FX Biathlon for Silhouette

[sherbert409]

I have recently been getting into smallbore silhouette after wanting to try it for a long time. I've shot in two matches now and am hooked, but finding a place to shoot .22 LR especially at silhouette targets is more or less impossible other than attending the monthly matches at a range near me. I have been practicing 10m air rifle/pistol indoors for a while now. I recently had the idea to put a scope on my FX biathlon. This has proven to work exceedingly well and allows me to practice indoors at 10m reduced paper targets. I recently ordered some air gun targets/swingers from Quality targets to be able to shoot some in my yard. I have about 42 yards to work with so the rams will be a touch closer than they're supposed to be, but its better than nothing. Two questions for the group. 1) I primarily shoot this rifle indoors (10m), and it is a 7 FPE rifle which shoots 7 gr. 177 at about 680 fps. Should I consider upgrading it to 12 FPE or even 20 FPE for outdoors shooting at silhouette distances? 2) As it sits right now this rifle is either a target or open class rifle. It is designed for 10m target sprint, biathlon training, etc..., but it does have a bit more energy than your typical olympic target rifle. Would it be qualified as an open rifle?

[sherbert409]

Pictures

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[acorneau]

Welcome to the club! Silhouette is a great game.

...Two questions for the group. 1) I primarily shoot this rifle indoors (10m), and it is a 7 FPE rifle which shoots 7 gr. 177 at about 680 fps. Should I consider upgrading it to 12 FPE or even 20 FPE for outdoors shooting at silhouette distances?

If you want to keep shooting it indoors then I wouldn't change it. If you want to shoot outdoors and roughly match the wind hold-overs of your smallbore rifle then you need to be around 14 FPE or so. As you get close to 20 FPE you're going to have better-than-smallbore ballistics but you'll also have to deal with target durability issues.

2) As it sits right now this rifle is either a target or open class rifle. It is designed for 10m target sprint, biathlon training, etc..., but it does have a bit more energy than your typical olympic target rifle. Would it be qualified as an open rifle?

It's not quite a Target rifle, but some match directors might let you shoot it anyway. It's really an Open rifle that just happens to shoot slow.

Both my TX200 Sporter rifle and my HFT-500 Open rifle shoot heavy (10.3-10.6 grain) pellets 775 to 800 FPS, putting them around 14 FPE. I don't feel severely disadvantaged behind the guys shooting similar heavy pellets at 900 FPS.

[sherbert409]

Excellent feedback, particularly about the energy levels. I didn’t think about trying to match smallbore trajectories. I think I’m going to try it a bit outdoors to see how I like it. I have a dedicated 10m rifle for 10m air rifle so I would still be able to shoot that inside. Maybe something like 12 - 14 FPE would be the best of both worlds.