Watching the London Olympics has given me an idea for a match: a four-day match featuring every discipline of rifle silhouette, the SilhOlympics.

I'm picturing a regional with 60-shot matches for every rifle class of each discipline. We can shoot all the three air rifles on Thursday, all three cowboy rifles on Friday, both smallbore rifles on Saturday and both Highpower rifles on Sunday. We can even throw in blackpowder and pistol if there is interest. We can award gold, silver and bronze medals to each class and a big cash payout to the overall winner which will be decided by medal count instead of an aggregate score (with ties being broken by most golds). That way, the overall winner won't necessarily be a master-class shooter.

Of course, we will need a range that can host all this (or at the most two ranges relatively close together) but that shouldn't be too big a deal.

Thoughts?

Dustin

Heck yeah im down to shoot a match like that when and where. It would be a fun match to shoot.

Sounds good but I can picture a logistics nightmare...its hard to travel with two firearms get the picture. If you can drive there I can see it but if you have to fly with all those firearms and ammo I think it can get complicated real fast. plus most folks dont have all the toys to play on that scale. speaking of Olympics it would make a good spectator friendly event.

IMO we are already marching in the wrong direction...and this would just exacerbate the problem.

If you trace the history of the game, it began as just that -- a 'game'. Something to be enjoyed at fiestas, where the emphasis was on the fun and not on some driven quest to become the last man standing. The idea was to concentrate on the fellowship and toss in some shooting. We really need to keep that 'enjoy' part in mind.

If we wanted to attend matches where nobody laughed and everyone was so focused on 'THE WIN' that all the fun got squeezed onto the parking lot gravel before anyone entered the range, we could shoot international 10M airgun.

I firmly believe that one of the main reasons why the number of competitors is dropping in most of our venues (while the cowboy numbers have grown) is that we've gotten waaaaay too far removed from the original idea.

Turning what started out as a party for shooters into a grim-faced marathon doesn't make sense.

A moderate match schedule with a few side games and, maybe, some small wagers for the spice -- let's not turn it into Vegas revisited -- would be attractive. A triathlon with firearms sounds too much like the the fantasies of the tacticool crowd.

Talk to McLemore and McClure They have the right idea. If we make it more drudgery than fun, the sport will die.

The logistics of carrying a ton of rifles is definitely an issue. I'd think that lots of shooters coming from afar would borrow rifles. Also, there is no requirement that a shooter participate in every event. The match would require some shooters to hedge their bets a little and pick the matches that they feel they have the best chance to medal in, since the point is to get the most medals possible. If a shooter rarely ever shoots cowboy silhouette, he/she may decide to leave the cowboy rifle at home and sit out of the cowboy competition. Of course, the more matches a shooter shoots, the more opportunity for medals. I'm sure there will be some shooters that will show up for just one discipline. This would be a regional for each rifle so a good chance to shoot in a big match even if you only shoot a couple of matches.

Dustin

nomad wrote:
If we wanted to attend matches where nobody laughed and everyone was so focused on 'THE WIN' that all the fun got squeezed onto the parking lot gravel before anyone entered the range, we could shoot international 10M airgun.

Note in my origional post that I did not outlaw laughing. Shooters can be as focused on winning as they want to be, or not care about it at all. I generally have a great time shooting silhouette regardless of whether I win or lose. International 10M airgun is pretty fun too.

nomad wrote:
A moderate match schedule with a few side games and, maybe, some small wagers for the spice -- let's not turn it into Vegas revisited -- would be attractive. A triathlon with firearms sounds too much like the the fantasies of the tacticool crowd.

We have side bets at our local matches, it's a lot of fun. I have no problem with competitors betting on anything they want. This is certainly not a triathlon with firearms, it's an idea for a big silhouette match - for shooters that, you know, like to shoot silhouette.

nomad wrote:
If we make it more drudgery than fun, the sport will die.

The point is to make it fun. Everything I write on this website begins with the assumption that shooting silhouette = fun. If shooting silhouette is drudgery to you, then I'd think that this match, or any other silhouette match, is not for you.

Dustin

Will there be a 2X4 rifle class?

I don't feel that silhouette is drudgery to me...and I've been deeply involved for close to 20 years now.
(I think that allows me to make my own decisions. And that it puts my understanding of the internals of the sport ahead of newer shooters who want to rewrite the game after one or two seasons of experience?)

