holds NRA sponsored Military Silhouette Matches. I had watched the matches from a distance over the prior year and had heard Brian talk about how much fun the matches are to compete in.

Total shots for record 40 (bring at least 20 more for sighters and potential shoot offs)

Course of fire

Prone 200 meters 10 rounds (chickens)

Prone 300 meters 10 rounds (pigs)

Prone 385 meters 10 rounds (turkeys)

Prone 500 meters 10 rounds (rams)

Slings, shooting jackets and shooting pads can be used - bipods, monopods, tripods, etc. cannot be used.

Front support such as bedroll, sand bag, duffle bag or similar rest can be used. No rear support (other than your hand) is allowed.

Time limits for each stage: 10 minutes – The time limit is for "sighters" and all shots for record. Once the "record run" has begun, there will be no more sighters.

Rifles: Any stock military rifle can be used. Iron sights must be original i.e., no Alley aperture fronts for M1 Garands. Triggers and barrels must also be original military. Slip on recoil pads or stock extenders are okay. M1A’s or AR-15’s aren’t "stock military".

Ammunition: Bullets must be hollow point or softnose. AP and FMJ’s are not allowed. Ammo will be checked. Rifles must be at least .24 caliber. First time shooters will be allowed to use FMJ’s if they weren’t aware of the hollow point/soft point rule.

Classes:  are based on the two highest scores – New shooters will be put in AA until classified

Master (35 - 40)

AAA (29 – 34)

AA (21 – 28)

A (15 – 20)

B (00 – 14)

Open Class – For rifles that aren’t fully "stock" or

original sniper rifles. Scores fired in Open Class

will not determine classification.

Target Setting/Resetting: You’re responsible for resetting what you knock down. Targets will be fully placed on the designated pads. Targets will not be "soft set".

The shooters compete in teams of two. One shooter shoots while the other shooter looks through the spotting scope, giving shot by shot calls to the shooter. Then they swap places.

Both shooters started the match, shooting at the pigs placed all the way out at 300 meters. Both team members took turns shooting and spotting.  Bill ended the round with a score of ten, while Brian ended with three pigs knocked off of the rails.

Next in the match came the rams placed out at 500 meters. Both shooters took their sighter shots at the sighter silhouette (as shown in figure 8). Each silhouette type has a sighter silhouette for the shooters to sight in on. The sighter silhouette is supported by a steel post and will not fall off when hit. Brian fired 5 sighter shots while Bill called out bullet impact points so Brian could correct his point of aim. Bill recorded each of Brian's sighter shots and showed him the results on the cork clipboard as shown in figures 9 and 10.

Once Brian was satisfied that all was well and the command was given to start recording shots, he slowly fired his first recorded shot at ram number one. While watching, I could barely make out the outline of the targets/silhouettes with my bare eyes. Brian's were against a light colored landscape background. This fact made the silhouettes very difficult to make out at such an extreme distance.

His first shot hit the rail below the ram's hind leg. Brian adjusted his aim and fired again, this time at ram number two. His second shot rang clear and ram number two fell down behind the rails. After all ten shots were fired; seven rams lay dead behind the railing. It seemed Bill and Brian had swapped positions in this round - Bill only shot one ram out of ten. Bill was noticeably unhappy.

All of the silhouettes are made out of steel and the rams silhouettes are the largest of the four types offered at this range. They are very large and very heavy as shown in contrast to Brian's size in figure 13.

After all of the ram silhouettes were reset to their original positions, we walked along and spray painted the impact marks with range supplied white spray paint. We rode back to the line and prepared to move the gear to the other side of the range, so we could shoot the turkeys and chickens.

Up and down the range you could hear spectators and spotters "ooohhhing" and "aaawwwing" as their shooters hit silhouettes. Kind of a strange chorus playing out in the middle of the Northern Californian prairie.

The setup that I saw every one using was a standard shooting pad, a good sand filled shooting rest on top of a .30 caliber ammo canister. You also need a good spotting scope and I recommend a full height tripod. Everyone I saw was wearing a shoulder pad of some sort. After firing 40+, almost max loaded rounds in 4x10 minute intervals, if you don't have a shoulder pad - my guess is you'll wish you had.

Reloading is just as important to winning the matches as shooting is. Bill was using 140 grain 6.5x55 mm Match King bullets with 43.0 grains of IMR 4064 and Winchester Magnum Rifle Primers. This is a fairly hot load, but required for the Mauser 6.5x55mm to knock down the heavy silhouette targets at such great distances. Brian was shooting Swiss 7.5 with 42 grains of IMR 4895. Afterwards I asked Bill why he was using Winchester Magnum primers in his 6.5x55 reloading and he told me that he had found it had improved his accuracy and brought in tighter groups.

 His averages between the chickens, pigs, and turkeys place him making a possible 33 to 34 (a 34 took the match). When Brian was finished he had shot a total score of 17 (7 rams,  4 chickens, 3 pigs, and 3 turkeys) hits. Usually Brian's average is around 19 to 20. I really hoped that I had not made Bill or Brian nervous while I was snapping pictures and asking questions between shooting sessions. I tried to make sure they had their space and concentration was unbroken.