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THE GAME Silhouette shooting involve firing at steel outlines of chickens, pigs, turkeys and sheep from various distances up to 500 meters. Unlike most conventional target games that utilize paper targets and numerical scoring rings, most every shot fired at a metallic silhouette produces an immediate and clearly visible result. Even misses produce a cloud of dust. All metallic silhouette shooting, whether using centerfire, smallbore, air rifle or muzzle loader, is fired from the off hand position. Accessories such as adjustable or hooked butt plates, palm rests, shooting coats or slings are not allowed. EQUIPMENT Firearms: The original game, "Siluetas Metalicas" is shot with a centerfire rifle that must be of 6mm or larger caliber, with the most popular rifles chambered in 308 and 30/06 calibers. While the 6mm cartridge is the smallest caliber allowed in high power rifle silhouette, experience shows that the 6mm bullets cannot always knock the sheep target off its stand at 500 meters. The maximum allowable weight of the rifle, including sights, is 10 pounds, 2 ounces. In smallbore, standard 22 rimfire is used to engage scaled down versions of the silhouette targets. Scoped sighting devices are allowed in most events and some competitors opt for optics with magnification settings in excess of 12 power. The Hunter Class silhouette rifles must be factory original hunting style rifles weighing no more than 9 lbs total for the centerfire class, or 7-1/2 lbs for the rimfire. Trigger pulls must be 2 lbs. or more. Beginners are at no disadvantage starting off with a favorite hunting rifle with a 4X scope and, in fact, most beginners do start this way. Scoring A typical match consists of 40 rounds, fired in the following sequence: Centerfire Rifle:
Smallbore Rifle:
For each five round stage (one shot, left to right, at each target in a bank of five), a shooter is allowed a maximum of 2-1/2 minutes. HISTORY Metallic silhouette shooting began in Mexico using live animals often positioned atop a high ridgeline to offer an outline or "silhouette." The shooter who killed the animal was awarded it as a prize. American riflemen, primarily along the border country of the Southwest, quickly replaced the live animals with life-sized silhouettes, hence the game's name. Originally fired only with high powered rifles, the sport enjoyed a modest popularity in this region, hampered only by the need for rifle ranges with the required 500 meter range. The sport increased dramatically in popularity inthe early 1970s when the National Rifle Association incorporated it into its competition event schedule and created smallbore and air rifle classes that allowed the course of fire to be shot on smaller ranges. |
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