I shot silhouette matches until tendonitis took my ability to hold up pistols with a 15 inch barrel. It is a very simple game. You have two minutes to fire five shots at a bank of targets. A 30 second preparation period is given prior to the first shot. You may handle your pistol, assume your position, dry fire and load your pistol during this preparation period. A local match has two banks of five targets at each distance for a total of 40 shots. Championship matches shot both banks at each distance twice for 80 shots total. I have heard of sixty shot matches also. A shooter starts at the shortest line, the chickens, then moves to the pigs, turkeys and finally the rams. Small bore targets have the chickens at 25 yards, pigs at 50 yards, turkeys at 75 yards and rams at 100 yards. Big bore targets are placed at 50 meters, 100 meters, 150 meters and 200 meters for the same respective animals. Big bore has full size and half size targets. The target presentation of the small bore targets appears to be about 3/8 of the size of the full size big bore targets. It is very challenging and a lot of fun. The wind is a serious challenge during these matches. This is complicated by the fact that each set of five targets faces in the opposite direction than the previous five. This is important because if you hit the target very far from its center of mass it may not fall. A target that does not fall does not count for score. The sweet spot for the chickens and turkeys is just above the leg-body junction. The sweet spot for the pigs and rams is above and behind the front leg-body junction. This means that if you sight in for the sweet spot when targets face one way, you might miss when the targets face the opposite direction. Although the two minute shooting time sounds like a lot of time keep in mind that you only get one shot per target and you must shoot the targets from left to right. So, for each shot you must understand what the wind is doing, adjust your NPA and reload your pistol. The majority of the pistols used are TC Contenders and Encores, Anschutz bolt action pistols and XP-100s. The XP-100 is probably the most popular big bore gun, but there are several interesting designs actively used included falling block designs. A seasoned spotter is critical to good performance and adds to the fun of the game. Spotting can be very difficult as well. I agree with Sam it is very boring to watch, but so is our game.
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