9/14/2019 Nra Silhouette Records
NRA RIFLE SILHOUETTE. Rized by the National Rifle Association in advance of firing. (There are two. From NRA on request. National Records may only be established in. August 25th, 2015 Records Broken at 2015 High Power Silhouette Nationals. With so much action going on at Camp Perry, Ohio this August (including the Fullbore Worlds), you might not realize that another NRA rifle championship was taking place simultaneously in Pennsylvania.
This article was originally published in the November 2010 issue of It’s a typical “guy” story—the kind that ought to be true even if it isn’t. It’s alleged that the sport of silhouette shooting originally with Pancho Villa’s men. Picture the scene: A few guys sitting around the campfire eyeballing the countryside. After a while, one of them says, “Hey, Juan, I bet you can’t hit that turkey waaaaay out there.” To which Juan says something like, “No problem, muchacho.
Watch and learn.” After he takes aim, pulls the trigger and drops the target, Juan then challenges the first hombre to hit a target of his selection. Pretty soon this business of popping animals at long range evolves into a regular competition involving shooting at targets that would become post-match barbeque. What happened next is a matter of some debate.
Some say that shooting at live animals produced too many arguments about who hit what: “You missed that pig.” “No I didn’t; he’ll fall down in a minute.”. Francisco 'Pancho' Villa with Mexican Revolutionaries.
My theory is that as accuracy improved, the camp cook got fed up and politely suggested that the shooters find targets that didn’t need cleaning. In any event, the first silhouette match that used steel targets instead of livestock was held in Mexico City in 1948. Twenty years later, the Tucson Rifle Club introduced silhouette shooting into the U.S. And in 1973, the NRA recognized silhouette as an official shooting discipline.
The first national championships were held in November of that year. Silhouette has remained basically the same ever since.
Competitors shoot at four rows of 10 metallic silhouettes at increasing distances: Chickens first, then pigs, next turkeys and finally rams—40 targets in all. You get a point for each silhouette you knock down. If you hit a silhouette and it doesn’t fall, you get zilch. Over the years, silhouette has morphed into a number of different disciplines: High Power Rifle, Hunter Rifle, Smallbore Rifle, Black Powder Cartridge Rifle, Air Rifle, Air Pistol, Hunter’s Pistol and Cowboy Lever Action Rifle are the basic disciplines. Cowboy Lever Action is broken into three sub-categories to include Smallbore Cowboy Rifle, Pistol Cartridge Cowboy Lever Action and regular Cowboy Lever Action.
Black Powder Cartridge Rifle also has a ‘Scope’ class. Hunter’s Pistol is broken into four sub-categories. Further, there are different classes for shooters within every discipline. As a result, virtually anyone who wants to shoot silhouette can probably find a level and discipline of competition that suits them just fine. Despite the differences in powerplants, everyone shoots 10 each of chickens, pigs, turkeys and rams.
What changes with the different disciplines is distance to the target and the size of the target. For example, with air pistol silhouette, chickens are shot at just 10 yards and they are only 11⁄8 inch high. At the other end of the spectrum, high power rifle and black powder cartridge rifle are shooting 26 inch x 32 inch rams at 500 meters. Distances, by discipline, are: Air Rifle—20, 30, 36 and 40 yards; Smallbore—40, 60, 77 and 100 meters; and High Power—200, 300, 385 and 500 meters. Air and smallbore tournaments are fired at reduced ranges with smaller targets than those used in high power shooting. A typical silhouette scorecard lists 10 shots for each of four targets, for a total score of 40. Considering all the disciplines together, silhouette shooters represent one of the largest groups of competitive shooters within the NRA.
Each discipline has its devotees as shown in the following interviews: Mark Pharr (Round Rock, TX) loves shooting high power rifle because of “the feel of the recoil as the rifle is coming back and watching 60 pounds of steel mass (the ram) falling over slowly.” But he also loves smallbore silhouette because it’s very family oriented and open to women and children. Bill Motl (Porter, TX) has shot smallbore and high power and holds many records in air rifle. He says that “air rifle is, in my opinion, pure shooting.
You don’t have recoil or noise, and you don’t have to wear ear plugs.” He notes, though, that you’ll find more people at a smallbore match than an air rifle or high power. “Still,” he says, “in high power, it’s a thrill to watch targets go down at 500 meters. The rams fall slowly, usually two to three seconds after you pull the trigger.” Cathy Winstead-Severin (Joplin, MO) shoots mainly rimfire (smallbore) silhouette.
