History of Metallic Silhouette Shooting
Origin Of This Great Sport
The sport of metallic silhouette shooting, or silhuettas 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. The story goes that 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 spend some fourteen days carousing. Eventually a 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 they would use two live steers as targets. The 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 knocking down 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 cut out silhouettes began to be substituted for live animals and this in the absence of a modern animal righteous movement, too. 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 silhuettas 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 Gongalo Qguilar who was instrumental in staging the Silhuettas 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 USA. The first rifle shoots were held around 1967 in the Arizona border towns of Nogales, Bisbee and Douglas. Riflemen brought the sport from Mexico to Arizona and 1972 were holding matches on a regular basis. One year later, in 1973, the National Rifle Association (NRA) entered the scene and sponsored the first rifle silhouette championships held north of the border in November of that year.
Introduced To The United States
Originally fired only with the High Power Rifle in the USA, the sport. evolved from its relatively simple beginning in Mexico to the use of pistols and smallbore rifles as well. Today, the Spanish-derived name, “Siluettas Metallicas” applies only to the High Power game, with the more familiar French-derived “Silhouette” used as a generic term which takes in all shooting using targets of metal shaped game animals.
Neighbours Mexico worked out a set of regulations for conducting Siluettas Metallicas competition in order to achieve uniformity of conditions in their various range locations. The size of the silhouettes, types and sizes of stands, range distances, shooting equipment allowed, and match operation procedures were all spelled out before the first United States citizen fired in one of the matches. The Mexicans also developed a smallbore rifle competition, where a paloma, or dove, target was used at a distance of 150 meters. A .22 caliber pistol game used a similar paloma target at 100 meters.
When the siluettas game was brought across the border into Arizona; the Mexican rules were adopted with very few changes. Probably the most significant change was to add horns to the sheep target to give it the appearance of a Rocky Mountain sheep rather than a domestic sheep. One of the minor changes was to impose a lower weight limit on rifles not allow padded shooting jackets in order to make it more of a hunting type rifle game.
Gathering information from several sources, the NRA Silhouette Committee worked out a version which is a miniature version of the High Power game, fired at one-fifth scale targets and one-fifth the distances of High Power. This provides a very similar challenge to High Power.
Rifle Silhouette, which is the original Siluettas Metallicas High Power rifle game; and the Smallbore Rifle Silhouette program, uses rifles chambered for .22 caliber rimfire short, long or long rifle cartridges only, and fired at one-fifth scale targets at one-fifth scale distances from 40 meters to 100 meters.
By using scaled down versions of the silhouettes, matches are now as popular as ever being held for .22 rimfire rifles (smallbore events) and even air rifles. In the smallbore game, downsized chickens are placed at 40 meters, pigs at 60, turkeys at 77 and sheep at 100 meters. Air rifle shooters face those targets at 20 yards, 30 yards, 36 yards, and 45 yards, respectively.
There is even an additional class for blackpowder shooters that allows those addicted to the old “buffalo guns” to see what these old smokepoles can really do. They are shot on the same course as the high power rifles, but in deference to their age, shooters may fire them from any position, including the use of traditional crossed stick rifle rests.
Regardless of the rifle used, a standard course consists of 10 shots each at the chickens, pigs, turkeys and sheep. A full match may consist of 40, 80, or 120 rounds, requiring the course be fired several times.
The attraction and spectator appeal of the sport is very evident at matches. Families and friends of shooters attend and applaud as the targets crash to the ground. Women also enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and quite a number of women compete at the top level of this great sport of Metallic Silhouette Shooting.
Introduced To Ireland
In 1979 members of the Fassaroe Sporting Club visited the USA on a shooting sports pilgrimage and came upon the sport of Metallic Silhouette Shooting. After having fun competing in this event they decided to bring it back to Ireland to develop the sport here. After the sports establishment in Ireland it became more and more popular and a number of shooting clubs joined the Silhouette Shooting revolution as they introduced this fantastic sport to their clubs.
To date the National Silhouette Association of Ireland is proud of the fact that some of the top class Metallic Silhouette Shooters in the World hail from Ireland. The sport is growing and is going from strength to strength as new members take up a rifle to see how many of those targets they can knock down.
The National Silhouette Association of Ireland organise a National Championships and monthly Classification Shoots that anyone who owns a .22 long rifle can come along and take part.
Please see Calendar for dates and locations.