I headed over to the range on Saturday for the NRA Silhouette match. Turnout was light, probably because of hunting season, so all that was shot was smallbore cowboy rifle and largebore cowboy rifle. So, I pull out my Colt Lightning rifle in .38-40, only to find out that they will not allow it to be shot because only lever action rifles are allowed. Now, this is the first time that I've attempted to shoot anything but smallbore. In smallbore, I shoot my Winchester 1906 rifle, which is, of course, a pump (although it's raison d'etre was to compete with the Winchester 1873!)

So what gives? Why is a pump OK in .22, but not in the pistol cartridge class? Does the NRA seriously exclude the Colt Lightning and its clones?

Color me confused...

I can check my rule book for specific rule notations if you want, but to the best of my memory it has to be a non-bolt action with a tubular magazine in smallbore. For pistol cartridge and long range cowboy, it has to be a lever action with a tubular magazine.

Yea, Jason is right is not legal. We would have let you shoot it at our range, but only for fun.

Sure enough! I looked it up, too. I sent an email to the NRA asking why and suggesting that maybe they could amend the rules for next year. Who knows. On the other hand, now I can tell my wife that I need to get a levergun. Another levergun. 'Cause I'm pretty sure that things will get ugly if I show up at next month's match with a .30-30

Now I'm going to have to do a little research. I've never looked at any rifles in pistol calibers. The only leverguns that I own are a Henry .22 and a Winchester 94 in .30-30. What do most people shoot? .357? .44? .45? Any recommendations (or is that just a big can of worms?)

Notspart wrote:Sure enough! I looked it up, too. I sent an email to the NRA asking why and suggesting that maybe they could amend the rules for next year. Who knows. On the other hand, now I can tell my wife that I need to get a levergun. Another levergun. 'Cause I'm pretty sure that things will get ugly if I show up at next month's match with a .30-30

Now I'm going to have to do a little research. I've never looked at any rifles in pistol calibers. The only leverguns that I own are a Henry .22 and a Winchester 94 in .30-30. What do most people shoot? .357? .44? .45? Any recommendations (or is that just a big can of worms?)

I shoot a .357 and others are shooting 32-20, .22 mag, .44LC... etc. kind of personal choice.

For future reference, you can go here to get PDF copies of all of the NRA competition rulebooks.

http://www.nrahq.org/compete/nra-rule-books.asp

Relevant section to this is 3.1.3b.

Any lever action rifle with a tubular magazine. A rimmed pistol cartridge loaded with a round or flat nosed bullet must be used, i.e. 25-20, 32-20, 38's, 357 Magnum, 38-40, 44's, 44-40, 45 Colt, 45 Long Colt, .22 Magnum, .22 long rifle.

The first time I watched the guys at my club shooting Cowboy lever action I thought, I cant wait untill they relax the rules enough so that we can use our AK's and MP-5's . Then I remembered they make you dress up in those little cowboy outfits and a guy would look silly dressed that way carrying a assault rifle. ;)

Notspart,

I have now been through quite a few of the PC rifles trying to find something that works for me. The cartridges that I have tried include; 357 mag, 22 mag, 22 lr, 32-20 and 44 mag. The 32-20 and 44 mag are the guns that I seem to have bonded with well. The 22 lr works great, but, I am afraid of having trouble with the rams. I have noticed that alot of the master shooters (if not shooting black powder) are moving to the 25-20. Hope this helps. Of the three classes, the PC class seems to be the one with the most choices that can potentially be successful.

kevinbear wrote:The first time I watched the guys at my club shooting Cowboy lever action I thought, I cant wait untill they relax the rules enough so that we can use our AK's and MP-5's . Then I remembered they make you dress up in those little cowboy outfits and a guy would look silly dressed that way carrying a assault rifle. ;)

They do not make us dress up in little cowboy outfits in Cowboy Lever Action Rifle Silhouette, the other kind of shooting is Cowboy Lever Action where organizations like SASS do require that you adopt an alias and also I believe you have to dress up.
Look up SASS in your favorite search engine.

The match director required cowboy attire here last time I shot it which was quite some time ago. That was the centerfire version using standard highpower targets moved into 50-75-100-150 and 200yds. They didn't like my shorts and tennis shoes because it wasn't in the "spirit of the game".

Getting back to the original topic: I was told by a shooter who was around when this deal started that the pump actions were inadvertely ommitted from the rules. I would suggest to everyone to write to the silhouette committe, they will look at it. Al

I dont know how open to rule change they are for this area of competition but they sure are slow for the other steel sports...good luck. You would think that being an item available then and popular that it would be a no brainer.

I sent an email to the Silhouette committee. The reply was that the issue was broached last year and the decision was made to exclude pump actions from the class. Ultimately, I guess, that's probably for the best (for me) because I really shouldn't be shooting a 125 year old rifle with a notoriously cranky action all that much. But it does chafe a little since the Lightning was a cowboy gun.

We've got a practice match this evening, so I'm going to chat with some of the guys shooting pistol cartridge and see if I can shoot a few targets. Thank you all for your great (as usual) advice!

I know how you feel....I have a original 1878 Borchartd that I cant shoot in silhouette matches just because it lacks the big external hammer but its a Sharps and like you I dont think that I want to take that old girl out to play with the young ruffians hell shes 131 years old....lol

I think this might be a ruling where practicality actually came into consideration when not allowing the single-shot period correct rifles. If they allowed the single-shot rifles then it would be a very short amount of time before the cowboy lever action silhouette matches were completely dominated by them. It's very easy to find them with big, heavy long barrels. We have plenty of time to shoot five targets with single-shots, and the long heavy barrels would give less wobble and a longer sight radius. If they were suddenly allowed, I would be do my best to have 22lr and centerfire rifles within a month or two.