Smallbore Silhouette June 17, 2017

Smallbore Silhouette – June 17, 2017 Inaugural Event Simon Bailey - ARO

The River Bend inaugural Smallbore Silhouette match was held June 17th on the Rimfire Range with a small but enthusiastic group in attendance. After months of preparation, this inaugural event was part match part clinic to introduce the program and test the equipment and match procedures.

The morning started cool with the first task on hand to set up the equipment. All twelve target frames, 4 swinger targets and four paper target frames were placed at the appropriate distances – 40 meters for the chickens, 60 meters for pigs, 77 meters for turkeys, and 100 meters for the rams.

After about a 45 minute setup period, Match Director Don Coleman started the match briefing with an explanation of equipment, rules, and procedures. A typical Silhouette tournament consists of two matches, one for Hunter Rifle and one for Silhouette Rifle. The equipment rules for each match are different, but typically rifles that are legal for the Hunter match are used in both matches.

After the match registration formalities, Don kicked off a practice period by firing the first round down range at the new equipment. The shot was a resounding hit on a pig that sent it flying – taken by all as a good sign!

The following practice period allowed shooters to verify or determine their scope settings for each range as well as shoot at the swinger targets to verify their aim. The practice period was generous and ended at 11:00 AM with the safety briefing and the match start.

The first match, the Hunter Rifle match went at a leisurely pace, with Coleman calling the match and recording the scores. During the course of the match, several refinements were made to formalize the process and to speed things up.

OK, so how was the shooting? Very gratifying when the animals fell! Most shooters started out with the chickens and pigs, but Mark Dorlay and Simon Bailey decided to get the hard stuff out of the way early by starting out on the – very hard to hit – turkeys. Both Dorlay and Bailey struggled , while other shooters, notably Ron Deter, started out shooting 60% on the chickens.

Rotating on to the next animals, both Dorlay and Bailey picked up the pace on the rams, while other shooters enjoyed tipping over the pigs and hating the turkeys. Again Deter did well by shooting 90% at the pigs.

By the end of the match Deter had posted the best score by hitting 22 of 40 animals. Dorlay and Bailey ended tied with 14 animals each. Since ties are usually settled by a shoot off, Dorlay and Bailey took up position against the turkeys to the amusement of all. With 30 seconds on the clock, Bailey shot first and sent the first turkey flying. Dorlay shot and sent his target to the ground as well. Both shooters missed their next 2 animals, with Bailey finally connecting on the fourth turkey. Dorlay took his fourth shot leaving left the turkey standing and Bailey in 2nd place. Needless to say, it was a pretty fun process.

Next up was the Silhouette Rifle match. Scores in general dropped a bit with the winning total, posted again by Deter with a score of 18. Brad Kanipe, shooting a 10/22 seemed to hit his stride by twice shooting 4 of 5 animals in about 20 seconds. At the end of the Silhouette Rifle Match Deter was in first with 18, Dorlay took second with 15 and 3 rd place was a tie between George Wilson and Chris Sagar at 14. Since the rules allow competitors to break the tie by a shoot-off or other equitable method, Wilson took 3rd place by win of a coin toss – quicker but not as fun as a shoot-off! Please see the website for the full match bulletin and congratulations to all place winners.

After all of the shooting was over, the range equipment was packed away and results announced . Everyone agreed that the event had been a lot of fun and looked forward to next month.

The next match will be held on July 15th. This match is planned to be NRA approved with official books available for sale. All match announcements will be sent via e-mail and posted on the Forum, so stay tuned.