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All about metallic silhouette shooting
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Index:
Targets
Match format
History of the sport
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Targets
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All silhouette matches run according to IMSSU rules feature targets arranged in
banks of five, at varying ranges. As smallbore shooting (shot with .22 rimfire cartridges)
is perhaps the most-widely practiced variant of silhouette shooting, the distances
given here are for smallbore rifles. Smallbore rifle silhouette targets are 1/5th
scale, and placed at 1/5th the distance of their high power counterparts.
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Chicken
Distance: 40 meters
While these targets are considered second easiest only to the pig,
they are surprisingly difficult because of their odd shape. The eye
tends to want to 'center' the target, usually resulting in a low shot.
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Pig
Distance: 60 meters
The pig is considered the easiest target to hit based upon its relative
wideness, regular shape, and the fact that it is close enough to the
shooter to make wind less of a factor.
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Turkey
Distance: 77 meters
The turkey is acknowledged as the most difficult of the silhouette targets
to hit due to its irregular diagonal shape and because the wind really comes
into play. It takes a good shooter to clean a bank of turkeys.
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Ram
Distance: 100 meters
Don't let his large size fool you: this target places a premium on an accurate
rifle, an accurate hold, and an accurate determination of the prevailing winds.
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Although each target is different in size and each is
placed at a different distance, these two factors combine
to give all of the targets roughly the same apparent size.
A different way of saying this is to state that all of
the targets cover approximately the same minutes of angle.
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Match format
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During IMSSU sanctioned silhouette matches, such as the World,
National or Provincial Championships, shooters are required to
fire 40 shots shots at each type of target (2 banks of 5 targets at
each distance). In league matches only 20 shots are
fired (1 bank of 5 targets at each distance).
A sighting-in period is normally allowed before the competition begins,
where the shooter verifies sight settings at the various distances. Once
the match begins, all shots count towards the shooter's score and no
sighters are allowed.
When shooters are called to the line, they are given a couple
of minutes to adjust their sights to the proper yardage. The relay begins
when shooters are given a 15-second 'heads up' period to load their firearm,
followed immediately and without a delay by a 2-minute, 30-second period
during which they shoot at their 5-target bank, from left to right.
All rifle shooting is done from the offhand position, and no shooting coats,
hooked buttplates, gloves, or slings are allowed. Some handgun events are done
from a standing position, in others a "freestyle" position is allowed.
Targets must be shot in order - skipping a target results in an automatic
'miss' for that target and the following target whether or not the latter
was hit. The shooter is only allowed one shot per target. The targets must
be knocked over - targets that are merely rotated or nudged, count as misses.
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History of the sport
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The sport of metallic silhouette shooting, or silhuetas metallicas,
had its origin around 1914 when the rebel leader and strategist
Pancho Villa and his men were raiding villages and ranches in the
northern state of Chikupehua, Mexico.
On one occasion, having put some distance between themselves and
the pursuing Yankee cavalry, the banditos raided a well-stocked
ranch in the north where they spent some fourteen days carousing.
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Eventually a tequila-induced dispute arose between two of Villa's followers as to
who was the better shot. Normally such an argument would have ended in a gunfight.
A squad leader, Juan Martinez, decided instead on a shootout using two live steers
as targets. The unfortunate animals were tethered to trees at a suitable distant
point and the contest began. The contestants were permitted to shoot alternately
until one of them succeeded in killing his steer and was judged the winner.
The idea caught on and soon chickens, sheep and goats were literally "roped in" to
serve as targets. After the revolution, the Villistas returned to their farms
and villas throughout Mexico, taking with them a new sport to be practiced at fiestas
in the decades to come.
The practice of shooting at live animal targets continued and was refined with time,
using rifles as well as handguns. All hits that drew blood were counted.
Shortly after the Second World War, metallic cutout silhouettes began to be substituted
for live animals, both for humanitarian as well as practical reasons: there wasn't much
chicken left after a direct hit with a high-powered rifle! Even so, the original sport of
shooting live animals would continue in the outlying areas until the late 1950's, usually
in conjunction with a fiesta.
In 1948, the first match using silhuetas metallicas took place in Mexico City. The gunners
still shot turkeys, but metal ones now. The original feathered edition had its neck wrung
prior to the contest, after which it was placed on ice and presented to the winner after the match.
The man who really got metallic silhouette shooting started in Mexico was Don Gonzalo Aguilar
who was instrumental in staging the Silhuetas Metallicas Nacionales in Mexico City in 1952,
four years after he had organized the first informal shoot. The targets were gallinas (chickens)
at 200m, gualotes (turkeys) at 385m and borregos (sheep) at 500m. It was several years before
the javelina (pig) target came into use.
By the early '60s the sport was well run and controlled, particularly in the north where
Le Liga del Norte (the Northern League) had been formed. Soon many Americans were regularly
making the pilgrimage across the Rio Grande to participate in the metallic silhouette shooting
competitions and before long, the sport was introduced into the RSA.
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