“I like the fact that it doesn’t have a lot of recoil. You can converse with other shooters behind the line.
It’s great for the kids in that sense, and you don’t have to worry about reloading.” She adds, “It’s still hard. You don’t go out and shoot a 40 all the time. You have to read the wind and the mirage, so it’s always a challenge.”. Cathy Winstead-Severin shooting high power silhouette. Eric Boos (Little Rock, WA) likes big bore hunting rifle silhouette. “It’s the real deal,” he says.
“Five hundred meters offhand is very challenging. The average shooter would assume you are lying, so I don’t talk about it much. When you’re doing it, it’s mentally very fatiguing.” Boos is also a fan of smallbore. “It’s good practice for high power. It’s the same format. You have to develop your position and get into the mental part of the game.” Hugh Wilson (Trinidad, CO) has shot many silhouette disciplines and has settled on black powder cartridge rifle.
He likes the novelty of shooting the old style guns similar to the one that Tom Selleck shot in the movie In black powder cartridge rifle, shooters have to stand to shoot the chickens at 200 meters, but can use any position for the remainder of the course. Most competitors shoot prone. “You have to deal with the variables of wind and vision, but when you’re shooting at the turkeys at 385 meters, you still have enough time to get to your spotting scope and watch the bullet hit,” he says. “We have one fellow who is over 90 years old who shoots everything but the chickens.” The other thing that he likes about this discipline is that, “At any given match, there is a fairly large group of people who could potentially win. That makes it more fun.” No matter which “brand” of silhouette a shooter chooses, what’s common to all of them is that it is simply enormous fun to squeeze the trigger and watch the target fall down. Learn more about NRA silhouette competition.
Originally published on Competitive shooting is just like karate, although there’s a lot less punching and kicking each other in the face. The big similarities between martial arts and competitive shooting disciplines have to do with the whole idea of classification. The word classification means “the act or process of putting people or things into groups based on ways that they are alike.” In this context, you can think of classification as grouping people of similar skill level together for the purpose of healthy competition. In karate, you’d never have a tournament where a black belt challenges a yellow belt. At the very least, you wouldn’t want to be the yellow belt in that matchup.
Competition is more meaningful if those of the same proficiency, as demonstrated by their belt achievement, compete against each other. Shooter classifications accomplish the exact same thing. 5 Shooting Classifications To create equitable competitions, the NRA places competitors into five different classification buckets depending on how well they shoot over time. The classes are: Marksman Sharpshooter Expert Master High Master Keep in mind that the requirements vary depending on the shooting discipline. For example, the Sharpshooter classification for High Power Rifle might require certain scores on defined targets placed 100 to 600 yards downrange.
Obviously, the Sharpshooter classification for Precision Air Rifle won’t call on shooters to hit targets at 600 yards, so the specific requirements for a classification vary with the nature of the competition. To understand classification specifics for any specific shooting competition discipline, you can always check section 19 of any.
Although there are at least 15 different rulebooks covering different shooting sports, you’ll find that Classification rules are always in section 19. Let’s look at an example, sticking with High Power Rifle. A sanctioned competition will draw from specific courses of fire using certain target sizes and types. That way, any competitor’s scores will be comparable to any others, regardless of date or location. 100 Yards: Metallic Sights. Target: SR-1; 10 or 20 shots standing, slow fire, 10 or 20 shots rapid fire, sitting or kneeling. Target: SR-21; 10 or 20 shots rapid fire prone.
Target: MR-31; 10 or 20 shots slow fire, prone. 200 Yards: Metallic Sights. Target: SR; 10 or 20 shots standing, slow fire, or 10 or 20 shots rapid fire sitting or kneeling.
Target: SR-42; 10 or 20 shots rapid fire, prone. Target: MR-52; 10 or 20 shots slow fire, prone. 300 Yards: Metallic Sights. Target: SR-3; 10 or 20 shots rapid fire, prone. Target: MR-63; 10 or 20 shots slow fire, prone. 500 Yards: Metallic Sights. Target: MR-65 (ONLY); 10 or 20 shots slow fire, prone.
600 Yards: Metallic Sights. Target: MR-1; 10 or 20 shots slow fire, prone. From these scenarios, match scores are boiled down to 10-shot averages to determine the correct classification. Again, sticking to High Power Rifle, the classification definitions are as follows: High Master 97.00 and above Master 94.00 to 96.99 Expert 89.00 to 93.99 Sharpshooter 84.00 to 88.99 Marksman below 84.00 Earning Shooting Classifications Now let’s talk about the actual process that gets one from thinking about to competing, to a properly classified competitor. If you’re one to sandbag your scores, let’s get that out of the way first. Even though we’re not going to get rich sweeping the podium at local shooting competitions, there’s always that desire to win, right? Even if you have to fudge a little?
