"Bench" Silhouette

General BS, Match Results, Upcoming Events and all around Gossip...
Post Reply
jbmarshtx
A Poster
A Poster
Posts: 182
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:13 am

"Bench" Silhouette

Post by jbmarshtx »

There have been posts here, and there was one recently on rimfirecentral about the smallbore benchrest silhouette. If your club has been doing the smallbore benchrest (tiny targets off bench with only bipod or front rest) how many extra shooters do you get? Extra = shooters that might not normally show up at a club match. Do they graduate from tiny bench targets to standing?

National Rifle League (NRL) has a hunter series with different rules than their normal series. It is geared toward hunters and more basic gear. The RSO at the match this past weekend said that IHMSA does a practical hunter category that is 'fun' to shoot. You get to shoot off a bipod until you get to a certain score.

I know that it wouldn't be for score submittal, but in an effort to increase participation would a practical silhouette or bench silhouette course using a bipod, basic front rest, or single bag with no rear support increase ##s overall? Or, would it 'just' move more shooters from standing to sitting/laying and shooting? The targets might not be the tiny ones, but air rifle at smallbore distances and 1/2 scale at full scale highpower distances.
richard
A Poster
A Poster
Posts: 213
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2007 10:22 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: "Bench" Silhouette

Post by richard »

It is really difficult to get "extra" shooters as in new competitors. Having said that give anything a try and see how it goes. Usually what happens is that guys that have been competing at other clubs or shooting different disciplines may come over and give some new thing a try. We just started running NRL and it is getting some traction but IHMSA is a disaster at our club. He gets 6 or seven shooters and ties up the 50, 100,and 200 yard ranges for a whole day and if he didn't run it he would not even get them! Getting the guys that never show up at the club or the guys that do show up every week and just shoot off the bench is a tough nut to crack.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained though.
Rick B.
Richard
User avatar
psteiger
AAA Poster
AAA Poster
Posts: 773
Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2006 10:45 am
Location: Friendswood, Texas

Re: "Bench" Silhouette

Post by psteiger »

Nope. Complete failure. I bought a set of Dustins targets, built a stand, built a resettable. I go one (1) retired shooter to try it, and most of the regulars tried it. I set it up for some run and gun guys, too hard. No one showed for the match. If there was a BR match at the club, I could probably get some to shoot it alongside their match. That's not recruiting new shooters. Also, the game of Silhouette is shot standing on your hind legs. Not sitting at a bench or lying on the ground. For newbies, I went back to the tried and true of shooting 1/2 scale, until they want to shoot the 1/5th scale. The only use I can see out of my $500 investment in targets, is to use them for shootoffs at 40m. That replaces the chickens at the ram line. both are fun. Like open sights for 1/5th scale, red dots on air rifles, different match formats, only the really sick people (like me) will try them. None will shoot them regularly. My latest is one of those scopes that records video. I want to see what Elisabeth is looking at when she shoots. As in, how the hell do you do that? I wanted to shoot BPCR ssb, but the matches changed to coincide with out regular sb matches, so that's a no go. Additionally, my real live, turn of the century (as in 1900 and earlier) Martini's aren't legal but that $5000 sharps replica built yesterday, is..... just one assholes opinion here....LGB
Grantmac
A Poster
A Poster
Posts: 174
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2009 1:22 pm

Re: "Bench" Silhouette

Post by Grantmac »

Rimfire PRS is taking off here and not because it's "tacticool" but because the equipment rules are separated by cost and allow logical, cheap adaptive modifications for fit so it's not wallet racing.
44 mag
AAA Poster
AAA Poster
Posts: 535
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:28 am
Location: Bradford, PA
Contact:

Re: "Bench" Silhouette

Post by 44 mag »

22 Bench Rest Varmint Silhouette was started this year at Ridgway. Same distance as SB but you shoot a crow, groundhog, bob cat, and coyote. These targets are a bit smaller than 1/10 scale. It is shot with one front bag provided by the club. The turn outs have been very good from 60-70 shooters each month. Ridgway has been doing Varmint Bench Rest for several years now and shoot the same targets crow 850 yards, ground hog 900 yards, bobcats at 950 yards and coyotes at 1000 yards. These are life size silhouettes and the match is full (around 160 shooters) usually by March. Shooters pay for there bench for the full year.
jbmarshtx
A Poster
A Poster
Posts: 182
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:13 am

Re: "Bench" Silhouette

Post by jbmarshtx »

Thanks for the replies. They are about as expected, and it was worth an ask. We did have a few new faces at our state highpower match this year, and it would be nice to be able to add a few more. Always the challenge.
Hawkeye7br
B Poster
B Poster
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2016 8:14 pm
Location: Indiana

Re: "Bench" Silhouette

Post by Hawkeye7br »

I run this type of match at my local club. We copied the original format from a popular long range event I attended at the Palomino Gun Club outside Reno, NV. & scaled down their match to fit our 240 yd range and use a combination of 1/5 and 3/8 silo targets for rimfire. This is our 5th season. Attendance this year increased, I get 30 guns at a Sat match and maybe 20 on a weeknight match.

The majority of our shooters never competed before. A couple are national caliber in conventional HP rifle or IHMSA, a few shoot Steel Challenge or USPSA on a loose frequency (3-4x a year), a couple shoot HP PRL. Our guys are social and quick to help newbies. They also are quick to invite the newbie to practice during the week as many are retired. There are many things that contribute to the popularity. I use a Lewis class type payback so shooters in the middle or lower part of their skill class have a chance to win a few bucks. It isn't about the money, you can shoot great and place 2nd and win nothing or you can shoot bad and go home with $12, just based on attendance.

We started with knockdown targets and then went to swingers and it allowed us to shoot 60 rds in the same time as 40 targets of knockdown. We have 3 formats that we rotate during the year to keep it from getting stale. The most popular format is to shoot the targets on an out and back sequence instead of L-R at one distance. We rotate shooters every 20 shots like in NRA silo matches. Match takes 3.5-4 hours.

Targets are sized at 2 MOA+/- per the distance. Equipment started as simple rimfires, mostly CZ, Ruger, Savage, front bipod only, no slings, bags, heavy gloves. Just something that you would have on a varmint hunt but in rimfire. Newbies start on targets at 75, 110, 165 yds because our range is in both yards and meters. As your skill level increases, you shoot at 200 & 240 yds. We have 8 shooters at a time on the line. Shooting is prone, if you're not able then you can shoot from a bench.

It has been fun to watch the 60+ age group get excited about buying new guns and optics. They practice during the week, a couple boxes of ammo and a couple hours of shooting with buddies at something other than generic plinking. Another fellow runs a paper match featuring groundhog with scoring rings and it is gaining popularity. A recent poll of our shooters indicates they will shoot during cold months if the weather is not adverse, we're getting a couple pop-ups with walls to block the wind and will modify our time frames.
Post Reply