Introduction

A silhouette is a steel profile of an animal (chicken, pig, turkey, or ram) standing on a pedestal. The object of the game is to knock as many silhouettes as possible off their pedestals, shooting one round at each silhouette. It is a very simple competition, with very simple scoring: You get 1 point for knocking an animal off its stand, 0 for anything else. Although silhouette is an easy game to learn, it is not an easy game to master. The animals are rather small and the distances are rather large; you must shoot offhand (standing); a moderate breeze can move a bullet or a pellet the width of an animal; your concentration becomes more difficult to hold as you knock down five in a row, six, .... These factors make silhouette an endless challenge.

This photograph shows smallbore animals (top two rungs) and air rifle animals below.

Silhouette shooting originated in Mexico in the late 1940s. It is now shot all over the world with everything from air pistols to black powder rifles. Silhouette sizes and distances vary according to the kind of rifle or pistol, but everything else is the same. For example, high-power rifle silhouettes are life-size, but they are shot at much longer distances than the scaled-down smallbore or air rifle silhouettes. Commands to load, fire, and cease fire are often given in Spanish, in part to honor the sport's heritage, and in part to distinguish the silhouette shooters' commands from those directed at other shooters sharing the range. (Non-Spanish speakers, don't worry; there are only three commands!)

At SRGC, we shoot four different types of silhouette: smallbore rifle, smallbore lever action rifle, pistol cartridge lever action rifle, and air rifle.  Matches are typically 40 or 60 shots, rarely 80 shots, evenly divided between the 4 different animals.  For smallbore , the animals are 40, 60, 77, and 100 meters away; for lever action, they are 40, 50, 77, and 100 meters away; for air rifle, they are 20, 30, 36, and 45 yards away.  You shoot at the silhouettes in sets (banks) of five; you get 2-1/2 minutes per bank, which is usually plenty of time even for single-shot rifles.

Shooters are grouped into classes based on past performance so they can compete with others of similar ability. Your first match will determine your initial classification, after that you must shoot a score in the next class up 2 or 3 times in order to move up a class.  Moving down is next to impossible, to prevent people from gaming the system.  The precise scores for each class vary based on what discipline you're shooting but generally the classes and scores are as follows:

• B Class: hit fewer than 1/3 of the animals
• A Class: hit between 1/3 and 1/2 of the animals
• AA Class: hit between 1/2 and 2/3 of the animals
• AAA Class: hit between 2/3 and 80% of the animals
• Master Class: hit more than 80% of the animals

Equipment

One of the appeals of silhouette shooting is the gear: There isn't much of it, and you can choose how much money to spend on it. A good-quality off-the-shelf hunting rifle will get you into the game, enabling you to acquire the fundamental skills of offhand shooting; it will shoot good scores if you do your part. If, later, you want to compete at the top level of the game, you can buy a fine-quality rifle.

Smallbore Rifles

For smallbore silhouette, you can use most any .22 rifle and standard velocity ammunition. (High velocity ammunition is prohibited because it can damage the targets.) In practice, most experienced silhouette shooters shoot bolt-action rifles with scopes of 16-24 power. However, there is no reason you should not come out with your 10/22 and low-power scope, or even iron sights if you can holdover at four different ranges.  You'll see how much fun the game is, what the people are like, and what rifles and scopes the veteran shooters are using. If you ask politely, you'll probably be able to shoot any rifle that's there.

To get a little more technical, there are two smallbore rifle classes (for details, check out the official NRA Silhouette Rulebook):

• Hunter class: A hunting-style rifle with a tapered barrel, maximum weight 8-1/2 lbs. including scope and empty magazine, minimum trigger pull 2 lbs. Popular choices include (in order of increasing price) NS-522, CZ 452, Sako Finnfire, Anschutz 1710D, plus all sorts of Rugers, Savages, Remingtons, Winchesters, Kimbers, etc.
• Standard class: Typically a purpose-built silhouette rifle, maximum weight 10 lbs. 2 oz. including scope and empty magazine. The most popular choices are Anschutz 54.18 MSR (metallic silhouette repeater) and custom rifles built on Anschutz or Remington actions.

Smallbore rifles: three Standard-class rifles on the left; three Hunter-class rifles on the right.

Lever Action Rifles

Despite the name, lever action is open to any tube-fed, non-bolt action rifle, so pump-action and semi-auto rifles are also allowed.  Magnified sights (scopes) are not allowed; fortunately the targets for lever action are 2.5 times larger than they are for smallbore or air rifle.  Front sights must be a bead or post.  Most shooters find that either a receiver or tang mounted rear sight and a front sight with removable inserts work best, but plenty of people have gotten started with buckhorn style sights mounted on the barrel.

Smallbore lever action rifles must be chambered in .22lr.

Pistol cartridge lever action rifles must be chambered in a pistol cartridge such as 25-20, 32-20, 38 special, 357 Magnum, 38-40, 44’s, 44-40, 45 Colt, 45 Long Colt, .22 Magnum and .22 long rifle.  Pistol cartridge ammunition must be loaded with round or flat nosed bullets.  The pistol cartridge targets are the same size as the smallbore lever action targets, but they are thicker and therefore heavier.  It is permissible to shoot the same rifle in both smallbore lever action and pistol cartridge lever action.  Just know that you may hit some of the rams without knocking them over (known as 'ringing' them) which does not count for score.

