Lever Silhouette shooting with the Handgun Silhouetters

[earlmck]

My local range (the COSSA range east of Bend, Oregon) has a bunch of members and a variety of different shoots but there are no Cowboy Silhouette shoots. My group (the Pine Mountain Riflemen Buffalo Shooters) shoots some leverguns at some silhouetted targets but these are all clanger type targets and most of the shooting is not off-hand but rather off cross sticks. And the main emphasis is more toward BPCR, though we do some shooting of iron-sighted rifles at the 200 to 500 yard distances also.

A couple of ranges down from the Buffalo range is the Handgun Silhouette range, and these are all friendly folks and I have started joining in with them for their twice-monthly shoots. I shot with them last Sunday and here are several of them in the process...

ShooterMix.jpg

Everybody in that shot was shooting at different targets in different "classes" -- most everybody is shooting against their previous scores in whatever class of shoot they are doing. Here is some of the target mix resulting...

TargetMixt.jpg

The closest fellow in the group picture is shooting at the chicken clanger with his 41 mag revolver; the next one down is shooting the "half scale" targets so those are his "pigs" at the 100 yard line waiting to be knocked over (he seldom misses) while they fellow next down the line in the forward prone position is shooting those little dinky white targets with a scoped 22 specially built for that particular class of shooting. I had time to take some pictures because I was waiting my turn at the "chicken" as Joe and I were the only ones shooting the "big bore" targets -- him with 41 mag and 44 mag revolvers and me with pistol-caliber leverguns. We usually put out the "knock-em-over" silhouettes but were being lazy this day and just using the "clangers". Actually the handgun fellow Joe Culletson was practicing for national matches which are shot in meters while this range is set up for yards, except that there are spots to hang clangers at the appropriate meter positions. Since I was the only fellow who would have been using those stand-up targets It was me being "lazy" and shooting Joe's meter position clangers.

Here's our 200 meter "Ram" patiently waiting for the stage where we'll shoot him all up. Actually Joe shoots him "all up" while I hit him closer to half of the time...

RamClanger.jpg

Just a thought for some of us who use ranges that don't have enough folks for much of a Cowboy Silhouette shoot. Maybe the Handgun Silhouette folks would like to have you join them. At our range the handgun silhouette group is having the same issues as us buffalo shooters -- declining shooter population leading to unused positions at the shoots that they might like to let us cast-bullet rifle shooters utilize.

[AJMD429]

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Hey, at least it's a "pistol cartridge" levergun....

[Shasta]

It's really great that you have that ability to shoot some levergun silhouette. Maybe some of the other shooters will take notice and try it for themselves!

At my home range, Hat Creek Rifle & Pistol Club in Burney, CA, we have a robust NRA style lever action rifle silhouette program covering all three disciplines (Smallbore, Pistol Cartridge, & Centerfire Lever Action). We have Hunter's Pistol Silhouette competitors shooting side-by-side with the Lever Action Pistol Cartridge Silhouette shooters, and Smallbore Hunter's Pistol shooters alongside the Smallbore Lever Action rifle shooters. It has been that way for many years and works well for us. We usually get 15 to 25 rifle shooters and 4 to 8 handgunners at each match.

As an aside, since our matches are not NRA affiliated or sanctioned, we recently decided to allow some rifles that NRA does not allow. Older style rifles such as the Winchester 1895, Savage 1899, Colt Lightning, and Remington Model 14 are allowed as long as they do not cause any target damage. Last weekend I used my 1895 Winchester in .38-72 caliber with cast lead bullets. I didn't shoot very well, getting 22/40, but I sure had fun!

Shasta

[earlmck]

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Hey, at least it's a "pistol cartridge" levergun....

Yeah, I think I usually call them "pistol cartridge" when posting here but all our group's literature refers to them as "pistol caliber" and I fall into it without thinking. I think that's what the NRA originally called the class. Heck, maybe they still do.

It's really great that you have that ability to shoot some levergun silhouette.

It was your posts about that Hat Creek shooting that got me looking for something similar around here. Fell in with the outlaws of the "buffalo shooting" persuasion and have enjoyed their shoots for several years now. And just a few months ago discovered that I'd be welcome with the handgun silhouette folks and that they shoot pretty close to the targets we'd set up for the cowboy silhouette. I'm sure I'll eventually persuade a couple more rifle shooters to come on over.

And like you say, it's not an NRA sanctioned match so I can shoot with several guns that wouldn't even fit with the "buffalo shooters" matches. I'll be using my Rem 14 1/2 and Savage 23 and (when I get them used to the idea) some of the rifle cartridge guns of the pump style. Fun to use a variety of the old guns that I have been neglecting. I'm sort of an accumulator of Remington m14 pumps and there is not really a home for them in any of the matches.

[El Chivo]

they're louder