Hunter's Pistol Silhouette

Hunter's Pistol Silhouette involves shooting at steel cutouts (silhouettes) in the shapes of various animals, sitting at various distances. The animals are shaped like chickens, javelinas, turkeys, and rams, and are set at distances of 40, 50, 75, and 100 meters respectively. The animals are set on a steel rail, and when hit solidly, fall from the rail.

There are actually two competitions. The first is "Smallbore Hunter's Pistol", and is fired with .22 long rifle ammunition. Guns must be stock (more or less), with certain changes allowed. Legal changes include grips, sights, and trigger jobs. The barrel length is limited to 10.75 inches, and the weight of the gun is limited to 4.5 lbs. Guns may be equipped with scopes or other optical sites, however guns with these modifications compete separately from iron sighted guns. In a typical smallbore competition, 60 rounds are fired, 15 at each animal. Firing is done at sets of five animals, with 2 minutes to fire the five shots. There is one shot taken at each animal, with a hit scoring one point, a miss scoring zero.

The second competition is "Hunter's Pistol”. The rules are virtually the same as for smallbore, however the range of calibers allowed is much broader. Almost any, straight walled pistol cartridge, up to .45 caliber is allowed. Also allowed are a few small "bottlenecked" cartridges like the .22 Hornet and the 32/20. Other bottlenecked rifle cartridges (such as 30/30) are specifically NOT allowed. Limits on guns are the same, and a typical match is fired at 40 targets (10 of each).

List your club’s competitions by emailing type of shoot, location, and other details to VSSA.