Air Rifle

For air rifle, you can shoot anything up through .22 caliber, though most people shoot .177 because a wider variety of accurate rifles and pellets are available for this caliber than for .20 or .22. But feel free to shoot what you've got. There are three air rifle classes:

• Target class: 10-meter competition rifle, such as FWB P70, 300s, or Anschutz 2002; virtually all shooters use scopes rather than match sights
• Sporter class: Any factory unmodified sporter rifle, 11 lbs. maximum including scope. Among spring guns, the Air Arms TX200 and Weirauch/Beeman HW 97 are popular. Precharged rifles are allowed as long as they use 12gr CO2 cartridges as their power source.
• Open class: Any air rifle up to 16 lbs. including scope; generally these are powerful precharged pneumatics such as the Anschutz 2025 or Walther Dominator or 10-meter rifles modified to shoot a heavy pellet at 800-900 feet per second.

Note: From time to time you will be asked to make your rifle safe. This means laying it down on the bench with the muzzle pointing downrange, the breech open, the chamber empty, and the magazine removed or empty. If your air rifle has a magazine, think about how you will demonstrate to the range officer that it is empty or removed.

Scopes

Most people need a scope to shoot silhouette well because the animals are small and there are four distances to shoot at. 16 to 24 power is adequate. Beginners will want to start with a lower power because it makes your wobble (motion of the cross hairs across the target) less apparent and therefore less unnerving. Look for these features in a scope:

• Adjustable objective: You are shooting at four distances, so you want to be able to focus the scope at each distance. For air rifle, the scope must focus down to 20 yards.
• Repeatability: When you change the scope elevation from rams to chickens, you want to be confident that when you do your job right, the bullet or pellet hits the center of a chicken, rather than flying over or under it. You can check repeatability by shooting a "box" on a calm day (or indoors if you an air rifle and space--you need at least 20 yards).
  • Resting the rifle for maximum accuracy, shoot five shots at a bull.
  • Raise the elevation one revolution; shoot five more rounds at the same bull.
  • Move the windage one revolution right; shoot five more rounds at the same bull.
  • Lower the elevation one revolution (to your original elevation); shoot five rounds at the same bull.
  • Finally, move the windage one revolution left, and shoot a final five rounds at the same bull.
  • If the last five rounds hit the same spot as the first five, your scope's repeatability is good.
• Target turrets: You need turrets that are easy to turn with your fingers and are clearly marked. Scopes that have micrometer-style rotation marks (1st revolution, 2nd revolution, etc.) help you see at a glance where the scope is set. 1/4 minute of windage or elevation change per click is good; 1/8 minute clicks will have you turning the turrets more between animals but still works OK.
• Dot or fine duplex or reticle: Light conditions are almost always good, so you won't have trouble seeing the reticle. In fact, a bold reticle can be distracting. More good shooters probably use the target dot (or the Leupold dot, which has tapered crosshairs) than the duplex; but they could all shoot good scores with a duplex. If you start with a duplex, you can sometimes have the reticle changed to a target dot for $50-$100.
• Air rifle rated: If you are shooting a piston (spring or gas strut) rifle, be sure to get a scope that is rated for air rifle shooting; the two-way recoil can break scopes not built for it. Pneumatic and CO2 air rifles can use any scope.
• Variable power (zoom): With a variable power scope, you can increase the magnification as your hold improves -- and decrease it when it's windy or you are having a bad day.
• Reasonable weight: In some classes, especially smallbore Hunter, the weight limit may force you to use a light weight scope if your rifle is on the heavy side.

Popular scope brands include:

• Inexpensive: Bushnell Trophy, BSA, Tasco, Swift
• Moderate: Weaver V16, Bushnell Elite 4200 8-24, Sightron SII 624x42D (all available with dot reticle)
• Expensive: Leupold 6.5-20 EFR (available with dot reticle)

Ammunition

Both .22s and air rifles are highly individualistic about ammunition. Even two rifles with consecutive serial numbers may not shoot the same ammo well.  More expensive ammunition is not always more accurate in a given rifle.  The most important thing is to find ammo that works in your rifle and fits in your budget.  Often, the best thing to do is to decide roughly what you're comfortable spending and test 3-4 offerings at that price point.  We have found the following to seem to work well in many rifles:

• Inexpensive: Federal 711B, PMC Scoremaster, CCI Standard, Wolf Match Target, SK Standard Plus
• Moderate: RWS Target Rifle, Federal 900B, Lapua Center-X
• Expensive: RWS R100, Eley Tenex, Lapua Midas

For air rifle, some .177 pellets that usually work well are:

• Target and Sporter classes: Crosman Premier 7.9, Beeman Field Target Special, JSB Exact
• Open class: Crosman Premier 10.5, Beeman Kodiak Match, JSB Exact

Domed pellets definitely work better than other shapes because they hold their velocity better at the longer ranges.

Other Gear

One unique thing about silhouette is that it does not allow much of the the purpose built clothing and accessories that are found in other precision shooting sports.  Shooting specific pats, jackets, shoes and slings are all prohibited.  You must wear eye and ear protection.  Here are some additional items you may find useful:

• Pen or pencil and 6" x 9" clipboard: for scoring
• Countdown timer: to see how much of the 2-1/2 minute shooting period remains
• Three or four magazines: so you don't have to reload between banks; just know that you are limited to 5 rounds at a time
• Shooting vest: the one article of special clothing permitted by the rules; the pockets are handy for holding your gear
• Hiking boots: provide a stable and comfortable platform