Off-hand silhouette matches

[GUTS]

Anybody here shoot in off-hand silhouette matches? We have a club range with NRA silhouette targets at 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 meters. We shoot basically 3 different types of matches, lever gun, military, and high power. All of the matches are shot standing, unsupported, off-hand. The lever gun match is open to all lever guns of any caliber and is shot with iron sights only with chickens at 50 meters, pigs at 100 meters, turkeys at 150 meters and rams at 200 meters. Each match is a total of 40 shots, 10 at each set of targets with no handicaps and high score wins. The military matches are shot under the same rules as the lever match is except of course with military rifles of any caliber and year. The match we call high power is shot with scoped rifles(any rifle you wish of any caliber, and also can be shot with iron sights if you like)with the chickens at 200 meters, the pigs at 300 meters, the turkeys at 400 meters and the rams at 500 meters. I've shot high power a number of times but I shoot better with irons than a scope, even at those ranges. The target through a scope looks to me like fly on crack, I can't hold on it, so I shoot against the scoped rifles using irons with my M1A(Im not holding any more steady, I just can't tell because of the lack of magnification), it is a very accurate rifle using the irons even at 500 meters. The rams at 500 meters are so small through the irons that they look like black speck, about a third as wide as the front sight blade. It sure feels good when they fall. The best I've done in high power is 12 out of 40 which isn't too bad with iron sights. I've shot a 32 in the military matches with my M1A but I've never shot better than a 24 in the lever matches. I think the barrel on my old Winchester model 64 is just too skinny to handle 40 shots an a hot summer day, it turns into a spaghetti noodle. Further out from 500 meters we have 4 targets that are in yards, all steel, a life size cut-out of a hostile(name him whomever you want)at 650 yards, a life size elk at 750 yards, a life size buffalo at 900 yards and a 5ft circular gong at 1000 yards. It's a fun range, kind of like a giant carnival arcade game.

 

[Ruff 364]

Yes, my club hosts several matches in the winter months. I regularly shoot our 22 fun silhouette match on Fridays. Cheap fun and good standing practice.

 

[camocorvette]

Off hand is tough. Most people don't practice it. Especially with bolt guns.
When you say unsupported, do you also mean no sling at all?

I haven't shot bolt unsupported in a minute. Aside from 22's at badgers and coons. Gonna have to go through the paces soon.

It sounds like a really fun match.

 

[smoothy8500]

I shoot against the scoped rifles using irons with my M1A(Im not holding any more steady, I just can't tell because of the lack of magnification),

Nice! I love shooting my M14.

 

[GUTS]

Learning to shoot off-hand takes a lot of practice but once you can do it well it's a gas. We only use slings in our Garand matches, other than that no slings. I've shot my best score with my M1A, it's my favorite rifle..