Silhouettes

                      (.22 LR handgun, above, airgun targets, below.)

I’m not a serious rifle shooter. I’m okay at it. 

Some years ago, I shot in club-competitions in a discipline called smallbore metallic silhouette, using a handgun.

The short version: There were forty targets, set ten each at various ranges. These were vaguely-shaped animal outlines: chickens, pigs, turkeys, and rams. The chickens, about the area of a teacup, were at twenty-five yards; pigs, maybe a saucer-size, at fifty yards; turkeys, a vague bird-like shape a bit larger than the pigs, seventy-five yards; rams, a pie-plate size, at a hundred yards.

The competition was simple. Forty targets, forty shots. Final score was how many of the targets you knocked over on the railroad ties upon which they were set. If you hit it, but it didn't fall over? It was a miss.

You were limited to a pistol or revolver in .22 LR caliber, with iron sights — no scopes — and you had to shoot them in order, left to right.

I was a AAA-rated shooter. Pretty good, but not as adept as the International Masters. What that meant was, I scored 37-39 at an unlimited match. The really good shooters consistently shot 39-40.

One was allowed to lie down and prop the gun against a leg or knee, and to have a spotter with a scope report where the target was hit. There was also a standing event, which was harder.

If I had misses, these were almost always a turkey, which were narrower and more iffy if there was any wind blowing.

I hit ten of ten rams most of the time using a Browning semi-auto pistol with a bull-barrel, notch-and-post sights.

A maybe easier visualization, put a pie plate on the goal line of a football field. Walk to the other goal line, lie down on your back, rest the gun against your leg or knee in what is called Creedmore, or a Perry Post, position, shoot and hit that plate. 

Then do it nine more times.

That’s a handgun. With a scoped .22 rifle? Even a dot scope? I could shoot all day and not miss a target. I practiced once a week, a hundred rounds. 

The big bore version of this had larger targets, but set at twice the range. If you can make a 200-yard shot on a ram target with a handgun and iron sights? A scoped rifle is a gimme if you dial it in right.