Saturday while shooting chickens in a small-bore silhouette match I hit one which popped up into the air and fell back on the rail. The base was diagonally across the pad, and since the base was still on the pad we scored it as a miss. In the grand scheme of things one chicken more or less was no big deal, but I am wondering if we did it correctly.

How many times did it break the plane while in the air?

If you don't knock it off the small pad it sets on it isn't a hit.

I was spotting for a shooter who hit one dead center and drove it straight to the backstop where we had stretched fresh chicken (!) wire to help the setters pick them up. The chicken was trampolined off the wire and back onto the stand. The shooter was good enough to watch the whole thing through the rifle scope. He turned to me and I said: "I call that a hit."

When you do this long enough you see all sorts of weird stuff.

ajj, wasn't it Greg Sullivan who, at Zwolle La, who hit a pig on the rump and it did a perfect 360 and came back to rest as it was, with only a bullet splatter on the rump to show for it?...As you said, hang around long enough..

Kitty

My description of the offending fowl's position was lacking in clarity. It was lying flat on it's face across the rail, with the base in contact diagonally on the pad. As I will almost certainly never see this again, It probably doesn't matter, but what do you think?

Lying flat, it's a hit. Score it an X.

Kitty

Just this past Saturday morning's match, I had missed the hub bub talk on the Pigs. I went down range to help reset the pigs and one was laying flat on the individual stand that is 1 inch wide and 3 inches long on a steel rod. He must of hit the rod or the top plate, wobbling the pig, loosing balance and fell over to rest on the top plate. But the pig made a 180 at the same time. I wish I had not missed the contraversy that must have been talked about. I was to busy running the match or I was on Rams and out of the scene completely. Anyway, it was hilarious when I saw it.

Kitty, I believe that was Greg, but the time I remember, it was just a 180. Pig ended up with both feet on the stand, but facing the opposite direction. Funny that they'll balance on the front foot. You see a 90 degree turn now and then.

We had interesting one with a Ram on Tuesday. It spun 90 degrees to face the firing line with it's rear foot 'IN THE AIR' and balanced on the front foot... Never saw that before,one of the guys took a picture on his phone of it. Will have to see if I can get it and post it.

I've seen that a few times at Aurora Gun Club in CO where they use valve stems for stands, one for each foot. I've seen them turn on the front stem and hang that back leg out there. It shows how much weight bias is on that front leg.

I once shot a chicken that did a triple sommersault, and then I shot it again in the air when no one was looking. If you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'

The balancing Ram....

How did that hit on the Ram not take it backwards off the rail? Or was it not repainted for a aiming spot and then just clipped where I can see the edge hit?

I've heard of HP Pigs balancing just right and hanging over seeming to defy gravity but that big ass head on it make a fine counter weight.

Most of the time it is Chickens shuckin and jivin doing some crazys thing to only land back. You would swear they hop over the bullet at times. I watched a Turkey do it once came straight up what looked to be about an inch and then landed right back on the pad, Houston we don't have a problem, odd because that was in Houston and the rails would even shake a bit but still nada. Of course I got the other 9! My closest yet to that 10 in a row, at least I launched the 10th one. So many nines

Dee

I would suspect the paint chip on either the insde or outside of the rear leg...solid body hit will ring a high power ram, but have never seen it on a smallbore one....but, of course, that doesn't make it so, simply because I have never seen it...

Kitty