights for 2011.

"Another subject that has come up is the use of fiber optic front sights. This subject was addressed by the silhouette committe at the 2010 anual meeting. Silhouette rifle rule 3.1.3 read in part, "Front sights must be a bead or post..." After an extensive discussion, the committee felt that the wording as written in the rule book will stand for 2011. This subject will be brought before the committee at their 2011/12 meeting. If you wish to address the committee by mail or emai at that meeting, all letters will be part of the agenda. Please keep in mind that Cowboy Lever Action events are for competitors who want to enjoy silhouette shooting without having to spend money to obtain special equipment. The committee felt that the original configuration of the lever action rifles would do this."

Maybe I am just plain stupid, but there is no part of that statement, that tells me fiber optic sights are not allowed. If you drill a hole in a Lyman 17A bead insert and glue in a short peice of fiber optic wire, it is still a bead front sight. If these pin heads don't want shooters to use the wire, why don't they just say so?

Al Foust

"Please keep in mind that Cowboy Lever Action events are for competitors who want to enjoy silhouette shooting without having to spend money to obtain special equipment. The committee felt that the original configuration of the lever action rifles would do this."

I bet anything that those committee members that came up with that idea either do not shoot Cowboy at all and if they do they are not doing it with factory open iron sights.

Sounds like they are legal to me. If they weren't it would specifically say so like.... No Olympic rear sights. No means no.
If my front sight is a post or bead it should be okay. It doesn't say that it can't be illuminated.
ppkny

ppkny wrote:............. It doesn't say that it can't be illuminated.
ppkny

Does this mean you are leaving the batteries in your sights?????

Bob259, Yes, for sure. As a matter of fact I'm switching from a AAA to a 9 volt.
ppkny

That is pretty funny. What is the cost of a fiber optic front sight compared to just about everything else in shooting? I think the 2011 silhouette score book costs more than the last one I put on my muzzleloader off ebay. I would read it as meaning they are allowed for now so long as they are embedded or attached to a fixed post, considering the dot of fiber optic to be the bead on the post so to say.


Dee

Here is the reply from Steve Rhoades MD who runs the Cowboy matches at the Ben Avery Shooting Range in Phoenix AZ to a friend that asked the question.

Hello Steve, Will fiber optic front sights be allowed at the 2011 AZ State Cowboy matches?

Absolutely!
There will be no NEW rules for silhouette in 2011 unless it involves a safety issue.

"Please keep in mind that Cowboy Lever Action events are for competitors who want to enjoy silhouette shooting without having to spend money to obtain special equipment."

Does that mean I can shoot my 10/22 so that I don't have to spend money on "special equipment" (a lever gun)? I already have one and the additional cost of shooting the event is just the cost of ammo.

What sophistry!

Everything has a finite cost. Just run out and look for an octagon barrel model Win 94 ,or a Marlin for that matter, with a decent length barrel. What is the cost of making it a useable rifle in poor lighting conditions?

If we are to stick to "original equipment" does that mean that you are not to change sight settings? ("The committee felt that the original configuration of the lever action rifles would do this.") The fact of the matter is that peep and ladder sights were commonplace in the era of the original production rifles of this type. Even back then, riflemen knew the value of adjustable sights for precision shooting. (OK, it's not benchrest, but....)

I agree with the conclusion that they have not prohibited the use of fiber optic sights, though they have attempted to intimidate us with all of their saber rattling and marginalize the users of them by somehow trying to portray such people as damaging the sport without any evidence of any sort to support their arguments. What is the committee going to do next, take away the adjustable aperture on the rear sight or the lens that makes it possible for some of us to even see the that there is a front sight somewhere "out there"? Oh well, at least I am using Unique® for the moment. It is old enough to have been "original equipment" in the day.

I guess we will have to shoot live animals, too. No self-respecting shooter would have wasted ammo on a piece of metal. A Match Director's work is never done. There's another thing for Match Directors to have to do...lining up a reliable supply of live targets. (This is just a joke for those who may be reading this and not understand.)

Mike Venturino has an interesting article in "Rifle" about Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Silhouette wherein he points the finger right back at the NRA, the Whittington Center and the Silhouette Committee for damaging that sport. He also has an interesting comment in passing about a Burgess Wrist Pump action 44-40 rifle that has three holes drilled in the receiver, "presumably for a peep sight". Gee, was the owner who did that a part of some dastardly plot to spoil the purity of shooting the rifle with a ramp sight?

Thanks for posting.

Rick

Thanks a lot for posting that, Al. As is often the case the silhouette committee seems incapable of providing a definitive answer. But they have succeeded in making fiber optic sight users feel like borderline cheaters!

G'Day All
Maybe someone read the 7 pages of posts on this subject and listened to the shooters!!!!
Juddy

Ramslammer wrote:G'Day All
Maybe someone read the 7 pages of posts on this subject and listened to the shooters!!!!
Juddy

Nice thought Juddy... but we are fairly sure that they cannot read or write

I am a nooby at this nsport so my opinion is probably not worth much, but it seems to me that the real problem is the color of the targets. Hat Creek R&P in Shasta county CA paints animals orange. A black post or bead stands out fine, no fiber optic required. A black post on a black post on a blaqck animal sucks.

Although a orange animal might be all right for your conditions there's a little more too it than just the animal color. The big matches usually start in the morning sometimes before the sun gets on the targets and continues until late afternoon when the sun present itself to the animals in some perculiar angles.
What works in the moring doesn't always work in the afternoon and gives the shooters (a.m. or p.m.) a advantge or disadvantage dependeing what time you start. I've seen it so bad that when you look down yopur sights there seems to be no animal present.
The color, whatever it is should work across the whole tourament. People have wrestled with this and have not ocme up with a workable solution although I've never shot orange targets.
ppkny

I just spoke with Gregg Conners to better understand the decission.He said that when the nationals program comes out it will be stated no fiber optic sites.That is right from Gregg.

44 mag wrote:I just spoke with Gregg Conners to better understand the decission.He said that when the nationals program comes out it will be stated no fiber optic sites.That is right from Gregg.

Well here we go again... Someone will shoot all year with them then get their Nartionals package, or worse yet get all the way out there (from ANZ or further) only to find out they can't shoot what they have all year or came with.

If the NRA really wants to figure out how to screw up attendance and participation in this sport they don't have to look very far, they are doing a fine job of it now.

Idiots....