What I am against is the idea of people turning it away from it's attraction and into drudgery by taking it too seriously.

I'll be curious to see how your silhouette version of the SF Q course is received. The attendance figures should show us all the value of the idea.
(Not the first time attendance, but the following times. Lots of people will try anything once just to see what all the hype's about. It's the number of repeat attendees that will show whether the proposal has any merit.)

I'm going back to lurking now.

I am all for the fun aspect...hence the success of Jacksonville and the southern nationals...lets try to run more of those matches instead.

Here in CA the LASC has a shooting extravaganza every first weekend in September in case any of you want to experience what is like to be able to shoot as many entries as your energy and time allows.

Its basically a handgun silhouette range and they allow the use of hp rifles as long as they shoot lead or reduced loads (no more than 2000 fps). Here is the deal, you pay $50 that entitles you to unlimited shooting for three days and two meals (pasta on Sat and tri-tip on Sunday).

They have ten banks of targets, for center fire they have full and half size targets from 50 to 200 meters, they also have 1/2 size targets for hunter's pistol and cowboy. For SB they have 3/8 and 1/5 size targets. With those targets you can shoot all the handgun events (production, unlimited, freestyle, standing, etc) too many to mention. Center fire and SB, hunter's pistol (iron sight and scoped). All three Cowboy Rifle silhouette events, Center fire rifles can shoot the full and half size targets with cast bullets and reduced loads with jacketed bullets (iron sight, scope sight, vintage rifle). With SB rifles you can shoot the 3/8 targets with scope and iron sights also the 1/5 size targets can be shot with iron sights and scoped rifles (the distances shot at these events are 40, 50, 75 and 100 meters).

The event is a re entry type deal, you find an open space in the firing line starting with chickens, shoot thru and when you are finish find another opening on another set of targets you want to shoot.

Steve Tapp who is a SC participant has won the "IRON MAN" trophy more than once by shooting on all the relays available for three days.

Ah thats what I 'm talking about...1/2 scale with hp rifles with reduced loads or lead bullets on either old or current pistol ranges...unfortunatly many clubs miss the boat on that one and many HP guns lay unused because there are no full course ranges for HP rifle. To bad the many clubs our way that have the distance and the targets dont do this.

Most handgun silhouette ranges think that rifles will destroy their targets. When I started shooting at LASC in the mid to late 90's they even had a sign at the handgun silhouette range that said rifles were not allowed to be used at that particular range (there are other ranges in the property mainly the public range where pretty much anything can be shot).

I was one of the first rifle shooters at the local handgun silhouette ranges to be accepted as one of them. I gave them the respect they deserved and invited them to attend our hp rifle matches which some of them did. It took a bit of work on my part but it was not hard to convince them to let me use reduced loads with jacketed bullets on their half size targets since I hate to cast my own lead bullets and its just about impossible to find places that sell good ones in rifle calibers smaller than 30.

Another thing is that many handgun shooters love to shoot rifles as well and some times at their monthly matches they get more rifle entries than handgun's.

we talked about doing a small bore version of that with the Texas Nationals. Shooting air one day, sb the next and cla the last. we also discussed adding high power but it would have to be at another range. We can do all the small bore at Bayou Rifles at the Addicks range. As a member of the pack mule/ATM team, I completely and totally understand the logistics of rifle/ammo transport for these. my entry fee at winnsboro was equivalent to my house payment. I had to install helper springs on my full sized van and still ran on the bump stops on the ride home. I think it was 18 rifles total. I also allotted a brick of 22 ammo per person and 500 pellets with 1 spare target air rifle and several kids doubling up on rifles. I think the idea is great but the actual logistics are not feasible for most. let's see how many stick around for the small bore match after the Texas Nationals this year. I'm gonna have to say that most people prefer a more relaxed match that is well run, has good food, and a nice chance at taking a prize of a decent sort home. I really want to do more traveling and meet some of the club shooters in different part of the country. I was really hoping to get to Tennessee this year, and Jacksonville next year. p ell and Arizona or Colorado are also on my short list. I've even considered just going to a local match in another state. like Arkansas. what makes y'all want to attend a match?

p