Hello all, I'm new to the silhouette game and seem to be a cross roads already. My local clubs shoot both cowboy silhouette and small bore roughly once a month. But to compete I need to make a purchase. I own a CZ452 that needs a scope. Or for the same money I could buy a lever action rimfire for cowboy smallbore. Financially I can't do both this year.

So I'm stuck with a decision. Should I learn the game shooting cowboy small bore or hunter class small bore. Which would you recommend for someone trying to learn?

That's a tough decision as I shoot both. I think I would go with the Lever Action first, an easy way to have fun and learn some things. Just my .02 , however.

orangeblaster wrote:Hello all, I'm new to the silhouette game and seem to be a cross roads already. My local clubs shoot both cowboy silhouette and small bore roughly once a month. But to compete I need to make a purchase. I own a CZ452 that needs a scope. Or for the same money I could buy a lever action rimfire for cowboy smallbore. Financially I can't do both this year.

So I'm stuck with a decision. Should I learn the game shooting cowboy small bore or hunter class small bore. Which would you recommend for someone trying to learn?

You asked for opinions, and I generally have one...LOL. Not to belittle the cowboy game as I shoot it a love it as well. But I will drive 2+ hours the 2nd and 4th Satrudays to shoot small bore while there is a very nicely ran cow boy at my home range.

They are completly different games, but I find the SB more chalanging and therefor the one I spend the most time to....

Being that your post is in this forum, you might want to ask the same ? in the SB forum, many of us shoot the game as well.

Chicken

For the price of a scope you get to shoot 2 matches. SB Hunter and SB Standard. What a bargin....

Are you reasonably young with excellent eyesight? Post front sights get tougher for most of us after about age 40.

I shoot both matches at our local range every month and thoroughly enjoy them. I drive to other ranges to shoot the scoped rifle matches when I get a chance, though. If I had to quit one, I'd quit cowboy.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm still interested in more opinons. I guess I should also add to some info about myself and the local matches that influence my decision.

About me I'm age 33 and my eyes work fine with iron sights. I'm looking at the silhouette game because frankly competition is the only way I seem to get better at something.

The local hunter/standard small bore competition is roughly 8 to 12 shooters and all are very good (mostly AAA with some masters). There are zero shooters in B, A or AA. It's obviously an old boys club but they are very nice.

The cowboy matches are also small and seem to have fewer matches. But they have a growing number of shooters and matches. The cowboy competition seems to have a range from complete novices to experienced shooters.

Seeing these two different groups its not hard to figure that the Cowboy game has a future locally and the standard small bore game may not. I wonder why have the new shooters choose the cowboy game. Obviously equipment needed part of the decision but is there something else? Is there an avantage to learning the game shooting iron sights?

Well I just happen to be 33 with eyes that work fine with the iron sights on the cowboy matches, too, but I find the scoped rifle matches to be a lot more challenging. I started silhouette shooting to get better at offhand shooting for hunting, and it's worked like a charm so far. I also have three little kids and a stay-at-home mom for a wife, so money for my hobbies hasn't been easy to come by. It took selling a few guns, scopes, and other toys and doing some odd jobs to make up the cash to have the silhouette rifles (both scoped and cowboy) that I have now and it's been worth it. I shoot the silhouette guns more than all the rest of the guns that I have put together. My advice would be to you would choose the one that you think you'd have the most fun at and then work to find a way to make the other happen also.

You can have pretty much the top of the line gun and sights for smallbore cowboy with just a Marlin 39, Williams receiver sight with target knobs, and a Lyman 17A front sight. You don't even have to start with the target sights. You can use the factory sights and just hold under/over on different targets until you get the better sights. You could probably find a used Marlin 39 for $300 or so, get the Williams or other receiver/tang sight for $75 and the Lyman front sight for $25. That's about $400 total to be ready for the match.

By the same token, you already have a CZ452 which is a very good starter rifle for the scoped rifle matches. You don't have to have a $500 scope on it for it to be set up great for silhouette shooting, either. You just need a scope with a dependable adjustment system. Pretty much any of the Weaver V, T, K, or KT scopes will give you that and not come anywhere close to $400. I've seen Dave Imas shoot several master class scores with an old 12X Weaver scope. I've seen the fixed power Weaver target scopes (the 15X and similar ones, not new T36s and such) go for $200 or so fairly often. Just the addition of a scope and some decent rings (BKL 257 or such for ~$20) and you're in business for both hunter and standard class smallbore silhouette. If you end up loving the match and saving up for a higher-end scope later, that's great. You won't be at a disadvantage starting out with one of the lower power Weaver target scopes, though.

If you can find some way to swing it so you can shoot both matches, you can figure out for yourself which one you like best. It also wouldn't hurt to get more local opinions from people who shoot the events, because they'll know which other ranges might host matches for you to participate in.

You'll learn faster when your competition is all AAA-Master. Just a fact of life.

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like I'm spending some money on a new scope and practice ammo. Looking forward to my first match at the end of March.
Maybe I can beg / borrow a tube fed gun from someone until I can afford both:)