When you show up at a match as an unclassified shooter, you’ll automatically be placed into Master class. That prevents the of the world from avoiding the classification system, entering Marksman Class, and taking first place every time.
Putting new shooters in Master class is not all about making rookies miserable. In fact, you’ll develop classification as you shoot – and quickly. While there are a million details, after you fire 120 shots and your scores are submitted, you’ll get a classification card in the mail. Because there are so many forms of shooting competitions, you might one day find yourself classified, say, as an Expert in Silhouette Rifle, but perhaps you decide to take up High Power Rifle.
No worries, the High Power match director will carry your Expert classification over until you’re properly classified based on match scores in High Power. In this case, the system serves as a general indicator of a competitor’s shooting skill. Maintaining and Improving Your Classification Earlier in the series we talked about how NRA Sanctioned Competitions work. To refresh your memory, they follow a standardized format for each shooting discipline. More importantly for this purpose, scores from the match are sent into NRA Headquarters.
Each competitor is uniquely identified using an ID number and an eternal repository of match results and individual scores is what makes the classification system work. As you compete in sanctioned matches, your scores go into the giant computer in the sky and are tabulated and compared against different classification goals. Again sticking with the High Power Rifle example, if you fire at least 240 shots in matches after you’re initially classified, that’s enough to get you re-evaluated.
If you learn fast, you might find yourself jumping up a level or two, and your records and status will be updated accordingly. The goal of the system is to keep you shooting against others of similar skill levels. That’s what makes it fun and challenging. There are some specific rules about team and league shooting that impact how and when re-classification occurs. If you want to dive deep into that topic, just check out any section 19 in an NRA Competition Rulebook.
Oh, if you want to keep tabs on your record, there’s a nifty classification lookup tool on the NRA website. Simply and then enter your ID number to see where you stand. Shooting Records Guess what else all of this careful standardization and record keeping allows?
That’s right – bragging rights. And here, I’m talking about the ultimate boasting opportunity, national records. Don’t we all want out name published somewhere as the fastest, or most accurate, or overall best? Because courses of fire and scoring rules are consistent, it’s possible to compare my performance on the 600-yard High Power Course to yours, even though our shooting might be separated by time and distance.
When it comes to records, accuracy and validity are critical. As you’ve already seen, NRA Sanctioned Competitions have to follow rigid protocols, but if you’re in contention for a shooting record, there are even more T’s to cross, and I’s to dot. If you’re in contention for a national record, your performance has to be certified by the folks at NRA Headquarters. A walks participants through the process, but in short, the match referee and jury must sign off, original targets must be submitted, and a completed. So what are some of the most prestigious tournaments and national records in existence?
The NRA National Matches at Camp Perry in 1923, which featured a 300-yard rapid fire stage. While there are many national tournaments covering everything from small bore rifles to black powder shooting, a few stand out. Many consider the to be the “World Series” of shooting. Dating all the way back to 1907, these matches began just 4 years later than the first official baseball World Series. Running for 5 weeks every year, the National Matches emphasize skill and precision from a variety of distances using pistols and rifles. Are you into action pistol shooting?
The king of the hill for handgunners is the prestigious. Emphasizing accuracy on stationary and moving targets, competitors must hit targets out to 50 yards from standing and prone positions, and even around barricades.
Newer on the scene is the. Unlike specialized skill competitions, this one is all about finding the overall best shooters who can compete across a broad array of shooting disciplines.
Where else will you compete in modern three-gun, cowboy-action shooting, long-range shooting, and shotgun clay target stages all in the same match? As for national records, the bad news is that you have stiff competition to earn your place. The good news is that national records are tracked for dozens of categories. The best way to find your achievement goal is to check out the. Get Started Today! The topic of shooting classifications might sound a bit complicated, but if you’re looking to get started, it’s really not.
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Even through the system is structured, detailed and well-defined, most of that is transparent to you, the shooter. Just show up at the match and the helpful staff will walk you through the process of getting registered. Once you fill out your contact information and go shoot, the ball is rolling.
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Your scores will make their way to NRA, and you’ll be on your way to getting a classification of your very own!
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