air pistol silhouette

glen ring · Post by **glen ring** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:10 am

Air pistol silhouette looks to be very interesting. Any of you guys or gals have experience shooting these in silhouette? What brand /type would be a good choice? Where can I find the gun and research the topic.
Thanks

Bob259 · Post by **Bob259** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:21 am

These folks do a lot of it, have articles and I'm sure would be glad to help... http://www.citlink.net/~schattler/

bkbishop · Post by **bkbishop** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:06 am

i never got in to the air pistol side of silhouettes, but here is a pic of a pistol (IZH46M) that seems to be very popular due to the low price and great accuracy...obviously a custom scope mount (probably made by Fenton Sanglin in North TX)

this pic was taken at the 2003 Texas State Air Pistol Silhouette Championships
hope this helps a little,
Brad

richard · Post by **richard** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:45 am

There standard answer for anything is "it depends" and it really does. The best suggestion is to go to a couple of matches and see what is being used and talk to the guys. The Phila. area guys mostly shoot IZHs. There inexpensive and shoot about as well as anything. I personally have an IZH with open sights and a Beeman P-3 with a red dot for any sight category. I've seen guys go with the top of the line PCP guns and we also have people that shoot very inexpensive CO2 pistols. Good scores can be had with them all.
I particularly like air pistol silhouette because the entry cost can be very low and you can still be competitive. It's the cheapest silhouette sport to get into. My P-3 is not the cheapest you can start with but even that cost $189. for the pistol and around $30. for the red dot.
Even my used 30-30 lever action costs more than that with the sights.

atomicbrh · Post by **atomicbrh** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:16 pm

glen ring. My advice is just buy the stuff and do it. Buy the IZH 46M. Call Fenton Sandlin and get a scope mount on the way. You have to tell him whether you want a flat top groove for BKL rings or a weaver type ring top. I suggest the BKL ring setup because it is the most versatile allowing you to slide the whole scope forward and backwards for proper eye relief without having the scope turrets get in the way. Then get on the opticsplanets website and order a Bushnell 3-9 X 32 Model 72-0039 rifle scope with resettable to zero 1/4 MOA click target turrets for about $61 with free UPS shipping. These scopes are unbelievable for the cost. The best kept secret in Silhouettte. I have two of these scopes. I suggest that you go with the scoped setup first and then if you want to go with the NRA Taco Iron sight rig for the iron sight class, set up another IZH for that class. Air Pistol is super cheap compared to Smallbore Rifle Silhouette.

I was blessed when I got into the air pistols that the folks at Haltom City Texas Gun Club who hold most of the Indoor World records gave me good advice. I did not make any mistakes on my air pistol purchases. Getting the proper air pistol equipment to shoot like it should is nothing like Smallbore Rifle. You can be shooting Air pistol Silhouette in less than five working days. In other words, you can have pellets, pistol, scope, rings and mount at your door ready to put together in less than five days from the day you place the orders. If I had shot Air Pistol first, I would have never even thought about Smallbore Rifle Silhouette. I really enjoy the Air Pistols so much more.

When I visited Haltom City to shoot a match(a 14 hour round trip drive for me) I got to shoot lots of expensive pcp air pistols($1500 and up) and I did not feel I was really giving up anything shooting the IZH. The trigger is great and the single pump requires very little effort. When we chronographed our IZH's, they varied less than a foot per second in extreme spread. Most of the expensive pcp pistols I hear vary by as much as 10 feet/second. When we go to a match we put a piece of masking tape with our name on it on the IZH because there are so many IZH's that are set up identically. The IZH is almost indesctuctible. It is built like a Russian tank but with excellent fit and finish.

We buy our IZH's from Pilkington competition even though they are not the cheapest because of their excellent customer service and reputation in the 10 meter world. We shoot Vogel Match pellets($80 per sleeve of 5000). We do not shoot the domes because they are more expensive and we think they do not group as well. The Vogels knock the ram over without any trouble.

The other thing you will want is a set of resettable NRA targets. Mike Stimson and Carol Scioneux are the only two people I know of that manufacture these targets. I use Scioneux's targets. It is really fun to set up a complete match in a small backyard and only takes a few minutes.

I have another more detailed post in which I explained more about the IZH that you can probably find through a search.

Hope this helps.
Bobby R. Huddleston

glen ring · Post by **glen ring** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:34 pm

Thanks Bobby. I hate to ask so many questions, but I've never had a pellet pistol or rifle and when everyone started talking about springers , and pcp guns I was confused. Thanks for the advice and dealers for the equipment.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 9:34 pm

Wow, what a sales pitch. There aren't even any air pistol (or rifle for that matter) matches close to me, but you have me wanting one of those pistols (and I already have that very scope) to practice for my smallbore and hunter pistol matches.

atomicbrh · Post by **atomicbrh** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:12 pm

glen ring, do not hesitate to fire away with any questions. That is what this forum is for. The IZH 46M is a single stroke pneumatic. In other words, you do not need a scuba tank. It is not a springer either. It has zero recoil. It is smooth like a fine 10 meter Olympic quality Air Pistol should be. The lever of the IZH 46M compresses the air into the cylinder underneath the barrel. The pistol is really too heavy for 10 meter one-handed Olympic Paper Matchs unless you are very strong but its weight is an advantage in the Silhouette game. I have not done anything to maintain the pistols and will not do any until velocity drops. The factory warranty folks have had more problems with owners trying to lubricate the pistol than anything else.

We started out with a Daisy 747 but we had to put new O-rings in it every time we shot it which was a pain. The only thing to be cautious about with the IZH is making sure that the pellet is fully inserted into the chamber. If the pellet is not fully inserted the bottom bolt boss and chamber seal will be marred by the protruding pellet. If this does occur the repair only takes a few minutes with no disassembly.

I got Mr. Stimson's name wrong in my previous post. I apologize. It is Mike Stimson not Ray Stimson.

Bobby R. Huddleston