Metallic Silhouettes
What is Silhouette Shooting:
Metallic Silhouettes are a type of shooting sport where one uses small and big bore calibers handguns. A hunting situation is simulated shooting at animal shapped metallic targets such as chickens, pigs, turkeys and rams:
of different dimensions and distances ranging from 25 to 200 meters (or yards), depending on the category.
This is a type of sport where not only the participants, but also the spectators take part. It’s vey exciting to see the competitors shooting with their guns, the bullet exploding when reaching the targets and knocking them down from their supports to the ground. With the competition going on and the increase of distance it gets harder and harder. And for those who are watching for the first time, it seems almost impossible to hit the targets at longer distances.
The targets, in number of 10 (ten), by type and distances, are put side by side, keeping a space of at least a dimension of a target between them.
The shooter has thirty seconds to prepare and load his gun and then two minutes to shoot five times and knock the targets down, always from left to right. After the first 5 shots, he has thirty seconds more to get ready and two minutes for the last five shots in the series. This procedure is repeated for each set of targets at each distance until reaching a total of 40 shots. The order of placing the targets is chickens, pigs, turkeys, and rams.
In Brazil 40 targets are used (10 of each type) for matches. 60, 80 and 120 targets may also be used in matches. International Matches use 80 targets.
One of the reasons for the popularity of Metallic Silhouettes is that new shooters do not need sophisticated equipment. This sport offers the shooters the possibility of competing in several categories depending on the kind of guns they own. In the Revolver Production category for instance, the shooters can use original revolver, without any modification (the only one permitted is to lighten the trigger). This makes it possible for who owns a gun to shoot silhouettes. To make the participation even more practical, categories which permit specifically 22 caliber were created, and they are called Small Bore. To use calibers such as .38SPL, .357 Mag, .357 Super Maximum, .44 Magnum, 7mm/08, .308, 7mm TCU, 7mm BR and others, several categories called Big Bore were also created. For the hunting pistols a category named Field Pistolwas created.
Exceptionally in Brazil the categories of carbines and rifles were adopted. Due to the large number of these guns here, and depending on its caliber, they can compete on the Small Bore, Big Bore, or on the recently created (1995) Field Carbine categories.
For the Small Bore (.22 caliber guns) and Field Pistol categories, the targets are set at distances of 25, 50, 75 andd 100 meters. For the Big Bore categories, the distances are 50, 100, 150 and 200 meters.
It is the only type of sport where the athlete is allowed to be helped. Each shooter can have an observer, usually another shooter, called Spotter, standing at his back with a spotting scope or binoculars! The spotter identifies for the shooter the exact point of the target the bullet hit, and that helps a lot in any necessary correction.
In handguns events, with the exception of Field Pistol and “Standing” (where the shooting position is standing, and the shooter can use two hands), the shooting position is freestyle. Most shooters prefer the lying position, with belly up, among these, most prefer the Creedmore position, being relatively easy, depending on the physical build of the participant. There are some other positions which can be adopted, sometimes with better performance, but the safety rules must be obeyed.
It becomes even more exciting when the competition is coming to an end and some shooters are even and need a tie breaker. In this case, the rule says the Match Director can compute the number of targets knocked down to break the tie using the greatest number hit from rams to chickens. This is called Reverse Count. The winner is the person who knocked more targets down at further distances, or the Match Director can use the "shoot-off" method. That is tie breaking by the quantity of targets down in the normal series plus shots at smaller targets at further distances (100m for Small Bore or at 200m for Big Bore). The targets used for the "shoot-off" will be determined by the Match Director, but in most competitions the chicken target is used.
After the assistants place the targets, always in number of five, on their supports it seems impossible to the spectators to hit the targets with hand guns at such long distances, and practically impossible to define the targets outlines. There is a great expectation, mainly when there are two competitors shooting at the same time. For those who are shooting, it seems their hearts are pounding in their necks, waiting for the judge’s order to shoot. At this moment the crowd is quiet waiting for the fall of the first target, and when it happpens, they breathe a relief and then turn their attention to the second shooter in his first shot. If he also hits the target, everything starts again, as if it was the first shot. At the end of the series, there is a great relief as if everything had come to an end. But five shots are not usually enough and so the excitement tends to increase. When we have the final result, there is a party with a pleasant feeling of victory for the one who got more hits. Believe it, it is wonderful to watch it, and still better, to take part in a shoot-off.