My first Silhouette match coming up

[TeamTurpin]

I've had a long standing fascination with Silhouette, but have never done anything about it.  Until now.  Next weekend, I compete in my first IHMSA match.  I bought a .22 match barrel and then added a hooded front peep sight from Steve Martens and a Williams target knob rear sight.  I've been practicing as much as I can, but .22 ammo is stupidly expensive--more so when you're ordering in target stuff.

But, I can't wait to see how this goes.  Luckily, I've got some really experienced guys helping me and cheering me on.  Photos of "Ram Seeker" are below.
 

[Jay HHI6818]

Nice setup. How did you shoot?

[TeamTurpin]

Hi Jay.  The match is Sunday (tomorrow).  If I'm not totally humiliated, I'll report my score.  If you don't see a report, well, assume that little metal animals are safe around me.   

[TeamTurpin]

Wow.  The match was a ton of fun.  I'm officially addicted.  The OKC silhouette facility is a remarkable range, but we did have pretty strong winds today.  And, it was unseasonably cold.

In Small Bore Production, I shot a 29 out of 40, which classifies me as AA.  In Small Bore Standing, I shot a 16 out of 40, which again classified me as AA.  I actually shot two turkeys while standing, which was very surprising.  Those are tiny (skinny) targets at 75 meters in the wind.

I'm hooked.  This year, I'll stick with small bore.  But, I see a 7mm TCU barrel in my future for big bore.

[teamnelson]

That's good shooting there TeamTurpin!


I shot my first match with an octagonal barrel, factory sights, .22lr on SB and FP courses, 44 on the BB course. If you're going to keep shooting Production and not unlimited, you could have some fun with the 30-30 as well.

[TeamTurpin]

TeamNelson,
 
My original thought was to try to compete with my 7-30 Waters barrel, but I just can't seem to get a super tight group with it.  I don't think any of my loads have been tighter than 2" and I don't think that's accurate enough for competition.  The T/C shooters at my club tend to use 7TCU or .30 Herrett.  Before I make the move to Big Bore, I need to either find the magic load for Waters or move to another caliber.  But, hey, that's one of the fun things about this gun.

[Jay HHI6818]

  I'm officially addicted.   

Great scores for your first match. 

[Richard P]

 Turpin, regarding your 7-30W, if you mean 2'' at 100m I believe you are well situated for the big bore course. After all, the ram is 13'' back to belly. All you need is sight settings for the distances. You should also explore using it as a scoped entry---Unlimited--any sights.
 I'm glad you found the rimfire game challenging and fun. Richard 

[TeamTurpin]

Hi Richard.  Yes, 2" at 100 meters.  I can get that with both 31 grains and 36 grains of Varget and 120s. 

I chatted with Ed (Ed's Contenders) this week as he did a trigger job on my G2.  We talked about big bore and suitable calibers.  We both agreed that the Waters barrel could do it, but with a cost of big recoil.  We also talked some about the various TCU and Herrett calibers.  I plan to do some research this year and come up with a plan.  My range has a swinger ram target out at 200 meters, so I'll take my scoped Waters setup there some day and see how often I can hit it. 

BTW, Ed gave me a great trigger job.  If you guys are searching for this service, chat with Ed before you ship your gun off to one of the "Contender Experts".  Luckily, he's only a 30 minute drive from me.

[Richard P]

 Presently I use a 120gr at about 2000fps in an xp 7-tcu for UAS and a little less fps and a scope change for S-Unl.  Usually the 120s take care of 200m rams.  Your TC will be a bit lighter.  Do you know the MV you have?  You have targets available but you can still use www.jbmballistics.com to work out trajectory info.  It is easy to yse or you can pm me for a short tutorial.  The OKC club should be able to help you get going.  RP