2008 NRA Silhouette Rule Changes Posted

[Jason]

Rule changes for 2008 are now online and may be viewed at:
http://www.nrahq.org/compete/rulechanges.asp

The on line Rule Books have also been updated to reflect changes. These are available at:
http://www.nrahq.org/compete/nra-rule-books.asp

[Jason]

A quick glance over the changes shows some significant ones, mostly in the cowboy rifle matches. For the cowboy rifle matches, rams will be set farther back on the rails and round-nosed bullets are now legal (instead of lots of people using them anyway and match directors not caring). For smallbore and pistol cartridge cowboy matches, classifications for scores have changed:

Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 to 40
AAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 to 34
AA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 to 28
A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 to 21
B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 to 14

It's a good thing that it's easier to shoot master scores now because I'll need it with the change to inserts to post only. So much for my Lee Shaver post and bead inserts.

Rear sights may be open sights, receiver or tang sights manufactured for the rifle they are mounted on. No Olympic type sights or extended mounts are permitted. Front sights must be a post or bead, maybe hooded or if interchangeable may use post inserts only.

Edit: Hmm.. reading it again, the change to sight inserts was a 2007 change, along with the round-nosed bullets. Hasn't it already been argued out/decided that post and bead inserts in front sights with inserts were ok because the reason for the rule was to prohibit circular inserts? Anyone remember if that's been confirmed by someone on the silhouette committee since the 2007 rule changes were implemented?

[lone ringer]

Jason, all those changes to rifle silhouette go back to 2005 and affected 2006 and 2007. There were hardly any rule changes made to rifle silhouette for this year.

[Jason]

Yeah.. setting the rams farther back for cowboy rifle and changing the scores in the classifications for smallbore and pc cowboy rifle are from this year. Didn't notice much else after I looked back over it.

[GeoNLR]

. Hasn't it already been argued out/decided that post and bead inserts in front sights with inserts were ok because the reason for the rule was to prohibit circular inserts? Anyone remember if that's been confirmed by someone on the silhouette committee since the 2007 rule changes were implemented?

I didn't do the search, but I know that we did cover that at least on a local level last year. Conners said that an insert with a bead was legal, that the "shapes" were what that rule was prohibiting. He stated that a Bead WAS a "post insert".

It didn't make sense to me at the time, but so be it.....

[Jason]

Thanks, George. I knew I remembered having this discussion on the web sometime in the past and finally found the old thread over at Greybeards..

http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php/topic,92102

That was back in 2006 before the rule changes for 2007 came out, though. As long as the silhouette committee considers the post and bead insert a post insert, I guess I'm still legal and might actually shoot a few master scores this year in cowboy with the new class ranges.

[lone ringer]

Would be nice if they had also included High Power Rifle on the rule change recommendation for the full size rams to be placed back on their stands to ensure that reasonable loads will knock them down and for stops to be incorporated on the ram stands to make sure they are not placed forward.

We have never been as fussy as handgun and cowboy silhouette shooters as far as how rams are placed on their stands because over thirty years ago we started shooting the rams with calibers like 308's and 30-06's but now a days when most of us shoot 6.5's and 7mm's would be nice if we would pay more attention to our targets, stands and how the rams are placed.

It does not make sense that some times we knock down all the rams we hit and after a target reset we ring a bunch of them just because the target setters got careless and placed them a bit forward on their stands. Requiring that stops are placed in the front of the stands would do wonders for us getting a lot less ringers.

If we ask the committee maybe next year HP rams and their stands could be the same as the handgun and cowboy as far as rules are concerned.