Tell me about silhouette shooting

M

mellow_c

New member
I have a friend.

Thank goodness for that :D

He said he's been invited to participate in a silhouette competition with a fellow who has been doing this for years at a local range.

As far as I know, the game is to shoot standing at targets set at 50 yards. The fellow told my friend to bring at least a 44 magnum because 357 doesn't knock the targets down.

I might tag along some day.

Please tell me about your experiences with this type of shooting. What sort of games you play. What type of handguns you use, or don't use. What's the best you've ever done or see done. Tips and tricks. Anything you care to share really.

I'd imagine there must be a large variety of single and double action revolvers that people use for this and I wonder what kind of competition you'd be facing as far as particular firearms pitted against each other.

I wonder if semi auto's are allowed? Or if no one uses them because of ease of accuracy from single action revolvers, or because aside from a Desert Eagle or Auto Mag, there may not be many semi auto handguns that can knock down the targets?

I wonder if scopes and iron sights compete together.

I also wonder how formal or rather informal this sort of competition might get.
 
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I shoot Silhouette. Its not like you describe.

We shoot steel animals at 40 meters, , 50, 75 and 100 meters. Meters are close to yards.

I use a 22 pistol scope, 22 pistol Iron sights
22 rifle scope, 22 rifle Irons. Its almost impossible for me to see the animals with Irons.
I use a TC Contender single shot in 32-20 with a scope a
I use a Smith and Wesson 45 Colt with stock Iron sights.

I sight my hand guns to 75 yards and know where to hold.

Chickens at 40 meters, some places use 25 yards. Hold on its foot.
Pigs, hold in the box made by thier legs
Turkeys hold center. These are the hardest to hit.
Rams hold the line on the top of their back.

Rifles I adjust the scope.

Its a bunch of fun and will be humbling.
You get 2 minutes for 5 shots. Two 5 shot strings for a total of 10 animals.

Perfect score 40. good luck
Enjoy
David

The aminals are pretty big for pistol and pretty small for rifle.
Scope and Irons are separate classes.
 
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I made a deal one year with a fellow competitor. We were going to shoot 44 magnum full house loads. I have a Ruger Super Red Hawk. After about 5 weeks, I had to shoot a make up. So I shot 80 shots of full house 44. Later that evening I over heard some one ask him what his load was. He said 8 grains of Red Dot. I went back to my 32-20.
This was a different place, they shot Hunters silhouette. 25, 50, 75 and 100 YARDS.

I have an Anschutz 64 MS (Metallic Silhouette).Its a 22 rimfire single shot rifle. It fits me perfect.

David
 
Silhouette (IHMSA) was the 2nd type of competition I shot (after smallbore in Scouts). I was in my early 20s and was invited by an older friend. They had both .22 and Centerfire. I took what I had (Ruger Mk1 and 4" .357Mag) and did midpack.

Then I got a 10" barreled Ruger MkII and put match sights and trigger in it, and a TC Encore with a 10" barrel in .414 SuperMag. Each shot was it's own thing as 2 minutes is a LONG time to fire 5 rounds. It was fun at the time, and it is a difficult shooting challenge. But being in my 20s and most of the guys I was shooting with being in their 60s and 70s, once I learned the techniques, match wins came easily at the local level and I lost interest and moved on to High Power next. That was the start of shooting competition for me, so I still have a soft spot for it.

There were a few guys shooting SA revolvers a few less shooting DA revolvers, but at least 2/3 were shooting single shots with about half being TCs.
 
I shot IHMSA handgun back in the 80's. Used a Ruger NMBH in 41 Magnum for production and a XP-100 in 7mm IHMSA for unlimited. Lots of fun, but died out in this area in the 90's. Probably because too many of us were old guys...
 
Lots of fun, but died out in this area in the 90's. Probably because too many of us were old guys...
Click to expand...
I kind of saw the same thing in my IMSHA shooting. Still have my TC Contender in 7MM TCU, but now need glasses to have proper front sight focus. It is (or was?) a nice sport; not sure why it dropped in popularity.
 
"...might tag along some day..." That'd be your best bet. Most shooters of any discipline will bend over backwards to help a new shooter. Including letting you shoot their firearms.
There is something for everybody, including air pistols. The IHMSA rules are here. Colorado is Region 8.
https://ihmsa.org/index.html
"...particular firearms pitted against each other..." No competitive shooting does that. It's shooter vs shooter or, more often, shooter vs himself.
"...Meters are close to yards..." 3" difference. A meter is 39".
 
interesting responses so far.

