E-Postal Match – Silhuetas Metálicas

This is the June edition of Mr. Completely’s E-Postal Matches.  Many thanks to Manfred for hosting last e-postal.   Due to some confusion on my part as to when the match ended, I didn’t manage to get to the range in time this month.

Metallic Silhouette has its origins among the followers of Pancho Villa, in early twentieth century Mexico, where live animals were originally placed at various distances.  Presumably that got a bit messy, so by the mid-twentieth century they had made the transition to metallic cutouts of the live animals, and Metallic Silhouette was born.  The first match took place in Mexico City in 1952.  The targets were Gallinas (Chickens) at 200 meters, Guajalotes (Turkeys) at 385 Meters, and Borregos (Rams) at 500 meters.  Later on, the Javelina (Pigs) would be added at 300 meters.  The National Rifle Assocation began sanctioning Silhouette competition in 1972.

Since we’re limited in target type and distance in our e-postal matches, our silhouette match has to be roughly approximated.

The target we will be using is here.

Rules are this:

Place the target at 10 yards or 25 feet, whichever is available at your range. If you want to compete in the rimfire rifle category, targets will be placed at 50 feet, or about 20 yards.

Take one carefully aimed shot at each animal on the sheet, for a total of 20 shots.

Silhouette is generally shot in strings of five.  Put the target out, load the magazine up, and take 5 carefully aimed shot at each of whatever animal you’re on, going from left to right.  Start with the string of five chickens, and work your way down to the rams.

But here’s the catch with this match.  In Metallic Silhouette, if you miss your shot, and hit another animal, you loose the animal you hit, and the animal you were aiming at, so it’s a double loss.  On paper, there’s no good way to simulate animals that have been knocked down, so we’ll make the rule this:

Any animal that has two hits on it counts as a miss.  Any animal that has one shot on the silhouette or touching it, counts as a hit.  Any miss not touching an animal is just a miss.  Each hit counts as one, for a maximum score of 20.

Shooting position for all classes is offhand standing, unsupported, one or two hands allowed.

CLASSES:

CLASS ONE: Rimfire – Iron Sight. Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12″ barrel. Optical sights such as red dots, lasers, or scopes are not allowed.

CLASS TWO: Rimfire – Optic Sight. Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12″ barrel. Red dots sights, lasers, or scopes can be used.

CLASS THREE: Centerfire – Iron Sight. Any centerfire handgun with no more than a 12″ barrel. Optical sights such as red dots, lasers, or scopes are not allowed.

CLASS FOUR: Centerfire – Optic Sight. Any centerfire handgun with no more than a 12″ barrel. Red dots sights, lasers, or scopes can be used.

CLASS FIVE: Rimfire Rifle – Iron Sight. Any rimfire rifle. Optical sights such as red dots, lasers, or scopes are not allowed.  Target to be placed at 50 feet or ~20 yards.

CLASS SIX: Rimfire Rifle – Optic Sight. Any rimfire rifle. Red dots sights, lasers, or scopes can be used.  Target to be placed at 50 feet or ~20 yards.

BONUS CLASS: Masochist class.  Take as many shots as you need to hit all animals.  In this class, two shots on an animal still count as a hit.  Your score is the number of shots it takes to hit all of them.  No shotguns, please!  But if you want to enter a submachine gun, I’d be game for that :’)  I swear the ammunition manufacturers did not bribe me to create this class!

MULTIPLE ENTRIES: One entry will be taken per gun per class, though you may shoot the match as many times as you like, and submit your highest entry.  You can make multiple entries in a single class as long as you use a different gun.  You can use the same gun in two classes if you add or subtract optics.

Don’t worry if your score is low.  Silhouette is a difficult discipline, and scores aren’t supposed to be high unless you’re an expert shooter and have been doing silhouette for 20 years.  This match is meant to be difficult, and will be especially difficult for centerfire pistol shooters.  In fact, if you’re good, you will probably beat me, as I’m still a beginner.  There’s no embarrassment in scoring low, only in not submitting an entry!

Entries should be mailed to sebastian at snowflakesinhell dot com by midnight on the 30th of June, which is a Monday.   Results will be posted soon after.

UPDATE: I’ll also score anyone who wants to enter with an air pistol.  I shoot open sight with air pistol, so I’ll create a category for that if I get two shooters in the same category.