Shot the Vintage military silhouette match today. Was walking over to reset the pigs I had hit and noticed this. The shooter next to me had hit the pig right on the butt and spun it 90 degrees. It ended up balanced on the front leg and did not fall over. No score!
Haha, kinda like when you KNOW you hit the pigeon, but it doesnt break- only to find it downrange later with a bunch of holes in it.
Brian? brian, is that you?......... I have a buddy who seems to make a point of shooting pigs in the butt....interestingly enough, live pigs sping around too...... How did that not fall?
Man that had to be frustrating for the shooter.. especially if he thought it was down because he couldn’t see it with the thin edge facing him! I shoot a lot of small scale silhouettes with rimfire and pistol-caliber rifles and handguns and I’ve had some wobble and shrug off a poor hit... but I’ve never seen a “silhouette pirouette” that still stood like that one. Thanks for sharing . Stay safe.
Makes me think of Tuco in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I guess the lesson learned is to not make targets that can balance on one support or the other. Todd.
Shooting steel will give you odd results some times. If you shoot a 39x40 with something like that, it is a bit aggravating. But in the end it is still you competing with you.
One of those things you probably couldn't do again if you tried, kinda like dropping a Bic lighter and having it bounce and land upright, had that happen.
It seems like it wouldnt even balance like that if you tried to do it with your hands. Crazy things happen.
We took no photos because they wouldn't show anything, but some buddies and I were once shooting at beer cans on fence posts at 100 yards. We had put a little sand in the bottoms of them to keep the wind from blowing them off. Came my shot and I knew damned good and well I had hit the thing, but it didn't move. They laughed at my indignation. Came time to go down to reset the cans and the fella who had set the cans up the previous time was staring at the one I had supposedly missed. He called me over to show me the can. There was a slight gray streak on the left side. He said, "I set up every can with the brand name facing us. This one is now facing the other way." So, I had hit it (barely) on the right, but spun the can 180 degrees without knocking it off. That's shooting for you.
A consideration most wouldn’t make in drawing out targets. This scenario is obviously only possible if the target’s center of mass is above that footer plate. So the hind end is counterbalanced by the large head. An amazing coincidence which I’m sure the target manufacturer had not considered when laying out the target shape.
Do you have a magnet under it?? I wouldn't be shooting at a RR rail side, too much chance of the bullet catching the rounded part & coming back at you.
I'm lucky to live near and be a member of an excellent shooting range complex. It has about 15 different ranges from 50 yard small bore to 1000 long range. My sons and I shoot in several different matches...a "vintage military silhouette match" which involves shooting chicken, pig, turkey and ram silhouettes at ranges of 220 yards (chickens), 330 yards (pigs), 420 yds (turkeys) and rams (550) yards. Rifles are 50 year old "as issued" rifles, shot prone off a soft front rest (sand bag or backpack). Here's a picture of the silhouette range at my club: We also shoot these same rifles in a " long range" vintage military match. This is a match shot at paper bullseye targets at 300, 500, 600, and 800 yards. This match is shot at the 1000 yard range at the top of this satellite picture https://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=38.44031290637764~-121.0633072846057&lvl=15&dir=0&sty=h&form=LMLTCC You can see the silhouette range in the middle of the complex, with the staggered berms.
Shooters expect to "ring a ram" (hit a silhouette but not knock it over), but they weigh about 60 lbs and are 550 yards away. Nobody expects to ring a pig.
No magnets, just mass holding the silhouettes. I guess it is theoretically possible for a bullet to come back and hit a shooter, but in nearly 15 years of shooting this match I've never heard of that happening. The closest targets are the chickens and they are at 220 yards..
And yet... Still a lesson learned. Meaning one may not have made a *mistake* in the first place but to ignore it would be ignoring a learning opportunity. I know that I'll check every time I cut a silhouette - just for the hell of it. Todd.