However, I'm just about clueless.

So are you folks telling me that double action and single action revolvers, as well as single shot pistols compete together using just iron sights in an effort to knock down targets at varying ranges?

Then maybe a separate class for those same firearms with scopes on them?

Also, a class specifically for 22 lr?

And obviously many more for rifles. . .


I'm just trying to get a general idea of what goes into shooting in a competition where the goal is to knock down the targets using iron sighted handguns. (In this case are semi autos allowed? not that I'd be using one, just interested.)

I'll go take a look at the Rules, T. O'Heir.

Thank you.
 
I shot IHMSA for some years and finally moved on to other things. I don't even know if the IHMSA matches are even held anymore...but they were sure popular back in the 80's. They had .22 matches as well as large bore matches with a lot of different types of firearm categories. You could shoot standing or creedmore competition and you could shoot revolver or single shot categories, with lots of variations. I still have a couple of trophies around here somewhere..
 
mellow_c, I went and looked and the ranges I shot IHMSA at don't even have the matches anymore. I was told one stopped over a decade ago and the other range does not even exist anymore. (Now Interlocken).

Colorado Rifle Club has several Silhouette matches, including pistol. The MD for pistol is Russ Plakke - 303.716.9821 and I am sure he can give you more info than I can.
 
The question is, are you invited to an IHMSA match with chickens, pigs, turkeys, and rams set at ranges tailored to the gun - I shot a Contender .30-30 in Open, a .44 Magnum in Revolver with targets at 50-200 metres.
Or are you going to a local rules gong shoot at 50 yards?

Semiautos? Sort of. The only .44 Automag I ever saw outside a gun show was being shot at silhouettes.
 
The gun club I belong to used to be all about silhouette both rifle and pistol. They still shoot rifle silhouette but now shoot NRA falling plates and action pistol. Times change.
 
Thanks MarkCO, for the phone number.

I might have to tag along next month to see what it’s all about.

I’d be interested in a standing only game using revolvers and open sights.


I wonder what people would be commonly using. S&W model 29 or 629? Ruger Blackhawk or Redhawks? Dan Wesson? Any number of other high quality revolvers?

I wonder what barrel length people prefer for standing? A 10.5” Ruger Blackhawk seems like a good tool for the job, so does a 8 & 3/8” S&W 629. The added sight radius, velocity from the longer barrel, and weight to absorb the recoil would all be some good benefits.

I have yet to meet a Ruger that had as light and crisp of a single action trigger pull as a S&W, and would imagine that would be a pretty large factor.

Then I wonder if folks are using full power factory 44 mag loads, or if reduced power hand loads that won’t beat you or your gun up as much have the energy needed to knock down the targets?
 
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Been so long since I shot it I don't know. But the guys who shoot in the unlimited class out to 500 yards are amazing. Some of the positions they get in, I might need a Chiropractor on standby.

The folks at CRC are all pretty good folks.
 
That used to be called the Creedmoor position when I lived out West and folks were usng TCs and XP-100s

serveimage
 
I won the revolver class one year in the western regional match, using a Ruger Super Blackhawk. I loaded 24 gr. of 296 behind a 240 Gr. bullet...which was a pretty popular load at the time. Revolvers have a hard time competing with TC Contenders in the standing competition as they have 6 different chambers to fire from.
 
My son-in-law lives in eastern Ohio and I shot on the silhouette range many times, but never in a match. But the ranges were greater than y'all state. They had the chickens at 50 meters, hogs at 100 meters, turkeys at 150 meters, and the rams at 200 meters.

The turkey was the most frustrating shot, as it had only one "foot" and at times a hit would only pivot it on the rail and it would not go down.

I shot the course with my Super Blackhawk and handloads. My son-in-lw shot a Dan Wesson .44 Magnum, and his friend shot several calibers in the Thompson Contender. It was his .45-70 that I shot that blew the forearm off, pulling the screw and escutcheon through the wood.



Bob Wright
 
The first time I went to the range with my son-in-law, he went to demonstrate this "Creedmoor" position. As He was drawing up his leg as you show, he was stricken with muscle cramps! It made quite a show disarming him safely and then trying to straighten him out!

Bob Wright
 
Bob, I only ever shot Centerfire Pistol Silhouette at the 50, 100, 150 and 200. The Rimfire was the half course.

Then those times I did Silhouette with 3Gun...pistols at 50, slugs at 100 and Rifles at 200, 300 and 500.
 
That Creedmore position was the way to shoot in those days but no way could I get down like that again...let along get back up !!
 
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