Anyone here shoot/shot silhouette?

[Tom]

My local range had an "expo" last weekend with all 8 of their ranges open and were demonstrating the various shooting sports and letting people shoot similar courses. They had a simplified IDPA setup, an ICORE revolver setup, 5-stand, trap and skeet, black powder, cowboy action shooting to name a few.

Silhouette shooting really caught my eye, they have events for rimfire and high-power out to 500m. It looks like a lot of fun and I enjoy precision shooting.

Anyone participated in it?

[BarryinIN]

I used to shoot rimfire handgun silhouette. My first love us NRA Highpower, and I started .22 silhouette the first time I had to give up HP due to my back problems. It gave me some precision type shooting with less back strain!

I learned a lot by shooting it, that's for sure. Lots of things that carried over to other disciplines, like how a small change in grip can "steer" the gun quite a bit. Probably the most important lesson was front sight focus. If that sight started to blur just a little as my shot broke, it was a miss.

It was fun seeing what a .22 pistol could do at 100 yards. I expected a .308 pistol to hammer steel at 200, but it was more impressive to me to see a .22 pistol knock a little steel ram down at 100. It was like watching them fall in slow motion.

One nice thing about that game was being able to shoot different guns in one match. I would shoot a 10" Contender in Production, re-enter it in Unlimited, then shoot a High Standard or S&W 41 in Standing. Most would throw a 14" barrel on their TC and shoot Unlimited. They usually had an unsanctioned rifle side match too.

Another plus to silhouette was the semi-Round Robin start. Instead of having to be there at 8 or 10 or whenever, they were usually ran so you could start any time before say 1 pm. There might be four it five shooting spots, and you'd show up, pay and register, then wait for a slot. Once you were done, you would get back in if you had another entry.

This flexible time was nice for me since I spent most if my career working nights and weekends, so I could come after work or after getting a little sleep.

It's cheaper than a lot of shooting sports too, at least rimfire is. Or can be. A Contender or Ruger auto, and you're all set. I spent years accumulating HP gear, and still by IPSC stuff. After shooting HP, rimfire ammo costs were laughable to me. I'd shoot Eley in a match, and could shoot the entire year for the cost of a couple boxes of .30 cal Sierra MatchKings.

Of course there are people using Freedom Arms 252 revolvers and Calfee single shots (XP-100 converted to rimfire) but relatively cheap guns are quite competitive.

Big bore ran into money faster, but it's still better than a lot of shooting sports.

I've never been anywhere that held centerfire rifle silhouette. I'd really like to try it but there are so few 500 yard ranges to do it at that it's pretty much nonexistent around here.

Black Powder Ctg sil would be fun too.

[Tom]

I like the "run what you brung" aspect and you don't need anything too fancy to do okay. The guy I was talking to shot a factory Ruger 77/22 with a scope and said he shot it well enough to qualify AA.

The rimfire was 25-100m ranges

The high power was 100-500m ranges. From what I was told most guys shoot something around a .308. He said even a .243 does well except at 500m, it doesn't have enough energy left to knock over the 50lb target.

I think my Swiss k31, Ruger Mark III, and maybe my 10/22 would get me started.